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Adidas engages youth demographic with mobile marketing

Sportswear powerhouse Adidas is leveraging the mobile channel to build brand awareness around Adidas Originals in Berlin, Germany.

Adidas intends to launch its "Urban Art Guide" application in Europe and the United States as well. The application allows users to pinpoint urban art within the city and take a walking tour led by the application or browse through graffiti and outdoor artworks.

"We believe that mobility and urbanity are the two central topics for Adidas Originals," said Christine Demmelhuber, brand PR manager of style at Adidas, Herzogenaurach, Germany.

"Furthermore, the new smartphone generation has brought new lifestyle products to the market, which are definitely interesting for Adidas Originals target group," she said. "Adidas Originals has always been related to urban art therefore the idea of the Adidas Urban Art Guide was close-by.

"And, the combination of new trends, smartphone applications and Urban Art has a high press relations relevance which we used. The platform we have developed makes it possible to reach out to a smartphone target group and give them brand messages on a permanent base."

Adidas AG is a German-based retailer of sportswear and is part of the Adidas Group which comprises Reebok, TaylorMade and Rockport.

The company claims to be the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and comes in second in the U.S., second only to long-standing rival Nike.

Adidas Originals is a line of casual sports apparel and is the heritage line of the Adidas brand.

Along with browsing and locating street art, the Adidas Urban Art Guide allows users to be interactive, suggesting photos they've discovered to the application's editorial staff for review and perhaps even publication within the application.

The "Find Artworks Nearby" feature allows users to find urban art nearby, get information about the works and artists and get directions from current location to the selected artwork of interest.

The application also has a "Tour Guide" feature which gives a selection of suggested urban art tours in Berlin.

Within the Gallery of the application, users can browse through some of Berlin's top pieces of urban art inside the application itself and learn more about its background and artist.

"Mobile is a perfect platform for urban art," Ms. Demmelhuber said. "Usually art does not happen at home, urban art happens on the street, on places or even in parks, and that is where it wants to be found and loved.

"Therefore we have developed the Urban Art Guide, which makes it possible for the user to locate himself and all artworks around him and guides the user there," she said.

"The Urban Art Guide is the gallery guide for the street because it has continuously updated information about artwork, artists and technique available anytime."

The application can be found in the Apple App store and is available for download to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Users can find a similar art guide experience online at http://www.urbanartguide.com, where Adidas did most of its promotion for the application.

"We believe that mobile Internet and smartphones are the most important sector," Ms. Demmelhuber said. "This sector is growing immensely in terms of end-device spreading and content.

"If one believes the prognosis we've been hearing about for mobile, it will turn out to be the most important and most widespread channel of communication for the future," she said. "The combination of mobility and communication fits young users especially."