In the ongoing battle for brand supremacy at the World Cup, Adidas has emerged as the clear winner even before the champion is crowned. The showdown between Argentina and Spain in the final has positioned Adidas as the biggest victor on the field, with players donning the brand’s gear from jerseys to boots. On the other hand, despite Nike sponsoring multiple top-tier teams, none of them made it to the final, missing out on the highest exposure stage of the World Cup.
This year, Adidas sponsored a total of 14 national teams, while Nike sponsored 12 teams. Following Argentina’s victory over England in the semi-finals on Wednesday, all teams sponsored by Nike were eliminated, ensuring that the iconic Nike Swoosh will not be seen in the final on Sunday.
In the end, it was Adidas that supplied the equipment for both teams in the final, with Spain’s 19-year-old football prodigy Lamine Yamal and Argentina’s “ageless legend” football king Lionel Messi serving as key endorsers. The brand also provided uniforms for referees and 50,000 volunteers to boost its brand exposure.
Furthermore, Adidas is an official partner of the World Cup, having provided the match balls since 1970, with the partnership already extended until 2030. This year, they introduced the “TRIONDA” match ball for the final, featuring seamless heat-bonded technology and an embedded “CONNECTED BALL” sensor chip to track the stable trajectory of the ball.
These strategic moves have ensured that Adidas’s iconic three stripes logo is prominently featured in the broadcast camera shots.
While Adidas dominates the final stage, Nike excels in online advertising, with their World Cup ad videos garnering over 80 million views.
Nike chose a different approach in World Cup marketing, releasing short videos, memes, and Easter eggs that are easily shareable on social media platforms, encouraging viewers to watch and spread them repeatedly.
The six-minute ad “Rip the Script,” created by the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, breaks away from traditional soccer ad narratives by featuring current soccer superstars and entertainment celebrities, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Vini Jr., as well as football legends like Eric Cantona, Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Didier Drogba, and entertainment icons like LeBron James, Travis Scott, and Kim Kardashian.
Just weeks after its release, the ad surpassed 80 million views on YouTube, far surpassing Adidas’s video views of 8.3 million.
This article was referenced from reports on the U.S. industry information platform DesignRush and the financial website The Hindu BusinessLine.