Trailer Urban Art Guide from urbanartguide.com on Vimeo.
In my opinion this is a fine example of a large corporation tactfully immersing itself into a trendy advertising aware/sensitive subculture. Granted, Adidas already has some pretty well accepted + trusted brand equity deeply rooted in the hearts and souls of the young hipster art lovers of the world that they have targeted. Even still, no Matter how much built in street “cred” your brand has there is still plenty of risk for any given corporate sponsored campaign (BTW, this is a campaign) to come across forced and not genuine to those of whom you are trying to reach.
Adidas has done a really nice job in this case building their brand equity, playing in the right space and providing their followers with some really interesting/useful tools that will last. The ladder of that statement is very important -> “tools that will last”. The days of big brands running massive/costly campaigns that die and become irrelevant in the span of two to three months are over. First of all, it’s wasteful. Second, it’s too much for people to keep up with. Why take the trouble to download something that will only provide you with a few weeks of entertainment? My iPhone has enough shipwrecked apps on it that I have to regularly clean up as it is. Adidas makes it clear on their site that they plan to expand the content of this Art Guide iPhone app and update it regularly. It’s important for brands to let their followers know what their intention is. Any signs of a half baked engagement will cost you usage and impressions. I could go on and on about this topic but I’d rather avoid this post becoming a platform for me to go off on a “marketing best practices” rant. I’ll spare us.
In short, this kind of complex, long term engagement marketing takes so much more dedication and effort to conduct that I believe it will start to teach the big brands of the world how to spend their time, money and efforts more wisely. My only complaint about this campaign is that I don’t live in Berlin where the bulk of this urban art activity is taking place. Maybe the app will eventually expand to the US?
Definitely visit the site and join up on Facebook -> Adidas Art Guide App
Adidas’s Facebook (or link from website above) -> Adidas Art Guide App
Notes from Vimeo:
Berlin’s rough cityscape is marked by urban art. Paintings, graffiti, stencils, paste-ups, stickers. Berlin is a city where both national and international artists go wild. This iPhone application allows its users to discover urban art where it takes place – the streets, hidden backyards, in hallways, behind fences or in remote places.
You can search your local environment for art work, go on suggested tours or scroll the mobile gallery to see another side of Berlin. The Urban Art Guide editorial staff will constantly update the site. Users can interact with the guide: If the user explores new works of Berlin’s street art himself, he can send his suggestions to the editorial staff directly via his iPhone. Furthermore all pictures can be rated, commented and recommended to others. In addition to the iPhone application, the Urban Art Guide website urbanartguide.com goes beyond Berlin’s scene by featuring pictures of international art works, artist portraits and interviews as well as event and book recommendations. Adidas Originals offers the Urban Art Guide for free download for the iTunes store from March 20th forward.
