Title	ADIDAS TENNIS SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVATION US OPEN
Brand	ADIDAS
Product/Service	ADIDAS BARRICADE 7
Category	F03. Use of Co-Creation & User Generated Content
Entrant Company	DIE ZWEI Nuremberg, GERMANY
Advertising Agency	DIE ZWEI Nuremberg, GERMANY
Production Company	ZINC PRODUCTION Toronto, CANADA

Name	Company	Position
Axel Schultz	Die Zwei - Marketing/Design/Kreative Kommunikation Gmbh	Creative Director
Alexander Stollberg	Die Zwei - Marketing/Design/Kreative Kommunikation Gmbh	Project Manager/Planner
Jason Macfarlane	Zinc Production	Director
Eddie Hammerman	The 10 Group	Managing Director

Creative Execution

The social media activation was conceptualized especially for the US Open. Before the tournament a youtube video was released: Djokovic – in the role of a film director – spoke directly to his community. By giving fans further stage directions via his Twitter and Instagram-Channels we ensured the ongoing conversation: “Djokovic” posted photos or embed youtube videos making specific game-related gestures and encouraged his fans to create their own versions. While the tennis match was running, his fans responded with their images on Instagram and Twitter. After each game, a snippet of the final video was released, composed of the latest fan selfies. Fans were highly motivated knowing they might appear together with their idol in the final compilation video after the us open.

Compared to football, the tennis fan base is quite small, exclusive and difficult to address. This in mind the success of the activation was even bigger than originally expected: It reached a wide audience and generated more than 132,000 “likes” on Twitter and Instagram. Its videos were viewed over 84,000 times on YouTube. Fans posted more than 700 digital photos, turning Djokovic’s latest gesture into their own marvelous interpretations. And: The fans wanted to recommend this great opportunity to their friends and retweeted its content more than 11,000 times within three weeks. The client adidas was more than pleased with the outcome of Die Zwei’s work because since fans love everything their idol loves, the activation drew the fan’s attention to Djokovic’s athletic shoe Barricade7.

In 2014 adidas asked Die Zwei to create a social media activation around the US Open. It had to work ongoing during the whole tournament and to be embedded in the campaign #smashthesilence. The objective – beside selling their products – was to remind tennis fans that adidas is a ‘tennis loving’ brand. We accepted the challenge – but in a whole new way: We engaged tennis champion Novak Djokovic to slip into the role of a film director asking fans for support on his new movie. Only thing the fans had to do: Following his ongoing stage directions via Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and maybe make it into his movie (powered by adidas). The idea behind it was to create awareness of the adidas tennis engagement through a completely new role of Djokovic – and to simultaneously boost the confidence of his fans, since they appeared alongside their hero in a film.