Title	BOSS EVERYONE
Brand	ADIDAS
Product/Service	ADIDAS FOOTBALL
Category	E03. Innovative Use of Social or Community
Entrant	IRIS WORLDWIDE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	IRIS WORLDWIDE London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Nico Tuppen	iris	Global Client Director
Henry Scotland	iris	Managing Partner
Simon Yoxall	iris	Group Account Director
Michael Barrett	iris	Global Planning Director
Adam Fish	iris	Creative Director
Matt Tassell	iris	Senior Creative
Marc Owens	iris	Senior Creative
Sid Daffarn	iris	Senior Prodcuer
Matt Glyn	iris	Senior Account Director

The Campaign

On the internet, anyone can be the ultimate football icon. If not for 15 minutes, then for the length of a Snapchat film or a YouTube upload.  But it’s not enough to upload the clip. To cut through, you have to demand attention. You can’t just say you were good - you have to claim you BOSSed it. And it’s not enough to say you bossed your little pitch - to rule the world, you have to beat EVERYONE. Using the power of meme culture we created a social video vehicle for anyone to show off their skills, celebrate their attitude - and BOSS EVERYONE. We used our biggest players to show the way, then opened it up for anyone to claim the title. We took the modern democracy of internet fame - and invited our audience to play.

Creative Execution

The campaign launched with a single film - a footballing legend showing off, claiming his Bossness. Standard. Then we followed it up with another legend, and another. Each knocking the previous off their perch. Then some random kid claimed to be the boss. And that’s when things snowballed… We released a mixture of films shot with top-tier players, well-known football influencers and some unknown but talented young players. These were rolled out across different platforms so every time one claimed to be The Boss, another would pop up to stake his own claim. Momentum gathered and our audience started ripping our end slates, or creating their own elements which mimicked the ads. Then we started phase 2 - a call to action for kids to submit their own. All throughout, the boots formed a core part of the visual language, tying it back into the retail campaign.

Organic sharing and engaging content racked up over 150+ Million views (+172% above target) with zero media spend. EVERYONE Bossed. This wasn’t just a case of laceless versus bits of string. Positive sentiment ratio for the campaign was 250% above target… … But 95 % viewer retention rate meant that our viewers got to the product punchline at the end of the film. Social conversation mechanic and engaging content ensured the campaign racked up 15 million unique engagements. Sellout of product beat targets by +33%. Sales. Bossed. Throughout the campaign adidas experienced a +20% faster growth in followers on social channels compared to Nike. Competitor. Bossed.

Our core audience was teenage boys; so YouTube, Instagram & Facebook were our platforms - anywhere video could be shared and laughed at. Our main challenge is that it was already a very vibrant space - young players and creators were making lots of cool content.  To get in their culture, we had to get in their video. We created the Boss Everyone construct - a social video vehicle that gave a visual language and structure to what kids were already doing.  It had provocation built in, so that every claim of boss could be out-bossed. Key creative had stealable elements that kids could hack to add to their own films and stamp their moments with the product/ brand. We managed to take natural football social behaviour, turbo-boost it for a social world - and make it adidas branded.