Reebok Just Did It, Impossible is Nothing!
Brand : Reebok
Category : Best Media innovation – Cinema
The communication goal
Reebok in India has been perceived as a sports-wear brand rather than a sports-lifestyle brand. Competing
brands in the business are leveraging the Sports and Lifestyle platform. Adidas and Nike benefitted from their associations with international sports personalities and events.
Adidas has Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag as their brand ambassadors. Nike has taken apparel sponsorship to a different level by sponsoring the entire Indian cricket team.
In such an environment of imagery and association, the key tasks for Reebok in India were to :
1. Reposition itself from a sports-wear brand to a sports & lifestyle brand
2. Identify a platform that enables synergy between sports, lifestyle and fashion
The Situation analysis
Youth in urban India is all about splurging and extravagance in their lifestyle, possession of accessories, shopping, traveling. They are very aligned to international trends in fashion and lifestyle. Diverse opinions and views are shaping their world. However, even in their world of Facebook and MTV, they look up to Indian cricketing idols for inspiration and Bollywood star for style icons. The twin religions of India Bollywood and Cricket have abiding appeals among Indian youth .
The Media solution
Reebok tie up with the movie GOAL last year gave an impetus to the brand image, we took the learning from the last movie tie-up and went a step further.
This time we wanted to blend the twin religion in single platform
1.) Bollywood for a Lifestyle platform
2.) Cricket for a mass appeal
CRICKET
The concept of Advertisers Funded Movie was given a whole new meaning. VICTORY, a joint venture of Reebok with Ajitpal production house. This was a seamless integration of the brand into the movie’s storyline. The movie theme was cricket.
1st time ever in the history of Indian cinema 40 international cricket players were part of the movie The perfect combination of the brand requirement and the movie storyline made this association larger than life.
The scale of Execution
1.) Reebok is so crucial to the storyline of the movie that no movie promo could be created ithout Reebok being part of these. Therefore, the brand got the additional benefit of the 20000 plus spots run by the producer.
2.) Presence of 40 international cricketers meant high PR coverage for the movie . The worth of the PR is more than 20 million INR.
3.) There was a 360 degree media approach given to the media plan including TV, radio, cinema, activation, internet and SMS activities.
How did the innovation deliver the goal & what makes it unique
1. The association helped advertisers realize the power of 70 mm hen used optimally.:
A partnership which goes beyond normal association/ integration or the “blink and miss” case that typically 00-150 brands get into being every year when they get into the pace of movie tie-ups, Reebok broke the norm and went beyond convention. The brand was made integral to the film and thus had presence throughout the film strengthening brand association with sports and celebrities.
2. Branded Entertainment content taking a center stage for building brands:
It would be first ever case where media initiative became the communication strategy for the brand. The innovation breaks the shackles of treating cinema as just another media in a multi-media campaign and opened a new window of brand building for industry at large.
3. Opened a new revenue stream for the biggest film industry in the world:
Till now Indian Films (Bollywood) was restricted to mere in-film placement and marketing tie-ups, the concept of ‘Advertiser backed films” will now gain momentum.
4. What Reebok couldn’t do in last 5-8 years even after having the iconic cricketing stars, it managed to do it in one stroke.
Victory association helped Reebok to establish itself as a sports and fashion-lifestyle brand in India amidst intense competition.
• Brand track conducted post the launch of this campaign, showed a huge improvement in imagery. Unaided awareness of Reebok has improved from mere 25% to 40% post campaign.
• Phenomenal success of Victory Movie association has made Branded Entertainment Content integral to Reebok strategy for years to come.
