No Pressure: Adidas Make Their Effectiveness Shot

The latest campaign from adidas is all about motivation, pressure, and how elite athletes deal with those make-or-break moments which can define not just events but careers. To create the campaign, adidas even brought in a neuroscience consultancy to analyze athletes facing pressure and learn how they cope. And they’ve matched these elite athletes with an elite soundtrack – Queen and David Bowie’s smash “Under Pressure”.

A focus on moments of pressure has a big effectiveness benefit too – it’s tailor-made for emotional storytelling, letting adidas craft ads with a tight narrative arc and a triumphant peak at the end. Both strong narratives and a “peak end” are known to improve effectiveness, so “You Got This” should be a winning format for the brand. And as the campaign slogan suggests, it also speaks to a powerful psychological need a reliable sportswear brand can fulfil – supporting and motivating athletes to be their best.

adidas has recruited some top names for the campaign, but for Ad Of The Week we’re spotlighting a newer face whose ad has proven the most effective adidas campaign in years. It stars basketball player Aliyah Boston, the 2023 WNBA Rookie Of The Year, who steps up to help a school basketball player make a difficult penalty shot for her team. Boston shows her a motivational technique – take the pressure off by imagining you’re throwing a ball of paper into a waste paper basket – and the ad concludes with the girl making the shot and her teammates rejoicing. A classic “peak end”.

The ad would probably have performed well if it had only showcased Aliyah Boston, but what makes it special is having Boston show up to help an ordinary girl meet her potential. It brings the campaign to life for the everyday athletes who make up adidas’ customer base, and crucially it allows the ad to feature a healthy dose of “between-ness” – human interaction, connection, gestures and facial expressions which establish the relationship between the characters. “Between-ness” is part of the effectiveness secret sauce outlined in Orlando Wood’s Look Out, which spotlights the elements in advertising that capture the “broad-beam” attention of the right side of the brain.

The other masterstroke in the commercial is its use of “Under Pressure”. Nostalgic hits and evergreen anthems are always an asset for an ad – cultural references and strong tunes are more of those powerful, attention-getting elements. But adidas cleverly delays the music until near the end of the ad, meaning we get the rush of familiarity, the upbeat charge of the music, and the relevant lyrics just as positive emotion is already rising.

It all makes for a powerful combination, and we can see that in the test results. Sportswear is a hotly contested category in the US, with adidas facing off against big-name rivals, and “You Got It” is an advertising slam dunk. With a 4.4-Star Rating it’s two whole Stars ahead of the category average, and it also smashes the averages with an Exceptional short-term Spike Rating and Brand Fluency (at 96% one of the highest we’ve seen in the category).

The ad lands straight in the Top 10 sports and leisure ads in our Test Your Ad database, and you have to reach back to 2021 to find the only adidas ad we’ve seen with a higher Star Rating. All told it’s a great entry in a powerfully motivating campaign. You Got This? adidas certainly have.