This was my first work for Adidas, as writer and creative director. There are so many stories I want to tell about the experience of launching the new jersey on a video instead of the traditional pr events Adidas was used to doing… and maybe I’ll tell you all about it in person. Stories like the fact that this was the first real viral video of a brand on youtube in Brazil, and we didn’t even have to pay anybody to help spread it, as if we had discovered the secret of making a video go viral. Nike wasn’t happy about it and decided to do the same, except they ended up spending a ton of money to get the same results. This video was posted on youtube as teaser to a possible misplacing of the uniform the team was supposed to wear the next day. The fans were invited to participate in an online game that used Google Maps as the board where participants had to play detective to find out who had taken the Palmeiras uniforms, how they did it, and why. The first three hundred fans who discovered the right answers would win limited edition Adidas products, including the new Palmeiras jersey. Ask me more stories about this, please.

Palmeiras is known in São Paulo by its signature green uniforms and for being the team of choice of almost all Italian descendants in Brazil. So when adidas decided to launch a blue jersey for the team, we knew there was a big chance fans would reject it.

This was a lot of fun writing and directing the creative idea for the campaign. We came up with a tale to explain the reason for the new color. The video tells the story of how Palmeiras was founded, that their players came from a long line of warriors that fought for the honor of the royal family or the “Casa Azzurra”, in Italy. Casa Azzurra, which literally means blue house, has also inspired the italian national team, with their blue jerseys. So when the video went viral, this discussion started to take place, where fans debated about the truth behind the story in the video, with many of them confirming it to be true

After working on two consecutive campaigns for adidas, as writer and creative director, I was invited to work on the 2010 presidential campaign in Brazil, and I think I got a little too patriotic to take that job. Fortunately, adidas wasn’t so happy I left and invited me to participate on the pitch for their account for the 2011 campaign. So I called a few friends and together we pitched against 4 other agencies, TBWA was one of them, and they had adidas media buy. To make a fun story short, we won the pitch and I got to work again as writer and creative director, launching another iconic adidas jersey.

This time, adidas was inspired by the 1951 team, a team considered the first world champions in the history of soccer and even today is celebrated by all Palmeiras fans. One of the players, Oberdan Cattani, who was the goalie back in 1951, took part in the film. This film went viral on youtube.