1. Campaign analysis
BEST USE OF DIGITAL - Iris Worldwide #NEOsneakpeek for Adidas
NEO Label
The Adidas neo label launched in 2012 as an ‘energetic,fast fashioned brand’ aimedat 14-19 year
olds, offering fresh casual sportswear (Blog Adidas group, 2012). They chose this particular
audience as they are constantly looking at new trends and ways of refreshing their wardrobes.
Adidas chose Irisworldwide who are an agency that deals with digital campaigns, adverts, PR and
retail (Iris-worldwide,no date). Adidas chose Iris due to their unique mix of digital tools and their
vision for something different (CIPR, 2014).
NEO is a freshaddition to the long lasting legendarybrand ‘Adidas’.NEO describes itself asa fresh,
fun active and connected brand (blogadidasgroup, 2012). In the aim of appealingto the age range,
Adidas announced Disney star, a global style icon and singer Selena Gomez as the face of their
NEO range. Agrawal & Kamakura (1995) state that celebritiesand well-knownbrandnames create
a positive attitude which in turn gain them more recognition in creating brand personality. With
attaching a well-known star to the label this automatically generates a fan base for the brand as
well as expanding their original fan base.
NEO set out clear objectives withintheir campaign, with the aim of creating huge global exposure
for Selena’s second collection for NEO and for NEO to ‘trend’ on twitter at their collection launch,
using social media to obtain these objectives. When planning a campaign, objectivesare made in
order to stay focused. The targets need to be SMART, according to Anne Gregory (2010) smart
objectives ensures the practitioners work and focus on the correct things, it helps them to work
smart, enablesthem to work effectivelyandefficiently,solelyconcentrating on the objectivesset.
It is no secret how powerful digital media is, giving businesses the power have a campaign
launched worldwide within minutes. NEO and Iris want to take advantage of the power of social
media, and how young people use it. As teens are constantly embracing new trends within social
media their ambition was to take each social platform and ensure they use it in a way that is
engaging for the audience. They done this by generating a hashtag #NEOsneakpeek in order to
find exclusive content filmed by Selena Gomez entitling them to a sneak peak of the collection
before its official launch (CIPR, 2014). To view the content fans turned to twitter by tracking
puzzling clues set by NEO and Selena herself.This illustrateshow they want the fans to engage in
the brand which ultimately ties back to the ‘fun and active’ depiction of the brand. According to
Chaffey & Smith (2012) engaging with fans via social media gives them an incentive to be a fan
and a part of the on-going project, building up a relationship is a great way of increasing the
brands reputation.
Once the cryptic clues were solved, fans were sent on another digital journey to find hidden,
unlisted, URLS that would direct them to you tube videos. The secret links were placed around
various social media platforms including NEO and Selena’s Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube. (CIPR, 2014). Using social media to carry out your campaign, engagement with the
audience is a major priority for campaign success. The retail room.com (2014) believe the more
creative you are on social media, and the more creative your brand is, you will stand out ahead
of every other digital campaign. Teaser campaigns that lead up to a product launch create a buzz

2. surrounding your product/label. The sneak peakfilmswent live foronly24 hours to create a sense
of urgency and a drive for views. NEO also created a competition to win clothes from the new
collection as a reward for finding the clues and solving the puzzle,allowing all global markets the
chance to enter.
They obtained there objectives of generating global exposure by gaining over 400,000 views on
the video campaigns, over 10,000 additional Facebook likes, over 25,000 additional twitter
followerscaused bythe campaign, theyalso trendedworldwide at theirlaunch whichwas another
objective they wished to achieve. They gained over 450,000 hashtag uses of #NEOsneakpeak
showing a huge input into the campaign and the brand and they increased brand exposure in 38
countries across the world includingGermany, USA, and China (CIPR, 2014). The outcomes clearly
emphasize the power social media has, and NEO choosing to launch a digital campaign highlights
their connection with their online communities giving the chance for fans of the brand to engage
in their brand.
Since the campaign was launched, NEO achieved the highest engagement of any Adidas campaign
launched in 2014. NEO also achieved 37% of Adidas conversation online making it the most
engaging campaign launched in the Adidas category, along with this Adidas’ online mentions
increased by 10% due to the sneak peak campaign highlighting that they still maintain a
relationship with online communities (CIPR, 2014).
One advantage of using social media in a campaign in the fact it has the opportunity to go
worldwide,and gain universal exposure within minutes. Social media is free to use, this
therefore minimizesthe costs of the campaign. Also the fact that over 1.5 billionpeople use
social media (emarketer.com, 2013) content is visible to a wide range of audiences, again giving
businessesthe opportunity to launch a global campaign.
However, one limitationto using social media to launch a campaign is the fact you have to
constantly update your media platforms, and reply to people.This is takes time, and is one
reason why companies now hire social media experts to get the balance right. Posting too much
can be seenas an overload of information but on the other hand, posting less content could be
seen as not engaging enough.
Overall, the campaign was a major success and NEO are still pursuing their online presence.
Their use of social media, and fan interaction gained them huge success in obtaining their
objectives. They still work with Selena Gomez who in 2013, launched a NEO runway scheme
whereby teens submitted ‘possible outfit ideas’ with 30 chosen for the event who then helped
put the outfits together for the show (news.adidas.com). Illustrating the target audience is still
at the heart of the brand, and their description ‘fresh, active and fun’ still plays a major part of
the NEO label.

3. References
Agrawal, J & Kamakura A, W (1995) The economic worth of celebrity endorsers: an event
study analysis. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 59, No. 3.
Blog.adidas-group.com (2012) The new kid in town – all you need to know about Adidas
NEO. [20.3.15] [online] http://blog.adidas-group.com/2012/01/the-new-kid-in-town-all-you-
need-to-know-about-neo/
Chaffey, D & Smith, P, R. (2012) Emarketing Excellence: Planning and optimizing your digital
marketing. 4th Ed. Routledge Taylor and Francis group LTD.
CIPR.com (2014) The Ultimate Recognition of Public Relations Success Excellence Awards –
2014 Winning Case Study. [Online] Available from: <
http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/19%20BESTUSEOFDIGITALCASESTUDY.pdf >
[Accessed 20 March 2015]
Emarketer.com (2013) Social Networking reaches nearly one in four around the world.
[20.3.15] [online] http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Networking-Reaches-Nearly-
One-Four-Around-World/1009976
Gregory, A. (2010) Planning and managing public relations campaigns. 3rd Ed , Kogan Page
LTD.
Iris-worldwide.com (no date) Our Story. [20.3.15] [online] http://www.iris-
worldwide.com/our-story/
News.adidas.co. (2013) Teens Rule the Runway as adidas NEO Label Launches Unique
Fashion Show with Selena Gomez. [21.3.15] [online] http://news.adidas.com/GB/Latest-
News/adidas-NEO-Label-Launches-Fashion-Show-with-Selena-Gomez/s/6e377c8a-41b1-
49dd-a8e4-ba7f0872cf99
Theretailroom.com (2014) Key principles to social media success for your brand – part two
[20.3.15] [online] http://theretailroom.co.uk/key-principles-social-media-success-brand-
part-two/