Commandments 1-3
In this first overview of the Commandments, we reiterate the importance of ‘Using Our Power To Make A Difference’ [PTMAD] across the work, how best to ‘Be Appropriate, Don’t Appropriate’ by working with the Originals of Culture, and what ‘Reflecting Their Mindset’ means in terms of inspiration.
Commandments 1-3 Overview:
Using our power to make a difference, whatever we’re doing, is the key commandment underpinning everything.
Importantly, Gen Z expect this from brands, it is not an option.
Through it, we have to involve, uplift and inspire - always.
Often this comes down to a sharing of our assets; whether it’s spaces, places, platforms or partners.
To this, our partners must be seen to be using their own PTMAD as people.
Naturally, assets extend further too; it is also about sharing what we know and other resources too.
Using our PTMAD has to become an inherent way of thinking at the brand.
“Be Appropriate, Don’t Appropriate’ is about ensuring we understand our own brand elasticity.
It is about leaning into the Originals of Culture to ensure we are connected.
Tackling this step of community connections is a key next step for the brand.
If we don’t involve, we don’t evolve - it’s that simple.
The final commandment here is ‘reflect their mindset’ and is about inspiration.
We have to align ourselves with the attitudes and expectations of the audience.
It is about reflecting key attributes across all that we do, whether product, promotion or partners.
It is about creating possibilities for people and the planet with the right people across the planet.
1. USE YOUR POWER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
The key commandment, whatever the brand, whatever the industry, is always this one. Underpinning everything, it is now an expectation of the audience, cross-generationally. If you are a big brand, with power, you are expected to use it to make the world a better place, for people and for the planet. Understandably, the realm of where this power can impact is large; within this research alone, for example, it extends itself to representation, to sustainability, to categories and more. However, this need not make things complicated.
So what power do brands have? It comes down to ‘assets’. Whether they are people, partners, places or platforms, brands have to utilise those assets impactfully, using them to educate, to involve, to uplift and to inspire; key words you will have read throughout the research. It is about resources held by the brand, whether that’s people, knowledge or otherwise. As a definition, ‘assets’ is roomy for a reason, it covers myriad ways in which we can make a difference. It is also a form of social responsibility and a fallout of capitalism that brands cannot avoid. The same applies to us at adidas.
To ensure we’re using our power to make a difference as a brand, it has to become an inherent way of thinking in-house; whether we are putting on events or choosing partners - asking ourselves ‘are we using our power to make a difference?’ will considerably change how the brand behaves, ensuring we are aligned with the expectations of the audience. For instance, in terms of our celebrity partners, are we flexing our finances or picking people that bring positivity to the world? Are they using their own agency and power to make a difference to the audience? Are they encouraging people to be confident? To be themselves? To be kind? Or, are we picking people that cause others to feel ‘less than’, less fortunate or otherwise? Are our partners considerate when it comes to consumption? Are they influencing others to buy, buy, buy through the flaunting of wealth and conspicuous consumption or are they inspiring people to be mindful and reflective? What message are we telling through our partners in the public eye?
If we look at representation, within gaming for instance, are we using our power to challenge and change outdated tropes and stereotypes or are we reinforcing a misogynistic narrative? [you can read more about this, here]. In sport, are we using our power to foster the community? To grant access to everyone [a form of representation], to ensure that everyone has the possibility to play? Within our spaces, whether that’s retail, football pitches or even our own offices, are we sharing those powerfully with people in positive ways? What are we doing with our platforms?
ACTION POINT: IMPLEMENT
As a commandment, Use Your Power To Make A Difference is rather roomy; however, if we apply it across everything, anywhere, with anyone, it means we simply ask ourselves one thing: ‘Are we using our power to make a difference here?’ and - if not - “How can we?” It is about ensuring we’re involving, uplifting and inspiring across everything. In terms of pillars of the brand, it doesn’t hurt to consider adding it in: sustainability, representation and impact.
2. BE APPROPRIATE, DON’T APPROPRIATE
Much of this commandment comes down to humility; the humility to admit that we don’t know everything, that we don’t always know best and even that there are some things we don’t do well [but others do]. If it sounds harsh, it isn’t meant to be; being aware of our limitations as a brand is highly powerful as a tool, moreover, the brands that ignore this are the brands that don’t win. It means we ourselves can grow in ways that make sense for the brand, leaning into others and elsewhere when we need to, while always ensuring we’re correct in our connection with sport and culture across the world.
Indeed, in many ways, this is an awareness of our own brand elasticity; where does it stretch to and where does it snap? Knowing this about ourselves as a brand is a form of protection, we essentially safeguard ourselves when we understand and know the strength of our own flexibility and how best to behave as a business. Knowing our weaknesses is what gives us our strength.
Naturally, it is also about understanding the difference in what we can and can’t change, while also having the bravery to change those things it is possible to change as a brand [and yes, if this sounds familiar, it’s essentially the 90-year-old Serenity Prayer, you have heard it before...]. At adidas, the key change our audience wants to see from us - the key awareness they want us to have in terms of our brand elasticity - is that we are not connected to the right people in cultures. Tackling this lack of community connection is the most important next step for the brand and is the hook that everything else is pinned upon. If we are not connected to the Originals of Culture in the streets, the sports, the cultures, the tribes and the occasions, we’re not connected to the consumer. Quite simply we just become a brand operating out of Herzogenaurach, guessing at what’s happening ‘out there’ in the real world.
Working with Originals of Culture is not just an investment, it is also a way to be mindful, to have manners, to foster the culture, to use our power to make a difference [with humility] and so many more of the Commandments. It is, again, about involving, uplifting and inspiring - in ways that make sense for the local audiences. Emphasising and investing in the ‘involvement’ part of this and getting that right is how we can authentically uplift and inspire overall. If we don’t involve, we don’t evolve. It’s that simple.
ACTION POINT: ACTIVATE
We have to place budget lines against working with the Originals of Culture of sport and culture across the world. Finding the means and the money to find those figureheads, listen to them, and set up relationships that are respectful; always treating them as peers as well as partners. The budget lines cannot be of campaign length; making a commitment to the culture through continually fostering it with the figureheads is imperative. This cannot be a one-off, it has to be a crucial, foundational brick in the brand moving forwards. The best brands in the business connect to culture correctly; it is time we did too.
We have to work alongside the Originals of Culture as peers; using our power to make a difference when needed and ceding control when our elastic snaps. It is about setting up processes and people at the brand to look after this network - maintaining it, cultivating it and always ensuring it grows. It is about putting budget aside for those figureheads to put on events with us, to do collaborations with us, to have a skate team supported by us, to set sustainable initiatives up with us and to grow cultures and connections across the world.
It is about creating possibilities for people and the planet with the right people across the planet. To do this, structures need to be put in place, hiring needs to be done and a budget needs to be found. It is about being agile in our decisions, simpler in our processes and closer in terms of connection overall. It is a new form of permission we have to employ and implement. At the heart of this, it is about using our power to make a difference with the Originals of Culture for the global audience across all realms, all sports, all cultures. Localised, humble, appropriate and never appropriating. This has to be our future if we want to connect.
3. REFLECT THEIR MINDSET
Reflecting the mindset of the audience is essential for any brand wishing to connect with their audience; if a brand doesn’t align themselves with the attitudes and expectations of the audience, they simply cannot relate. Reflection is relating. For us, this is about understanding, endorsing and echoing the key traits and characteristics of Gen Z to build a new generation of fans for the brand. It is about embedding the same characteristics into the brand; namely being altruistic, fluid, independent, experimental, brave, spirited and passionate.
Naturally, there are many facets through which we can be reflecting, whether it’s spirited product, passionate partnerships or experimental events, we can mix and match the words however we want, applying them across the board. Looking deeper into these characteristics and understanding how they apply to adidas is a key next step for the brand. What does brave marketing look like? Who are the partners with passion? How do we put on experimental events? All of these are key things to workshop moving forwards as a brand.
But, we can answer a few of them here.
Our partnerships have to be inspirational, reflecting the traits of our audience rather than the finances we’ve spent. For instance, Beyoncé is undoubtedly an expectant, altruistic activist - campaigning for equality while empowering women worldwide [and using her power to make a difference]. Pharrell is undoubtedly a fluid, indie experimentalist. Can we compartmentalise our other partners as easily? Are they true reflections of the things the audience stands for and wants to grow up to be? Are we aligning ourselves with the right global voices? Most importantly, are they, as partners, using their power to make a difference [aka: brave, spirited exponents?].
Events can equally tap into these traits as well as the key concept of Originality. Indeed, at the soul of adidas we have more of a right to be in music than Nike since it sits within our heritage. What experimental, original events can we be putting on as a brand? Have we got the guts and bravery to do a festival? [Answer: Yes we do.] What would that festival look like and how do we make it a spirited, Original occasion? Have we brought the right partners to the stage? Are we being sustainable within our events? Are they open to all [representative] and reflective of our audience [humble, kind, considered, real]?
ACTION POINT: WORKSHOP
We have to build these words into our brand narrative, our comms and our own mindsets, these words have to become part of the language of the brand [hopefully replacing empty words like ‘authentic’ and ‘innovative’]. It has to become inherent and in-house [again] to make decisions that reflect these traits in all that we do and to talk the talk as well as walking the walk. As mentioned, workshopping this together, as a brand, helps create a greater understanding around the implications.
Critically, we can decide to catalyse this within our entertainment division, using our work there to propagate and personify an understanding of the traits across the business. By ensuring, first and foremost, that our partners are on point, we can literally look towards them as behavioural models and examples of echoing the audience. We already claim that everything Pharrell does “is an exploration and celebration of humanity,” [adidas.co.uk]. So, what does that ‘exploration and celebration’ look like as an event? What does applying Pharrell’s fluidity and experimentalism, his individuality, his bravery look like in the form of a festival? If Pharrell was an occasion, what occasion would he be?