May 2009
adidas Originals and deviantART have partnered in a social media integration celebrating the adidas Originals "Celebrate Originality" campaign.
adidas and deviantART have put together an online Fingerpainting Contest that engages the millions of deviantART members in a competition to create and submit art using the iconic adidas Originals "three stripes" trefoil logo.
The campaign, which promotes the 60th anniversary of adidas, emphasizes originality, celebration, and style. Artists from all mediums - traditional, digital, sculpture, photography - are invited to participate and express their interpretation of the fingerpainting theme.
Entries to the contest are available to be streamed through an embeddable widget that can be placed anywhere on the Internet.
By tying in to the young, emerging artists at deviantART, adidas Originals is not only helping to showcase their talent, but is also building on the powerful viral effect of social networking and embeddable tools.
DeviantART.com is the largest community of artists ever assembled, with over 9 million members and attracting over 26 million unique visitors per month.
Artists on deviantART participate in a vibrant social network environment submitting over 100,000 daily uploads of original works of art ranging from traditional media, such as painting and sculpture, to digital art, pixel art, films and anime.
Angelo Sotira, CEO of deviantART, said: "We love that adidas Originals picked us for this project."
"We are really excited that they understand the art community, how vibrant it can be for their branding as well as the impact of marketing in social media."
The adidas Originals Fingerpainting Contest is open to registered members of deviantART residing in the United States.
The grand prize winner will be flown to New York to see his or her work showcased at the adidas Originals store in SoHo. No fee is required to be a member of deviantART or to submit an entry.
Simon Atkins, Head of Sport Style Division, adidas America said: "Our Originals store is in SoHo at the epicenter of the art community in New York and so it made perfect sense for us to work with deviantART."
"We really believe in leveraging the viral and network effects of social media advertising. This is another example of how adidas Originals plans to connect with our fans, now and in the future."
DeviantART has worked with other major clients with similar integrations including auto, beverage, movies, games and high tech companies.
The adidas Originals campaign, however, is the first to use an embeddable widget, streaming content off of the deviantART site.
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