With both declaring victory in touting their fútbol (soccer) leadership through their marketing schemes during the widely-covered FIFA World Cup, Nike and Adidas might need a penalty shootout to figure it all out.
In separate statements, both highlighted their successes by pointing to how many players wore their products on the playing field during the tournament but also detailed the many ways they reached soccer fans through advertising and social media outlets.
Adidas, the official sponsor of the tournament, claimed to be “the most talked about brand” with an increase of 5.8 million followers across all major social media platforms, “more than any other sports brand.”
Other key figures supported by its “all in or nothing” campaign included:
1.59M conversations during the tournament
+38M Most viewed sports brand on YouTube; based on videos published during the tournament period
2.98M (603 percent) Growth of @brazuca Twitter handle in the tournament period. The Twitter handled recorded 530K7 user interactions.
917K Most used brand hashtag on Twitter (#allin)
Adidas also noted that Adidas Soccer had the largest social media community growth across sports brands throughout the tournament, showing a 14.5 percent increase.
For its part, Nike said its popular #RiskEverything campaign series around the World Cup including “Risk Everything,” “Winner Stays” and “The Last Game” – racked up 397 million online views by the day after the tournament ended. Twenty-three million people engaged with the content by liking, retweeting or commenting, making “The Last Game” one of Facebook's most shared posts ever.
Nike’s animated shorts featuring comments from Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the handle #AskZlatan drew 20.6 million online views and 12 million consumer engagements. Overall, Nike Football gained 6.2 million new followers during this tournament across different social platforms, around 1.5 million per week throughout the tournament. That brought the cumulative total of Nike Football's social channels to 78.8 million followers.
On the field of play, Nike boasted that it started the tournament with 10 sponsored teams out of 32 teams, more than any other brand. (Adidas had 9 and Puma, 8.) Fifty-three percent of all players selected for their squads wore Nike boots, more than for all other brands combined. Throughout the competition, Nike-sponsored players scored 76 goals, including the winner in the final from German striker Mario Gotze, and the goal that took Germany’’s fellow striker Miroslav Klose to all-time tournament goal scorer, breaking the cumulative record previously held by Ronaldo of Brazil.
Nike said in its statement, “These numbers show an unprecedented level of engagement with the brand. Alongside 21 percent growth in Nike Football’s business over the fiscal year leading up to the tournament (June 1, 2013 – May 31, 2014), the figures demonstrate why Nike is the sport’s leading brand globally. “
Not to be outdone, Adidas noted that the two finalists – Germany and Argentina – were Adidas sponsored teams, and another one of its teams, Colombia, earned the FIFA Fair Play Award. Among its players, Leo Messi was the Golden Ball winner, James Rodriguez was the Golden Boot winner, Manuel Neuer was the Golden Glove winner, and Juan Cuadrado racked up the most assists in the tournament. Eight players out of 11 on the FIFA Team of the Tournament were sponsored by Adidas. Adidas also noted that its adizero F50 was the highest scoring cleat of the tournament, with 46 goals.
Adidas Group CEO Herbert Hainer commented in a statement: “This World Cup has been an outstanding success for Adidas and clearly underlines our position as the world's leading football brand. From having both finalists, the winning team and all three Adidas golden award winners to being the most talked about brand in social media, we were able to dominate the tournament on and off the pitch.”
