Adidas Vs Nike: The World Cup 2014 Marketing Battle - "Risk Everything" or "All in or Nothing"?

Less than 3 weeks away, the largest single-event sporting competition in the world is on the horizon: the 2014 FIFA World Cup. However, outside of the football world exists another notable and competitive rivalry between two of the largest sportswear companies in the world. That’s right, Nike and Adidas. Both brands have kicked off their marketing campaigns with the hopes of scoring the most goals in a hotly contested World Cup merchandizing battle. 

Nike was the first to launch its “Risk Everything” football campaign. Subsequently, Adidas recently launched its “All In or Nothing” World Cup campaign. With both ads employing the concepts of risk, pressure, and competition, it will be very interesting to see who will come out on top in the 2014 Marketing World Cup.

Big Idea 2014: Stop Selling and Start Marketing

If you’re the leader of a professional services firm and you’re cracking the whip to get your business development person to make more cold calls, 2014 is the year you should stop cracking.

A better alternative

Management genius Peter Drucker preached, “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” In other words, the goal of marketing is to make a product, service, or company so relevant and compelling that it literally sells itself.

If you think this is hyperbole, consider captivating products like the iPhone. Can you imagine ever seeing an iPhone salesman? Instead, zealous customers are lined up in front of Apple stores for hours.

If your firm would spend more time and energy developing and marketing a relevant, differentiated “product,” you could spend a lot less time and energy trying to sell it.

Explosive Experiential Marketing Campaign

Jordan joined up with Wieden + Kennedy in New York to announce the launch of the new Jordan Melo M8 shoe. This innovative use of 3D projection technology demonstrates how brands can use iconic locations at night in new ways to launch products and conduct experiential marketing activites.

We’ve seen many marketing events use 3D projections however this is the first we’ve seen on water.

The result is… well, explosive.