To Promote Sport Inclusivity, Adidas Unveils World’s First Swimmable Billboard!
Adidas, in a revolutionary move, has launched the world’s first-ever liquid billboard at one of Dubai’s most attractive tourist beaches – the Kite beach.
This move came as a promotion for Adidas’s launch of its new collection of accessible swimwear. This swimmable billboard is also an attempt on part of the company to live up to its oath of breaking sport taboos and creating inclusivity for women.
The liquid billboard was erected on the beach, right in the sand, after which, the company encouraged women to dive in.
‘Watch Us Move,’ a 2021 roadmap launched earlier this year, promises to overcome sport taboos through modernizing Adidas’ product offering and services.
Adidas introduced performance tights as a method to reinvent its product offering and services to better meet the requirements of its varied female community after discovering that adolescent girls were dropping out of sport at an alarming rate, with one of the main reasons being fear of period leaking.
In fact, it is important to take note of the fact that, in UAE, Only 12% of women feel fully at ease wearing a swimsuit at a public beach or pool, with body shame and a lack of privacy being the two most common causes for women’s discomfort in their swimwear.
Also, 59 percent of UAE women aged 18 to 42 feel the media portrays female swimmers in an unachievable body ideal.
It is in wake of such statistics, that Adidas decided to sponsor a survey by YouGov, as part of its wider “Watch Us Move” campaign, to get an even understanding of the physical, emotional, and cultural hurdles to sports participation.
When the study revealed the hurdles that hinder women from participating in swimming, the mega sports company decided to create a line of swimwear based on community involvement.
Joao Medeiros, executive creative director at Havas Middle East, in an interview, said that the concept of a liquid billboard was born to literally give women a spirit of independence and freedom.
Fabio Silviera, general manager at Havas Middle East, said –
“Of the three ideas pitched, the swimming billboard was the one that Adidas immediately bought into. They were fully supportive, which made us believe that OK, we can pull this off. “
The swimming pool billboard is five meters high and three meters deep, and it is made of strengthened transparent acrylic and holds 11,500 gallons of water (the equivalent of 163 bathtubs). The crew put a camera inside the pool to broadcast live footage to the city’s largest digital display, allowing a broader audience to see the action.
Giovanna Altomare, marketing operations manager at Adidas said –
“We loved the creative idea because our whole point was to inspire the women in Dubai (and hopefully all around the world) to take a leap of faith and embrace the water.”
He further commented on the swimmable billboard –
“So the idea of this billboard that has real women swimming inside, showcasing the movement of the water in front of people in a public space, was really driving our objective.”
Women of Dubai were asked to join in a dive “beyond the surface” to reaffirm the brand’s global effort to guarantee that sport is inviting to everyone.
Adidas ambassador and amputee triathlete Dareen Barbar, who is also a Guinness world record holder, and Adidas ambassador Raha Moharrak, the first Saudi Arabian female to climb Mount Everest, were among the inspiring women who made the public plunge into the liquid billboard.
The content from the liquid billboard was shown live on a digital screen above the famed Dubai Mall ice rink, close to the Adidas flagship store, allowing customers and mallgoers to participate in the experience.
In a conservative landscape like the UAE, such a swimmable billboard is more than just an ad – it symbolizes the need for inclusivity in sports and otherwise for women.
Snapchat’s Automated Advertising ‘Dynamic Ads’ Is What Global Brands Need Today!
- Snapchat announced a new advertising product called Dynamic Ads. It brings automated customization to ads and is designed to make it easy for brands to set up their e-commerce business on Snapchat.
- Snap first introduced Dynamic Ads in 2019 to e-commerce retailers in the U.S and began testing the ad unit last October.
- The stock was down 1% after the company launched Dynamic Ads in the U.K, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East after being offered only in the U.S.
- Google and Facebook both offer brands Dynamic Ads.
Snapchat Dynamic Ads or Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) allow a brand to automatically create ads in real-time based on their own product catalogs which may contain hundreds of items. This means if a price or availability changes, ads will be updated automatically with less human intervention. Dynamic ads will make selling products easier for retailers and brands and can serve Snapchat’s 229 million daily active users based on their interests. Snap offers five templates to advertisers to showcase their products in a way that they look native.
Here is the example of the template after a product is populated:
Brands like Adidas, FarFetch, and Topshop were amongst the first brands to test Snapchat Dynamic Product Ads and all reported positive sales results from showcasing their products and services through customized ad formats.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adidas has further accelerated its digital business and eCommerce is their key focus in 2020. Adidas test in Europe elicited positive feedback:
“We’re excited to beta test Snapchat’s Dynamic Ads in the U.K., Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Within weeks we saw a 52% growth in ROAS (return on advertising spend) and we have subsequently grown our investment.”
“The launch of DPAs allows us a route to reach our target Gen Z and Millennial audiences with relevant product creative throughout the consumer journey.”
– Rob Seidu, Sr. Director of Media Activation, Europe
FarFetch chief marketing officer Gareth Jones said that there is a shift in consumer interaction with eCommerce as consumers are increasingly shopping on their mobile phones during the COVID-19 lockdown which is expected to continue. Jones added that Snapchat Dynamic Ads have transformed the brand’s activity across the entire sales funnel.
“We lent heavily into DPAs during the testing period and we have seen significant success that has translated into high-quality customers and ultimately transactions. We plan to continue to build on our relationship with Snapchat and we see them as an always-on partner.”
Topshop was the first brand to do a beta test and it achieved four times the UK benchmarks for ROAS within two weeks. According to Topshop,
“DPAs have allowed Topshop to reach Snapchatters with high-quality, and relevant ads throughout the consumer journey, and based on such strong results, the activity will be scaled and launched into further markets over the coming weeks.”
Implications on Business
Lockdown has forced many businesses to shift their focus to eCommerce and keep up with consumer demands. According to Interactive Media in Retail Group, online sales reached a 10-year high in April, marking a year-over-year increase of 23.8%.
Snap reported revenue of $462 million in the first quarter, up more than 44% over the first quarter of 2019 and ad revenue grew as they relied on big-spending large advertisers.
According to Ed Couchman, general manager of Snapchat U.K,
“The coronavirus has accelerated the need for businesses to look at their digital sales channels and encouraged them to be more innovative in how they do that.”
“Since we opened up the beta testing I was impressed at the number of businesses who wanted to get involved – far above what we expected – which really shows the appetite for brands to get on board with e-commerce.”
“We are seeing strong results from advertisers in multiple sectors from high street clothing stores to food delivery who have been testing the product.”
