adidas

adidas launch Twitter account for new World Cup football

Scott Goodacre

Scott Goodacre

— 2 min read
adidas launch Twitter account for new World Cup football

adidas have started their social media campaign for the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup with the launch of the @brazuca handle, an account from their new ball created especially for the competition. The sports company have promised the account will offer “an alternative take on the game” in their press releases, and if the ball’s early Tweets are anything to go by they’re certainly different.

After starting with the above Tweet, and the hashtag #ballin, fans have been able to witness the likes of Clarence Seedorf and Zinedine Zidane clutching the football. adidas have sought to establish the ball’s personality early on by Tweeting pictures of synchronised swimmers, models and identical twins Bia and Branca Feres.

It’s all very playful, although the above Tweet combined with the ball’s ‘playa’ mentality suggests this is more for men than women, and adidas are capitalising on their existing sponsorships of some of the world’s most famous footballers brilliantly. They’re not taking it too seriously, and creating content which will be shared by football fans all over the world – incorporating humorous Vines like the one below to show delegates how to successfully open the balls for the World Cup draw (referring to them as ‘young relatives’ along the way).

They haven’t forgotten their audience either, as every Tweet is posted in both English and Portuguese. The English Tweets are by far the most shared, with nearly every one being passed on by more than 100 people. They’re not massively big on interaction yet, with only a handful of replies to people who’ve actually got the ball, and that bright green colour isn’t the best choice for links on their profile. Plenty of points for the creative header and profile picture though.

It’s worth noting that there’s also been plenty of newspaper coverage around the revealing of the new ball, with adidas helpfully providing photos of international footballers with the new piece of kit to the national press. They’ve also been offering the brazuca to babies born on 4th December 2013 – the day the ball was launched – for some extra publicity.

Overall it looks like a well co-ordinated launch that has generated some much-needed coverage for adidas following the criticism they received at the last World Cup with the Jubulani, which even NASA weighed into. Is it harder to criticise a ball if you know it just wants to have fun?

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