MUMBAI: Footwear manufacturer Adidas has announced the launch of a new global basketball campaign highlighting Houston Rockets all-star forward Tracy McGrady and his latest adidas shoe, the T-MAC 5.
The fifth edition of superstar Tracy McGrady's signature shoe, the T-MAC 5 is set to launch globally at all major retail partners and on-line at www.adidas.com on 28 October, 2005.
The strategy behind this highly integrated global brand campaign is to highlight the feats that T-MAC had been doing on the basketball court his whole career- scoring 13 points in 35 seconds against the eventual NBA World Champion Spurs, scoring 62 points in a game, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring. This type of play allows adidas to take a much more creative approach when creating a fully integrated global brand campaign and that is what is done with Folklore.
Folklore talks about T-Mac in a whole different way by using the art of storytelling and metaphors, borrowing from these ideas to tell a more fantastical and magical story of McGrady. Adidas states that Television is the highest level of storytelling and it introduces the idea of Folklore. The Folklore TVC continues to use the adidas creative approach of
metaphors to tell a story.
Folklore starts off with voices of several kids telling a story with each kid jumping in to give the "real" version of what really happened. As they speak, we see T-Mac doing what they say happened. The opening scene has T-Mac at the free throw line. As he begins to shoot, his uniform changes from home black to road white then back to black as the shot goes in. He then steals the ball and blows past two defenders. When a third defender appears, T-Mac is so quick that when he blows by him for the dunk the defender's arm breaks.
In the replay we see that as he goes up for the dunk, T-Mac according to the kids grabs a stack of quarters off the backboard. When we return to the action, T-MAC once again steals a pass. T-Mac is on fire as he begins to dribble and approaches the arch, where he then hits a three, just as it starts to rain. On the next possession, like an animal, T-Mac strips the inbounds pass. The next thing we know he is getting rushed by everyone in the stadium. He then rises above the game and the moment with the help of wings and drains a three to win the game as it once again rains.
As he walks off the court, T-Mac knows that he has stepped up in the moment when his team, the fans and the game needed him most and made the impossible happen.
The print campaign tells the story of Tracy McGrady, his signature shoe the T-Mac 5 and its unique design elements: incorporation of wood and the strap. In each execution, the ad starts off with a truth, and extends
into a story of mythical proportions, highlighting the amazing things that T-MAC has done. Each print ad finishes open-ended, driving people to the adidas basketball website www.adidas.com/basketball to find out more and to bring together both the television and print campaigns.
The campaign will also be supported by point-of-sale, public relations and on-line executions.
