Only 3 days remain before the first ball is kicked at the biggest ever FIFA event spanning across three countries and 39 days, fought by 48 teams. The FIFA World Cup season means it is also the time to resume the age-old battle between two of the world’s biggest sports manufacturers in Nike and Adidas.
It gives a chance to both the companies to conquer the hearts and minds of the entire football marketplace. A chance to hook consumers, earn their loyalty, generate massive global revenue and ultimately stamp the authority and take the throne of the world’s leading sports manufacturing brand and for that Nike and Adidas are leaving no stones unturned.
The eternal fight between the two reached a new peak, with both companies releasing epic films just before FIFA’s showpiece event to win over the public. So let us take a closer look at the advertisement masterpieces and try to find out who wins the battle.
Star Studded lineup
The Nike film named ‘RIP the Script’ connects the world of football to the universe of fashion, music and cultures with a whole host of stars, across different walks of life combining to make it a grand success. It kicks of with none other than the posterboy of French football Kylian Mbappe showcasing his skills and it is only the beginning of a star studded line up which consists of current greats such Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Halaand, Vinicius jr, Virgil Van Dijk and legends of yester years like Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Didier Drogba, Jorge Campos. If that was not enough star power to have a pull, LeBron James, Travis Scott, Kim Kardashian, Ted Lasso, Kate Scott makes the cast of this film even more jaw-dropping.
In this aspect alone, Adidas seems to fall behind as their advert while still having stars like Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane featuring alongside household names such as Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, David Beckham, Trinity Rodman and Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet, does not seem to match the plethora of options that Nike had at their disposal.
Storytelling
But if the discussions comes to storytelling, Adidas’ ‘Backyard Legends’ seems to be the real deal for many with it’s neat and clean build up and a clear message that true greatness and the soul of the sport are born in raw, everyday street and neighborhood games, rather than just on the professional pitch. It celebrates the joy, the freedom of playing without pressure or expectations of everyday professional football, exactly how each one of the legends began their journey and fell in love with this beautiful game.
Whereas Nike’s ad initiative was found to be too face paced and too much chaos all around, failing to entirely connect the narrative of football can not be scripted and it does not follow any script to all watching.
Great moments
For Adidas, the advert beautifully merges nostalgia with future with instances such as the appearance of retro Adidas gear, including the iconic 2002 Fevernova match ball which Zidane again kicks and scores much like the 2002 Champions League final and Beckham trying to bring back the ball stuck in a tree while on Zidane’s shoulders by throwing his boots, roll back the childhood memories of many, whereas Messi sitting by the side of Bad Bunny as a spectator and saying “if they can’t, I’ll play”, gives a sneak peak of what the future holds by indicating the baton is in process of being passed on.
Furthermore, Chalamet acting as the recruiter choosing rival team Real Madrid and Barcelona’s young sensations Bellingham and Yamal to play side by side and making them sit together in the back seat of a car, does seem to make different worlds come together creating a great sight for the audiences.
However, in this regard the ironic yet masterfully written and crafted moments from the Nike ad is a big game changer for them which might have tilted this magical moments battle towards them.
For instance one of the film’s funnier sequences features LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo seated together in a conference room discussing a fictional movie centered around retirement.
The tongue-in-cheek moment plays on the reality that both athletes are firmly in the GOAT conversations in their respective fields and yet continuing to perform at an elite level deep into their careers.
Another memorable moment from the advert appears when Channing Tatum, appearing as an Erling Haaland lookalike, waiting for a cue from the actual Norwegian superstar, for that matter the modern day great Van Dijk lamenting the fact that the goal scoring machine ‘CR7’ did not die even after an explosion, reminiscing what many defenders would have hoped over the years to stop the Portuguese, does seem to have moments that will conjure up in the minds of football lovers for years to come.
Usage of AI
The major drawback from the Adidas advert, many believe is the over usage of Artificial intelligence in it. While it focused primarily to establish the fact that football is for everyone, in order to try and connect the past and present, they did not bring back the Zidanes and Beckhams in their physical forms, but instead featured digitally de-aged appearances of them which left a bad taste in the mouth of many. Whereas, Nike’s now and present with a lot less AI and a bit of body doubles and editing makes it a lot more realistic for the audiences.
Social media numbers
Only time will tell which organization has had the bragging rights as a sports manufacturer after these adverts, but just like how morning shows the day, the likes, reaches of these films across social media can act as a mode of presumption regarding which brand has had the upper hand. In this regard it seems to be a close fought battle which at the time of writing, seems to be in favour of Adidas with 2.83 million likes (266k likes on Youtube, 67k likes on X and 2.5 million) compared to that of Nike’s 2.72 million (351k on youtube, 167k on X and 2.2 million on Instagram) likes across social media platforms.
However, one needs to keep in mind the fact that Adidas’ ‘Backyard Legends’ feature was posted a month ago compared to Nike’s ‘Rip the Script’ film posted just three days ago on social media, so no one can completely determine one clear winner here for now.
