A new Adidas digital initiative blends the surreal and the sneaker in an absurd, artistic Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) campaign based around a 12-hour online video for its new ZX 2K BOOST shoe.
Created by agency Johannes Leonardo and titled ‘The ZXience Network’, the video includes odd, diverse clips – from face painting to mysterious glue-like substances – which only seem to have the trainer itself in common.
The aim is to create eclectic, yet oddly satisfying and mesmerizing digital content which stimulates the senses by being simultaneously bizarre yet soothing.
Here’s the full 12-hour video:
“The stream was designed to be intriguing, soothing, a bit confusing and a little chaotic – an itch you didn’t know you had,” said Johannes Leonardo Creative Director Ray Smiling. “This is 100% all the things they tell you not to do in ad school,” he said. “It’s ‘slow TV’ taken to the Nth degree, taking learnings from often trafficked subReddits and applying them to a squishy shoe. You could totally have the ZXN on a second screen while you work during the day, or you could watch it at 2 a.m. to quiet your mind. Either way, watching the ZX squish random objects under the power of a hydraulic press, scratches an itch you may not have known you had.”
Outcome:
Since it was posted at the start of October, the spot has thus far racked up 11,257 YouTube views on the Adidas Originals channel.
Comment:
Adidas Originals describes the commercial as ‘extremely long-form advertising’ and as reflecting the online teen consumption trend for ‘escapism content’.
We aren’t sure whether this is quite the approach taught in advertising and marketing school and while at Activative we like to think we keep an open mind even we have to admit to not watching all 720 minutes.
But what we have watched is certainly oddly satisfying
It follows on from Adidas’ August ‘Everything Is Cake’ meme with a hyper-realistic sneaker made out of cake in a tie-up with Deliveroo.
The secret’s out! We’ve partnered with @adidasUK for a collab like no other. On the 26th we’ll be giving a lucky few the chance to receive a pair of adidas Originals new ZX 2K BOOST trainers and an edible life-size cake version too! Set your alarms#adidasZX #EverythingIsCake pic.twitter.com/MRGoHWAYt1
— deliveroo (@Deliveroo) August 20, 2020
Links:
Adidas Originals
https://www.adidas.com/originals
https://www.youtube.com/user/adidasoriginals
https://soundcloud.com/adidasoriginals
https://twitter.com/adidasoriginals
https://www.instagram.com/adidasoriginals
Johannes Leonardo
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