The adidas Reverse Retro program is a NHL-wide alternative jersey release where adidas pulls design inspiration from each teams past and remixes it to create something new.
Partnering with adidas, we launched the very first Reverse Retro program in 2020 which became the most talked about jersey launch in history through our ability to attract and excite fans from each NHL team.
Riding on this energy, adidas tapped us again to launch the sequel in 2022 with one primary goal in mind - make it even bigger.
With the highly successful 2020 Reverse Retro launch as proof that teams could trust us to attract their traditional hockey fan, a new opportunity opened up which allowed us to position our 2022 Reverse Retro launch to align with adidas overall goal of progressing the NHL by enhancing the culture of the sport.
2022 Reverse Retro Campaign Goals:
Create the most talked about jersey launch in history by beating out our 2020 launch.
Grow the number one incremental revenue driver of the adidas x NHL partnership.
Establish a league-wide campaign plan from tease through sell out that builds on the adidas Reverse Retro excitement and continues to progress the NHL by enhancing the culture of the sport.
Understanding that the success of our 2020 Reverse Retro launch weighed solely on reaching the traditional hockey fan, to go bigger in 2022 we needed to find an avenue where we could also reach those interested in sports culture but may not consider themselves traditional hockey fans.
In addition, we also needed to understand where hockey’s latest rise in popularity was coming from to ensure that our work would connect with hockey’s newest fans.
To our luck, they were one and the same. Based on research, we found that 60% of hockey’s rise in popularity was coming from those that don’t consider themselves a fan.
Meaning the success of our campaign relied on uncovering the connection between traditional fans and those that embody sports culture.
Which can be summed up in a single word - Pride.
Wearing a jersey is the pinnacle representation of showing the pride you have for a player, a team or a town. You may not know what 6 years the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, but you do know that red and black are the colors of your city.
Our campaign needed to transcend traditional hockey culture and tap into the magnetic energy that binds teams, fans and towns together.
Our next challenge was how to earn national media attention with zero media dollars while supporting all 32 teams. Each team wants localized outreach, adidas and the NHL want a unified campaign.
And therein lies our solution.
By orchestrating a timed localized release across all 32 teams in 32 different cities, on top of adidas and the NHL’s national release as well as leaning into their earned media partnerships we could create the most impactful jersey launch of all-time.
Within our creative direction, individual team colors ignited each city from a local level while the celebration of color in sport connected the campaign at a national level creating a unified movement that broke through to become the most talked about Jersey launch in history.
Reverse Retro 2022 took over the noise.
By orchestrating a timed release of over 200 localized but unified pieces of content across 32 teams in 32 cities alongside adidas and the NHL’s national release, Reverse Retro became the #2 trending hashtag in the U.S. and #1 in Canada rocketing hockey into mainstream sports culture.
Objective #1: Create the most talked about jersey launch in history.
KPI’s
245 POSTS
1111.8M REACH
3.1M INTERACTIONS
50,332 MENTIONS
#1 TRENDING hashtag in Canada
#2 TRENDING hashtag in U.S.
Objective #2: Grow the number one incremental revenue driver of the adidas x NHL partnership.
Doubled the size of the Reverse Retro program from year one to year two.
Objective #3: Establish a league-wide campaign plan from tease through sell out that builds on the adidas Reverse Retro excitement and continues to progress the NHL by enhancing the culture of the sport.
We created and built 33 individual toolkits for each team, adidas and the NHL to implement within a strategically timed cadence throughout their various marketing channels including social media, OOH, e-comm, and in-store retail. In addition, we incentivized earned media and influencer outreach by producing localized seeding kits.
The team content, on instagram alone, in just two days, delivered 11 million impressions and 2.3 million engagements from fans. On launch day #reverseretro was Twitter’s #1 trending hashtag in Canada and #2 in USA. For many teams, our launch campaign content engaged fans up to 8x more than their average content.
Our seeding kits incentivized 50 influencers to post creating 88 pieces of unique content resulting in:
2.2 MILLION IMPRESSIONS
15 MILLION POTENTIAL REACH
161K ENGAGEMENTS
