Adidas: Facebook Analysis

Over the past few months I’ve been watching Adidas’s Facebook pages focusing on their Adidas Football page and for being such a big company I was shocked to see very minimal interaction and posts. In this blog post we will dive deeper into what Adidas has done and what they should be doing.
The brand I have chosen to do an analysis on is Adidas over their multiple Facebook pages.
The strategies I see the most on these pages is to post their most recent campaigns or ads and not interact with anyone. This was very surprising when I first saw this because Adidas is one of the biggest sports vendors in the world. The two big ones always come down to Nike and Adidas so to see such a huge brand not interacting with their fans was very surprising and something that needs to be changed. Something that I did see was Adidas endorsed athletes interacted more with their fans in the comments section. This could be a tactic that Adidas uses to create a relationship with the players and their fans. This creates more of a bond because the fans will remember it more than communicating with a large brand. It makes it more personal because in the end it’s a person talking to another person.

It’s clear what Adidas objectives are on their Facebook. They want to widen their fan base and post all their new products and commercials on the Facebook page. This is every brands objective on all their social medias. Brands see that times are changing, and that social media is going to play a huge role in the way companies advertise in the future. Adidas is doing a good job in putting their products in plain view for us consumers, but the interaction is where the problems begin. The evidence I have to support this claim is that the last six posts are talking about their new campaign or a new product. The receive around 60 to 80 comments on each of their last posts and there isn’t one interaction from the brand.
One of their most obvious messages come to us from their “No Fakers, Creators Only” campaign. This is Adidas new big soccer ad that they’re putting a lot of resources behind. To sum it up quickly, there’s a regular everyday person who does something to challenge the brand. In one of the commercials a man is seen tweeting at Paul Pogba (who is one of the best soccer players in the world) saying how he isn’t good enough so Pogba surprises the man to challenge him. These people are the “fakers” while Pogba is seen as the “creator”. Now this message could be negative because the brand is telling a certain group of people that they cannot wear these cleats. I understand what the brand is trying to do but from a business stand point, it doesn’t seem like the best path to take for this ad and message.
The typical audience for the Adidas Football Facebook page would be male and female ages 10-50 who enjoy playing and watching soccer. Their goals and aspirations would be to play soccer or be apart of it their entire life in some way. Some of the challenges they could face is that when they reach the higher ages, they won’t be able to play so they would just watch. Media that they will consume would be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and ESPN.

The brands engagement with their fans is where the real problems begin. You need to create a bond with your fans. Seeing a brand communicate with their fans shows they really care, and the followers might feed off that and assist the brand anyway they can. Creating that bond with the customer is so important because that one could turn into ten and it can just keep growing. In the screenshot above, you can see a consumer complaining to the brand. I know a brand cannot answer every single complaint they receive but going into the comments section and answering some questions on every post would lure more people to comment and create a relationship.
A brand this big must have a great social media presence because it can reach so many people. Most people own at least one item that is Adidas, so the brand needs to market its social media so people buy more products. I feel as though Adidas is doing a great job because of the great ads they put up. I see them post every couple of days so it’s never every single day which can be a good, so people don’t get overwhelmed.
In total I see Adidas doing very well on social media. They’re great ads and product placements will be very easy to market. The only issue is that lack of connection with the consumers. Once that picks up, Adidas will be a social media powerhouse especially on Facebook.