With an estimated 500,000 people visiting Las Vegas for NBA All-Star Week 2007, sports footwear and accessories company Adidas needed to figure out a way to get people who are constantly on the move in a city that doesn't sleep to interact with the brand.

Adidas wanted to leverage its partnership with the NBA to impact brand awareness and build a deeper relationship with customers. Adidas came to advertising agency Isobar to build an interactive mobile marketing campaign, with the help of Neighborhood America for mobile messaging.

"Ultimately we were trying to create a mobile social network and community of passionate fans of the NBA," said Dan Miller, executive vice president of Neighborhood America.

"Adidas needed to be able to interact with this and they used traditional media like billboards, hotel signage and taxi cab tops with the Adidas logo and a mobile call-to-action, asking consumers to send a text to Adidas' short code," he said.

"By doing so you were opting into this community for information, special invitations, Adidas wallpapers and invitations to VIP events. The best part is those who opted in now serve as a database of NBA fans that Adidas can target with special promotions in the future."

Not only did mobile help Adidas extend the reach of its brand, but the mobile channel allowed for a customer-centric program providing consumers the opportunity to keep up-to-date on NBA All-Star Week special events.

The campaign also drove in-store traffic and increased revenue at Adidas' Sport Performance Store 20 times above sales recorded on an average day, it was claimed.

Also, within 20 minutes of distributing a mobile alert regarding a limited-edition shoe, a mob of people is said to have appeared outside the store to buy the product.

Lastly, through the mobile effort, Adidas built a mobile community of brand enthusiasts that it could easily re-engage to participate in future campaigns.

"If you think about it, this is a destination, an event, and Adidas needed to reach people in an interactive way as they are walking around Las Vegas," Mr. Miller said.

"These people are not in front of the computer and the only way to connect to people in an immediate, personalized, ubiquitous way is via mobile," he said.