adidas signed Derrick Rose to the largest contract in their company’s history just days before he tore his ACL, putting him on the bench for the upcoming season. A few days later, we started production on a campaign series that turned a season lost, into a fan movement with over 140 million fans joining #thereturn.
Three weeks after launching the campaign adidas surpassed their sell through goals of Derrick’s signature shoe. The shoe eventually outsold Lebron’s signature shoe. The first time a signature shoe from adidas outsold Nike’s.
The creative presentation for this campaign was this one slide:
The campaign won gold at the Effies. Here is the case study: