“It's a bit cute in its laziness,” “It’s a walkaway for the laid-back egg”.
On September 14, 2020, the well-known celebrity @Dilraba Dilmurat posted a feed to officially announce her cooperation with @adidasneo, and promoted the new product crossover with Gudetama, which were the special edition hoodie and sneakers. For the design of the clothing, there were three colours for products like crop hoodies and T-shirts: ivory, yolk yellow and black. The chest of the clothing was printed with the cartoon image of Gudetama with different poses and scenes, while for the footwear products, they were printed with asymmetrical patterns of Gudetama on both sides of the footwear.
As a well-known brand of sports shoes and apparel, adidas chose to launch its promotion in the early autumn of 2020, not only because the season is favourable for the sales of hoodies, but also for promoting the idea of “laziness” under the hustle and bustle of the society. Celebrity marketing and Cartoon crossovers have long been used frequently in online marketing. So how did Adidasneo combine the two and compete for a place in the crossover market? Let’s delve into the strategies used in the crossover marketing between adidasneo and Gudetama.
Adidas and Adidasneo
“Impossible is nothing” is the brand slogan of Adidas, and the brand has kept passing on this believe throughout its development. As a German sports goods manufacturer, adidas is a member of Adidas AG. It is notable that Adidas is named after its founder, Adolf Adi Dassler, who began producing footwear in Herzogenaurach, a town near Nuremberg, in 1920.
The founder of Adidas, Adi Dassler, was not only a skilled shoemaker, but also a sportsman with enthusiasm. His dream was to “design and produce the fittest sneakers for sportsmen.”
With this ambition, Adi Dassler designed the first pair of sneakers in 1920. Thanks to his diligent research and development, the sports shoes he designed have gotten on the right side of numerous top players. Not only did the brand shine in the Olympic Games, but also established an excellent reputation in the sports field ever since. Under the affirmation of all parties, Adi Dassler founded the brand Adidas in 1948, and incorporated his discovery into the design of the new sneakers. From his years of experience in shoemaking, the three parallel stripes on the side of the shoe are more likely to fit the athlete’s foot shape. So the first pair of adidas sports shoes with a three-striped design was presented to the world in 1949. Since then, people have kept watching the triumph achieved by the “victorious three stripes” on the sports field, and the three-striped logo has become the symbol of Adidas.
In 2006, Adidas launched the “adidas 1.1” improved generation of the computer chip smart running shoes. Adidas (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. and Adidas-Salomon Group became partners of the 2008 Summer Olympic, Beijing.
In 2012, Adidas was successfully selected as one of the world's top 100 sustainable companies.
Adidas Neo belongs to the sports and leisure series of Adidas, which is a stylish, fresh sports and leisure brand that integrates into your daily life. It is inspired from the brand concept of Adidas, keeps up with fashion trends, as to provide a variety of sports and leisure apparel products that are exceptionally comfortable, stylish, but also affordable.
The wonderful reaction between celebrities and the “Laid-back” Gudetama
Aside from inviting the famous Dilraba Dilmurat as its spokesperson, the brand also invited comedian Li Dan and Yang Di to participate in the topic #Super_Super_Super_Lazy_Live_Broadcast. With three well-known artists, and Dilraba’s cute and sweet image, it was a great success in marketing. On September 12, 2020, the blog post was released by the brand to preheat the promotion with the mysterious guests, providing keywords that aroused the curiosity and attention of fans. Not to mention that the image of Dilraba is also in line with the brand tone.
As an exceptional person in the entertainment industry, comedian Li Dan is known as “laid-back”, and because of the homonym of the word “egg” with his name, he wore a yellow hoodie with Gudetama during the live broadcast. Since both the brand and the celebrity have a solid fan base and interesting publicity interactions, it brought better results for the live broadcast, which not only expanded the brand’s influence, converted fans of both sides, but also increased the sales of new products.
The healing power of cartoon images is far beyond imagination!
Eggs are familiar food ingredients to all of us. In 2013, Gudetama was created by the Japanese Company Sanrio as a cartoon image in comics. When it crossover with adidasneo, the adorkable cartoon image and the energetic sports brand have brought a wonderful collision. The two colours of yellow and white also aligns with the actual image of an egg, which created a feeling of warmth and heal.
In the fast-paced modern society, people would prefer cartoons with sleek, clumsy and harmless images. As a childhood memory for people, Gudetama provides relaxation and carefree feelings. Hence, Adidas × Gudetama also interprets the healing power of cartoon images to people. Besides, the popularity of Gudetama also shows that a certain degree of “laid-back” attitude (relaxation) needs to be injected into such fast-paced life. Consequently, such a concept makes the product popular.
Data Overview
In Weibo and Xiaohongshu topics, #Super_Super_Super_Lazy_Live_Broadcast has a total of 25 brand content, 323 KOL content, and a total of 251 KOLs. The number of interactions of Weibo and Xiaohongshu was 5,053,961 and 10,763 respectively. Due to the addition of live broadcast content to the topics, the amount of interaction on Weibo is significantly higher than that of Xiaohongshu.
Data volume analysis
On June 29, 2020, the voice volume of topics reached 56,534, and the volume of content reached 149. The second volatility was in September 2020, when Dilraba was officially announced as the brand spokesperson.
KOL analysis
Due to the celebrity effect and the intervention of the “fanquan” culture, 87.25% of the 196 KOLs invited by Weibo topics are amateurs, with top KOLs and KOCs accounting for 2.94% and 3.23% respectively.
It is still the head KOLs who are accounted for most of the volume, and the circular influence brought by the celebrities is still centred on the stars themselves.