Adidas

adidas tells stories about athletes at their limit — its campaigns needed to carry that intensity everywhere they appear.

Every season adidas launches products and athlete stories across retail, social, digital and out-of-home. Each touchpoint was being designed almost from scratch, which made campaigns slower to produce and harder to recognise.

We were asked to create a campaign system built around movement, pressure and performance — one that could flex across formats while always feeling unmistakably adidas.

The imagery was world-class, but every format told the story a little differently.

Campaign assets were produced by many teams and agencies across markets. Without a shared visual language, type, crops and layouts drifted from format to format, and the strongest moments often got lost.

The challenge was to define a system strict enough to stay consistent, yet loose enough for creative teams to push each story further.

CONSISTENCY

Bring every format, from billboards to stories, into one recognisable visual language.

INTENSITY

Keep the raw energy of athletic imagery at the centre of every layout.

SPEED

Help teams produce and adapt assets faster across markets.

“The system gave every team the same starting line. Our campaigns look stronger, ship faster, and you can recognise them from across a stadium.”

Marcus Lehmann

Global Brand Creative Lead

We built a flexible visual language around strong athletic imagery and bold type, giving the brand a sharper way to tell product and athlete stories.

We started from the image: rules for crops, framing and motion blur that keep the athlete’s movement at the heart of every composition.

Bold typography and a simple grid sit on top, with clear rules for how headlines, product and stats interact across formats, from vertical stories to stadium screens.

Everything is packaged in a visual toolkit with templates and asset guidelines, so teams in every market can adapt a campaign in hours instead of days.

A more focused visual system helped campaign content feel stronger, faster and more consistent across formats.

With a shared language in place, campaigns became instantly recognisable across retail, social and out-of-home, and athlete stories landed with more impact.

Production became faster too: teams adapted master assets instead of rebuilding them, freeing time for the ideas that matter.

+64% CAMPAIGN ENGAGEMENT

A more focused visual system helped campaign content feel stronger, faster and more consistent across formats.

3× FASTER ADAPTATION

Teams adapted master assets for new formats in hours instead of days.

+41% BRAND RECALL

Campaigns were recognised more often across touchpoints.

119+ FORMATS

One system covered every format, from stories to stadium screens.