• DEUTSCH

Marketing and communication leadership

To be competitive in the sporting goods industry, brands must have a clear profile towards their target consumer. To achieve this, adidas and Reebok are focused on creating inspirational and innovative brand marketing campaigns and communication techniques to build brand equity and support the achievement of the Group’s commercial goals.

A key tenet of our marketing and communication strategy is to harness the emotion of sport and the benefits of a sporting lifestyle across all communication channels. Both adidas and Reebok regularly bring new global marketing concepts to life, which can be easily leveraged to create simple and powerful brand messages and support an array of product offerings. For example, adidas will use the “One Brand Anthem” platform to transcend its key categories and sub-brands in 2011. Reebok will continue its global campaign, which will use the motto “Ree” as a guiding theme for the brand’s communication with consumers. The key message of the campaign is simple. Reebok “ReeDefines” sport and style, bringing fun and joy back into consumers’ lives.

In addition, Global Brands also endeavours to ensure all of its brands are at the forefront of new communication techniques, particularly as information flow becomes faster and faster. Through investment in digital marketing and technologies, both adidas and Reebok are empowering and encouraging consumers to interact in personal dialogues with the brands. Whether through in-store or online customisation platforms, digital social networks or digital broadcast mediums, these methods are providing a new scope of consumer experiences in a real-time and cost-effective way.

Activation and validation via a relevant set of promotion partnerships

The utilisation of promotion partners such as federations, teams, leagues, events and individuals is an important part of endorsing brand positioning, and an area to which the Group dedicates significant resources. This not only serves as a vehicle to showcase the credentials of adidas and Reebok products in the performance arena, but also to facilitate the extension of the adidas and Reebok brands in the sports-inspired lifestyle market. Both adidas and Reebok follow a partnership strategy geared to best reflect their respective positioning in the market.

One of the guiding principles of adidas is to equip all athletes to achieve their “impossible”. As such, adidas brings its passion for great products to the biggest stages in the world with sponsorship agreements for the FIFA World Cup, the NBA, the European Rugby Cup and the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, adidas has an extensive roster of high-profile sports teams such as AC Milan, Liverpool FC, FC Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in football, the New Zealand All Blacks in rugby, American universities like UCLA and Notre Dame, as well as high-profile individuals such as FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, football icon David Beckham, basketball stars Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard, marathon legend Haile Gebrselassie, athletic stars Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner and tennis stars Justine Henin, Caroline Wozniacki and Andy Murray.

To activate and validate its key concepts, Reebok is partnering with top women’s and men’s sport athletes. In Women’s, Reebok is partnering with some of the world’s top women’s fitness instructors renowned for their inspirational approach to fitness. In Men’s Sport, some of the most recognisable athletes support Reebok, including Peyton Manning, John Wall as well as Lewis Hamilton. In addition, the brand holds exclusive, long-term licensing agreements with the National Lacrosse League in North America, giving Reebok the exclusive rights to manufacture and market both authentic and replica uniform jerseys and sideline apparel.

Extending brand reach and appeal through strategic partnerships

adidas and Reebok have both successfully pursued design and co-branding strategies with complementary partners. For example, adidas has partnered with Yohji Yamamoto, Stella McCartney and Porsche Design, designing sports-inspired fashion, high-end functional ranges or even luxury sportswear. adidas Originals continues to engage in unique collaborations with well-known brands such as Burton, Vespa and Star Wars, that ensure adidas remains relevant to the style-conscious streetwear consumer.

In Women’s Fitness, Reebok and Cirque du Soleil continue their strategic partnership, which has given rise to inspiring new workout experiences and product collections. In fall/winter 2010, Reebok launched its first collection with Giorgio Armani S.p.A. The global style credentials of the EA7 and Emporio Armani labels combined with Reebok’s fitness and training heritage and technologies fit together to provide a new perspective and concept in the global sports style marketplace.