adidas x Tintin: Belgian pride meets iconic style

Challenge:

As a long-time sponsor of the Belgian national football team, adidas was responsible for delivering the Red Devils’ official away kit for UEFA EURO 2024. The kit was also on sale for fans. The challenge was clear: adidas needed to win the share-of-voice battle against its competitors and sell more kits than ever before. But how could they achieve this with ‘yet another’ Red Devils shirt?

Solution:

Belgians love their national football heroes – the Red Devils. Belgians are also proud of their internationally renowned cartoon heroes – such as Tintin. What if those two came together? A Tintin-inspired away kit became the core creative asset of adidas’ EURO 2024 campaign: leveraging national pride to the max! A comprehensive PR plan brought the away kit to “life”: with the right storytelling (around the celebration of Belgian icons) and with the right visual framing (to turn mere color references into a Tintin must-have item).

Our communication was carefully mapped out and timed to capture attention and maintain excitement around the Tintin jersey. It started with the invitation for the official press conference: for the first time ever, the RBFA changed the location for the traditional pre-selection press momentum, inviting media to the Hergé Museum instead of RBFA’s headquarters. This small yet important detail got Belgian journalists guessing and drummed up anticipation for an announcement.

At the press conference itself, attendees entered a 360° Tintin experience, created in close consultation with the Hergé Museum and respecting Hergé’s legacy. Actors who personified iconic Tintin characters animated the photo call and provided authentic, “earned-friendly” social imagery.

The PR momentum was successfully stretched into the weeks after the press conference as the Tintin ‘gang’ showed up at every single milestone event for the Red Devils: at the first training session at RBFA’s Neerpede’s site and prominently sitting in the main stand during the top England-Belgium match when the Red Devils officially premiered the away kit.

A seeding of the away kit to influencers also sparked further conversations in various communities beyond the hardcore football fan.

Results:

• 40+ journalists attended our press conference
• 174 Belgian media clippings achieved in two weeks, reaching 49 million people and with a total AVE of €2.25 million
• 500+ international headlines in less than 24 hours – including BBC, Sky News, The Independent, and South China Morning Post 
• All available Tintin jerseys sold out before the Belgian Red Devils’ first EURO 2024 match