Episode 55 - Adidas Beyond the Surface Ad Reviewed by Matterkind, Beiersdorf and Reckitt

This week’s episode is all about the new Adidas Women ad, “Beyond the Surface.” Chosen by our partners Contagious, the ad aims to bring inclusivity to the fore and tackles the idea that water and swimming are for everyone.

But does it actually do a good job of depicting everyone, every shape and size, every type of person? The monologue is very powerful, but is the concept all that original or have we seen it all before?

Standing in for Tom Ollerton this week is Amy Wright as panel host, joined by our guests: Seun Odeneye (Managing Director of Matterkind, UK & Ireland), Rhian Mainwaring (Senior Digital Manager at Beiersdorf) and Varun Agarwal (Head of Data & Analytics, South East Asia & Japan, at Reckitt).

Transcription

The following is an automated transcript of the file, which is not 100% accurate but will give you a good idea of what was discussed.

Amy Wright 0:08

Welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is the weekly marketing show where people in the industry talk about the work of other people in the industry. And you might have noticed that I am most definitely not Tom Ollerton. My name is Amy Wright, and I'm standing in for him this week as he gets a well deserved holiday. And this week's ad has been chosen again by our partner Contagious, but more about that in a minute. And then what I would love to do is quickly cut and introduce our guests for today. And so kicking off, here we go.

Seun Odeneye 0:39

I'm Seun Odeneye. I am the Managing Director of Matterkind, UK and Ireland.

Rhian Mainwaring 0:44

I am Rhian. I work at Beiersdorf. Currently on NIVEA. Head up search and D2C in the UK and Northern Europe.

Varun Agarwal 0:53

Hello, everyone! This is Varun. I'm sitting out of Singapore. I lead Data and Analytics, and some similar functions across Southeast Asia and Japan for Reckitt.

Amy Wright 1:03

This week, we are going to be talking about Adidas Women's new ad "Beyond the Surface." So, you can check out the film now.

Unknown Speaker 1:17

When I surrender to the water, my breath finds its rhythm, my body floats on the surface, the whole world goes silent around me. And I am not the only one.

Unknown Speaker 1:34

We are the women who embrace the waters. Immerse our entire bodies into the ocean, the waves glide over every inch of never inquiring about our shape, ethnicities, abilities, feats to determine if we are worthy. We are worthy diving headfirst into the deep end, sending out repose into the world so powerful. They invite all your come into contact with them to join in. Let your breath find its rhythm. It's time to surrender to the water.

Amy Wright 2:09

I think Rhian, it's only fair to kick off with you as the only other woman on panel today. So, what is your initial kind of thoughts, responses? And what was your first feelings when you saw the ad?

Rhian Mainwaring 2:19

It looks really cool. It sounds really cool. I think it's like a beautiful bit of spoken word to kind of poetry delivered amazingly. I think like my first reaction to it was that I've just seen this quite a lot, particularly like after lockdown. Like I've just seen the same kind of that spoken word. And over the top of it, which was, it's beautiful. Yeah, I just it felt like I'd kind of seen it before. At the end of it, I was kind of like, "Okay, is this a new launch? Like, is it a new swimwear launch? Is there a new kind of product details that we should be aware of?" There was just kind of no like call to action at the end of it. It was just kind of, you know, what is... What is this ad for, essentially? And when I looked at some of the research I'd been getting to it was about kind of feeling confident on a beach or not feeling kind of exposed. And so it kind of... I was thinking, you know, is it for athletes? Because they looked like they were training on their own. So with that I was just kind of, it was just a little bit jarring for me. I was like I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be getting out of this.

Seun Odeneye 3:18

I'll be really brutally honest. It was a bit like... That's kind of what came to mind when I first watched it. It was really well kind of put together and with regards to all inclusiveness. But yeah, it was only for women. It could have probably resonated with me more if there was men in it. I get it, it was an ad for women, and I'm just saying, didn't need to be. The poem, the monologue, powerful. Really powerful. It really kind of like resonated that all inclusive piece around the sea, the ocean. It is really there for everybody. And actually the fact that the ad had different types of women, showed that, illustrated that. So, I did like that. But I did struggle. I struggled, and I had a lot of unanswered questions. What was the connection?

Varun Agarwal 4:03

One is whenever I see an ad now and this is just the training of being in this profession. I go back to starting to think, "What was the brief given to the team and the agency and, and where has this connected to and where has this reached?" So I kind of got what they were trying to do. One of the things I checked out was I thought this was must have been 10 years ago. This seemed dated. A woman who is the target consumer looking at this would be like "Okay, this is interesting, but haven't I seen this again and again. And brands trying to talk to me again and again with the same ways?" So, it felt disconnected there off from that end.

Rhian Mainwaring 4:36

And it very much mentioned curves and body size and things like that. But actually, from what I could see in the ad like I don't think I saw anyone over a size 10 to 12, probably. So, so it kind of felt like they were talking about it but it wasn't represented in the ad that I saw.

Seun Odeneye 4:54

That's actually really good observation because I didn't actually noticed that. I heard, I heard it the poem. I thought, "Okay, I like, I love that." I love the fact that it faded, it's really for every curve. But yeah, you're not really, put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, right? I guess to counter that they did, they did do it with every belief. So I thought the first lady had a head covering. And I thought that was quite cool, because it showed her, "Okay, they are accommodating." But you're right. I think, and I think sometimes it's difficult when you are trying to be all inclusive, to make sure you tick every category.

Varun Agarwal 5:25

In the world I live in, we do have a product shot at the end. But I do understand the need of not having it. But are we new? Are we exclusive? Are we different? Zilch, zero.

Amy Wright 5:35

How would you have approached this campaign? You know, what are the kind of things would you be bringing into the universe for it?

Rhian Mainwaring 5:40

I think the problem is like doing this kind of piece where it's like this broader initiative to get women into sport, what's the actual purpose of it? Like, because I think there's a lot of research and a lovely brief put into it. But I still like you said, there's that slight disconnect.

Seun Odeneye 5:53

I think if it wasn't in isolation, and they had a series of content that they're really affiliate themselves with, I think that changes the game, right?

Amy Wright 6:02

What would you be doing from it? A media and placement kind of perspective.

Rhian Mainwaring 6:06

Yeah, I mean, I actually like, just did a quick Google search and actually had some, like, really beautiful campaign materials that went with it. And it actually really sat more as I kind of 2D, digital creative. I could see like, some really nice, like you say, sort of social ads. And for me, I just I didn't know who any of the people were within that ad. Might be very, very different in sort of UAE. The Olympics are on right now. So, it's so like, timely. Which is why when I watched it, I was like, "Is this professional sports people?" Because of the way, they it looked like they were training. It wasn't people just like having fun. So yeah, it's kind of like, and maybe that's because of the context of the Olympics, that I kind of viewed it that way. So it's kind of interesting to wonder whether other people would be like, "Oh, that's professional sports people. That's not necessarily for me."

Amy Wright 6:50

Are we in a reality here where no consumer is going to be googling like we will, so do you think that's a bit of a fail on that front?

Seun Odeneye 6:56

Yeah, I think so. I think, I say, you know, how will this resonate with a normal person? How would that resonate with my mom? My sister? Actually, when you take that step back, you've start making changes, right? You've created a quite phenomenal, creative piece, which is quite powerful in itself. But although it's powerful, in my mind, it didn't really answer the brief. It didn't tell us what it needed to tell us.

Amy Wright 7:20

Does this show the rise of kind of the different markets and to show that we can be players in different places as well?

Varun Agarwal 7:25

Barriers generally are the same across the board. I can stand, if you look at the ad as well, when I saw the ad, I was transported back to India as well. The barrier is exactly the same. Women do not go actively into swimming, swimming sports, because there's a barrier of what they wear, and what how they perceived when they wear that. So, and you could see that, to be true across multiple developing markets across the world. And so, the content, the content pleads, truly across the world. So I think that's a great, great space where I think stories now become borderless, because barriers remain similar across the world.

Seun Odeneye 8:04

If you want to make a global campaign, you want it to reach everybody, you really got to ask yourself question is, "Is everybody represented?" And then everyone wasn't represented. And I think, don't get me wrong, there was, there was a decent variety, but everyone wasn't represented. So I just think you've got to take that into account as well.

Varun Agarwal 8:24

Sometimes you, if you wanted to represent everybody spread it too far and wide and therefore don't have a voice anymore. So you have to be choiceful when building ads for region I think I did I still don't understand the concept of was it built for the world? Or was it built for UAE, but if it's built for UAE, I think it works. But if you start talking about everybody, it becomes too thin. The messenger, messenges dissipates into thin air.

Rhian Mainwaring 8:51

In UAE, it would make sense. So I'm saying like, "Why are people on their own? Why are they in kind of, like different situations?" Or what I would understand... So yeah, it really will resonate in the UAE but then maybe like, again, my, my eye is like, that doesn't really make sense to me. So yeah, exactly what you're saying is that, yeah, it won't necessarily translate because there'll be little, maybe cultural gaps that you don't understand.

Amy Wright 9:30

Just to wrap this up, we're going to ask you to give the film and your experience of it a kind of mark out of five. So on the count of three, I would love you all to hold up your hand and give us your mark. So, one, two, three... We got some threes, got some twos. Punchy panel today, I like it. So, thank you, everyone for watching Advertisers Watching Ads this week. I've been Amy Wright and fabulous panel have taken us through the Adidas "Beyond the Surface" campaign. And we will catch up with you next week.

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