Adidas has put on its game face and is going ‘All In.’ This month the brand is launching a new effort, ‘One Brand Anthem,’ that’s bringing together its three lines of business (sports, style and street) into one massive global brand campaign, the first time it has done so.

Previous efforts have focused on telling the singular stories of its various pillars, like its ‘Impossible is Nothing’ effort around its sports line, and, more recently, its Adidas Originals lifestyle line ‘Street Party.’ Thanks to those campaigns, Steve Ralph, president, Adidas Canada, says the brand is in a good position to be able to tell its story in full.

‘In the past we were trying to build credibility with the consumer,’ says Ralph. ‘We now have that credibility…It’s given us the confidence to market Adidas as a brand, instead of separate [fashion and sports] brands.’

The strategy, says Jeff Cooper, director, marketing and communications, Adidas Canada, is to reach out with this all-encompassing narrative and engage next generation youth, 15- to 19-year-olds, and resonate with them across their various passion points, like sports, fashion, music, film and gaming, pulling those together with Adidas’s sports, street and style lines in order to position itself as a really meaningful brand in their lives.

To help bring its three pillars together into one narrative, Adidas developed the positioning ‘For the love of the game, no matter the game, all sports, all interests, we put our heart into it,’ recognizing that with kids, love of the game is similar whether it’s a function of street, style or sport. Whatever they’re passionate about, they always really go for it ‘All In,’ hence Adidas’s new tagline, which Cooper says shows the brand is along for the ride.

‘We want them to understand that we are just like them,’ says Cooper. ‘When we put together, promote, or develop our products and services for them we’re ‘All In’ with them.’

The creative was developed by Montreal-based Sid Lee, Adidas’s global AOR, and is being supported by the brand’s most robust Canadian media buy ever, handled by Carat Canada.

It works on three different levels. Firstly, it aims to inspire, using a 60- and two 30-second commercials airing on TV and in cinema to get people off the couch – they were teased by 5-second shorts prelaunch – as well as digital and high-impact OOH, which all revolves around the insight that those experiencing an ‘ultimate moment’ in something they’re passionate about share a similar kind of ‘game face.’ It features Adidas celebrity brand ambassadors, including Argentinean soccer sensation Lionel Messi, the Adidas skateboard team, pop star Katy Perry and soccer legend David Beckham as they work up to and experience that moment.

Inspire leads into engage, where Adidas’s goal is to get out to all the touchpoints where its target lives and plays, using street-level signage, print and digital to bring kids even closer. At this level the creative features the brand ambassadors sporting relevant Adidas products, with a tailored spin on the ‘All’ messaging.

The digital components, the brand’s largest digital investment ever, include a full-fledged YouTube experience that features a bank of content available to be leveraged. It will work to further bring the different Adidas lines together with more in-depth footage, showing the brand ambassadors ‘going all in,’ with the opportunity for visitors to shape their experience based on their interests.

Facebook will also be part of the mix. Along with Adidas’s fan page, brand ambassadors’ fan pages will be leveraged, providing fans with more in-depth Adidas ‘All In’ video footage specific to the Adidas celebrities.

The campaign’s third level aims to convert people at retail, and completes Adidas’s ‘All In’ path to purchase by zeroing in on the products. Adidas has engaged retail partners like Sportchek and Footlocker in the campaign, inviting them to go ‘All In’ as well by featuring campaign materials in-store that speak to their particular consumers needs.

‘The story is told right from top to bottom,’ says Cooper. ‘It’s a brand campaign with a unique message that ties product back into it. It’s making us relevant, but then making our products relevant to the consumer also.’

‘We’re storytellers now,’ adds Ralph.