Great advertising is not about spending fortunes on billboards and TV commercials, it’s about creating great ideas that add real value to peoples’ lives. That may sound like a clichéd piece of marketing speak, but it really is what makes any advertising campaign a great one.
With that in mind, Adidas has followed this principle to bring to life its latest Chinese ad campaign titled, “Don’t Waste Your Wait” (运动你的等待 – Yùndòng nǐ de děngdài). It reinforces the sports brand’s mega-budget “adidas is all in” campaign in the Mainland.
The idea behind the line “Don’t Waste Your Wait” is to encourage people (in particular urban workers) to better use the time they spend “waiting” by engaging with sports and fitness. It’s a simple idea with a strong message that should resonate well with commuters in Shanghai.
However the challenge, as for all advertising campaigns, is how do you communicate this idea effectively to the people you’re trying talk to?
Shanghai’s commuters are too busy to take notice of the TV and poster adverts that bombard them each day. They also don’t want to waste their time on something that has no benefit to them. So Adidas’s solution was to create a fun experience the target audience could interact with at a key moment (i.e. when they are waiting for a train).
Padded punch-bags were placed in Shanghai’s Xujiahui subway station and these have already received much attention from the global press. Here are photos and a Chinese news report about the installation:
The Chinese text on the bags translates in English to: “Every year you have to wait on the platform for about 1,824 minutes. Don’t waste your time, come and have a punch to relieve some tension!“. Chinese commuters and subway staff have welcomed these new installations. Amusingly, one train guard was reported saying, “As long as they’re punching them, not us, I’m happy“. In addition to the punchbags a public spinning machine and speed bag for daytime use have been placed at five bus stations in Pudong.
The ‘Don’t Waste Your Wait‘ campaign is also supported by TV, Online, and Outdoor advertising that feature two celebrities, Chinese actor and singer Li Bingbing and Taiwanese actor Ethan Ruan. Their ‘raison d’etre’ in the campaign is to drive commuters to the question: “If even the busiest of celebrities can find the time for sport, using anything and everything as a training object, what’s my excuse?“
‘Don’t Waste Your Wait’ is a wonderful example of an ‘integrated’ campaign – an advertising campaign that effectively utilises multiple communication channels to engage people at key moments. The Jay-Z and Bing ‘Decode’ campaign did this unbelievably well and was showered in awards. Although this particular Adidas campaign is not on the same scale, its simple idea and brilliant execution will no doubt lead to it receiving much acclaim in the near future.
Agency credit to: TBWA (Shanghai Branch)
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