ADIDAS / THE QUEST

adidas' FIFA World Cup campaign burst into digital action this week, sparking a global social media conversation to span the tournament.

Launched via a Zinedine Zidane-narrated viral clip, The Quest continues the positioning and style of an eighteen-month long strategy. The campaign will use Facebook as a hub and mine a real-time creative seam with a 'live' graphic novel, updated as the tournament progresses.

From viral clips, social gaming to reactive tournament artwork, charity auctions and superhero content, this has got the lot, so we'll make it easy by running through the mechanics then later on hand over to Andy Fackrell, chief creative officer at 180 Amsterdam, who took time out of a dauntingly busy schedule to chat to Contagious about the agency's work.

The campaign launched on 8 June with the help of German World Cup legend Franz Beckenbauer and an intense 90-second YouTube clip in the comic strip style of the 'Every Team Needs' brand strategy. Sponsored players are given superhero powers and viral clips of their own to become components in adidas' ideal team: Argentina's Lionel Messi becoming 'The Spark' and England's Steven Gerrard 'The Powerhouse'.

Viral clips point fans to the Facebook hub, where daily 'Matchup' performance games offer points and adidas prizes to fans predicting which of two rival players will come out on top in a battle of skills and statistical analysis. Visitors to the brand page can also 'like' player pages for stars from each of the 32 participating nations.

As the tournament unfolds, the graphic novel 'The Quest' will be produced and released in episodes. Daily artwork by African painters will also detail key moments, before being auctioned off via eBay to raise money for the Nelson Mandela 46664 Foundation.

One year ago, (Contagious Issue 19), with adidas reeling from a 97% year-on-year fall in Q1 net profits (that 2009 figure of €5 million has since turned into healthier profits of €168) we spoke to Andy Fackrell about the road to South Africa. We were happy to catch up again this week to discover how social media helped harness the huge global event:

'This is my second World Cup at 180 Amsterdam and it's interesting how much the media landscape has changed,' he said. 'It was all TV in 2002; in '06 there was a lot of content through the addition of online; now Facebook is a real hub. Four years ago people would be asking "Facebook - what?"

'Even a year ago, when we were working towards the likes of the graphic novel, we didn't know it would be that hub, but in the last six months brands have shifted to Facebook as the most viral way of getting to people. It is just outstanding how many hours people are going back to it to see what's going on, and what's cool out there.

In fact, back in summer '09 Fackrell had told Contagious about the 'big bang' to launch the German brand's tournament. A year later (and post-Nike's epic Write the Future ad, now on the way to 9m YouTube views in a week), though he is confident the TVC will make a big impact, it is the potential for a truly integrated football-led conversation which excites the Amsterdam-based creative.

'I think in hindsight it's good we didn't put everything into the big bang as we've been able to be very nimble. Our real tagline is "you decide". We have said to consumers: "it's your choice - who do you think is going to win?"

'I'll be honest and say hats off to Nike on one of the great ads of all time. But money plays a large part here: Nike has the budget, but adidas has the history and the true football brand. We may be more of a slow burner, and I'm hoping fans engage with us over all 30 days of the tournament.

'I like the idea that we've singled out 32 players from all 32 teams. Our approach is that it is a global game, it's not just for the gods - so we have the likes of (Brazil's) Kaka and Messi and also Andrew Boyens of New Zealand.

'What I would love to see is Boyens score the winner against Italy, our painters create the picture that night, which goes into newspapers and our graphic novel the next day and is then auctioned off to one of  the big New Zealand companies and goes up in their lobby. There's the potential for random stories like that to happen and it's exciting.'

So while Fackrell (who sensibly tips adidas-shirted Spain for the trophy) and his team settle down each evening to discuss which players and which goals will feature in the unwritten comic strip panels and the Africa-inspired artwork, it is the true football fan, pinning every hope on their home nation making it through to the next stage, who will be on their minds as they seek to ignite the conversation.

UPDATE: 180 Amsterdam's commitment to integrated marketing has informed the choice to use Facebook as a hub, and Contagious spoke to Matthew Atkatz of the agency's digital arm 180/Riot after the tournament's opening weekend.

'We aimed to create a balance between storytelling and interactive ideas grounded in our target's behaviour,' he said. 'Matchups achieves our client's communication goals while offering entertainment so it's a balanced value exchange between brand and consumer, something we aim to do with all our work.

'We are giving people giving people the opportunity to talk about the World Cup, and building into Facebook makes this experience inherently social. There is no need to reinvent the platform, as Facebook does it all.'

Based on the simple insight that fans worldwide love to speculate on upcoming games, the app uses a unique code allowing adidas to focus fan interaction around individual matchups - with transltaion into 15 languages to ensure each nation's fans can enjoy live chat and data from their preferred games. More than 1,000 users per hour joined up via Facebook Connect during the tournament's first weekend.