Adidas 2005 Annual Report Download - page 38

34 The Group
Leveraging adidas Strength in Football and Using
FIFA World Cup™ as Brand Platform in 2006
At adidas, football is the heart and soul of our brand. The
history of the sport has always been closely connected with
adidas. For example, our founder Adi Dassler supported the
German national team on their way to the “Miracle of Bern”
surprise World Cup victory in 1954 by providing the players
with revolutionary boots featuring screw-in studs. Ever since
then, adidas has led all major developments in football boot
technology and balls. And the name adidas has become
synonymous with the passion of how football is played,
shared, enjoyed and celebrated. This is why adidas is the
world’s leading football brand, both in terms of market share
as well as in overall net sales. An important component of our
future growth strategy is to further strengthen and extend our
leader ship in this category. The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ will be
the most viewed sports event of all time and adidas intends to
be the most visible brand on and off the pitch. Six of the quali-
fi ed federations will be wearing adidas apparel: Argentina,
France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Trinidad & Tobago. Hun-
dreds of players will be wearing adidas footwear during their
2006 FIFA World Cup™ games. adidas will deliver hundreds
of thousands of products to fully equip federations, players,
referees, ball boys, stewards and volunteers. And our excit-
ing “+10” advertising campaign will communicate our unique
commitment to football (see Innovation and Marketing).
adidas Sport Performance: Focusing on Functionality
and Innovation
adidas Sport Performance focuses on offering functional and
innovative products in all our sports categories. Our top fi ve
priorities are football, running, basketball, tennis and train-
ing. We currently hold the number one or number two position
globally in each of these categories. Exciting new products
are introduced within these categories every season. In 2006,
our major initiatives will include the extension of our global
“Impossible Is Nothing” communications campaign, special
attention to the football, running and basketball categories
as well as continued efforts to commercialize our major pro-
motion partnerships.
Impossible Is Nothing: adidas’ Attitude Drives Brand
Campaign
A key factor to securing the brand’s long-term success is to
continuously expand a strong global brand positioning. To
achieve this, we believe a global brand campaign is critical.
adidas launched the “Impossible Is Nothing” brand cam-
paign in 2004 with tremendous success and we will continue
to strengthen this message in 2006. Our goal is to present
“Impossible Is Nothing” in innovative and challenging ways
and to use it to further inspire and involve consumers. As in
2004 and 2005, we will celebrate the power of sport and dem-
onstrate our confi dence that “Impossible Is Nothing”. The
fully integrated communication campaign will feature numer-
ous adidas athletes from various sports who share our desire
to surpass limits and to challenge the impossible.
adidas
adidas has a clear mission – “to be the leading sports
brand in the world”. To accomplish this mission, the
organization at adidas is matched to the needs of three
groups of sport-oriented consumers: Our Sport Perfor-
mance division is aimed at meeting the sport-specifi c
needs of athletes at all performance levels. Sport Heritage
targets trendsetters who seek sport-inspired streetwear
with an authentic origin, and Sport Style focuses on young
cosmopolitan consumers who look for exclusive, fashion-
oriented sportswear products. This three-divisional
approach helps us to develop and market innovative prod-
ucts to best meet the needs of today‘s diverse consumers.