The pandemic has been particularly tough on European grassroots football. Authorities, federations, and charities have had far less to invest and research has found that a shocking number of grassroots clubs will not survive without support.

Grassroots clubs are more than places to play, they are support systems for their local communities, changing people’s lives for the better through the power of a football family.

So adidas partnered with UEFA Champions League/UEFA Women’s Champions League to offer European football teams a vital lift.

As part of a wider support programme, teams were given the chance to gain €1,000 to further their community causes and help their clubs thrive.

After receiving just under 1,500 applications, the Collective selected a shortlist of 100 winning teams, each with impactful community projects ranging from organizing school workshops to tackle discrimination in France to tournaments for refugee children in Spain.

Commenting on the grassroots support programme, adidas Football Collective ambassador Jürgen Klopp said, “The grassroots game means everything. For many, it’s their first experience of the game. And for top tier players it’s an important stepping stone to the pro game. More importantly, it’s about building communities and confidence, which is why I can’t praise or thank the grassroots teams on our list enough.”

As the lead creative agency on this effort, tms (formerly The Marketing Store) was proud to play our part in supporting the adidas Football Collective on this important effort, including partnering with COPA90 to bring campaign content to life.

“When adidas and the elite game has the opportunity to empower and touch the lives of people on the ground, it is a beautiful leveller and lights up hope in everyone that an equal game and equal world is possible,” said Vanessa Tucker, Creative Director at tms (formerly The Marketing Store).

Watch the grassroots documentary here, created in partnership with COPA90 and discover the 100 winners here.

This World Refugee Day, 20th June 2022, adidas with the help London-based specialist sports-memorabilia auctioneer, Graham Budd Auctions, will auction the 2022 UEFA Champions League final 2022 kick-off match ball. All proceeds of the sale will go to The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 

The UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.

Available to bidders from across the globe, the unique, single item auction for the ball will take place live at 2pm BST on World Refugee Day – 20th June 2022, with Graham Budd Auctions accepting bids starting at £15,000 in the lead-up via http://grahambuddauctions.co.uk/uclfinalball. 

A donation page was set up for viewers and bidders to support the cause even if they do not participate or win.

tms (formerly The Marketing Store) are proud to have played a role in bringing this important campaign to life through strategic content and comms planning for adidas and UEFA social channels and working in partnership with the UN and the Graham Budd on their comms rollout and donations site. Alongside playing an active role as an intermediary for adidas, UEFA, The United Nations Refugee Agency, and Graham Budd Auctions.

Using one of sport’s biggest stages as an opportunity to unite the world in a global message of peace, the ball – inscribed with the words ‘мир | PEACE’ – was not made available for retail and was used only during the match in Paris between Liverpool and Real Madrid on May 28th, 2022.

Placed on the ball in bold lettering as a statement from UEFA, ‘мир’ in Cyrillic script can be translated as ‘peace’, which sits above the word in English – PEACE. The ball was designed to carry a simple message of peace, belonging, and hope that was passed from player to player with every kick of the ball from the Stade de France to the furthest corners of the world. The broader design of the ball is noticeably devoid of color, featuring pure white panels to symbolize truce and unity.

The official kick-off match ball was handed over to adidas to put up for auction courtesy of UEFA and the UEFA Foundation for Children.

Gonzalo Calvo, Global Director Of Brand Communications, Communities and Culture at adidas said, “Since it began, the love of the game has brought people from all over the world together through one simple object – a football. Now, we look to turn this unity into action in order to support a cause that needs urgent attention. With the UEFA Champions League Final Official Match Ball not made available for retail, the Kick Off ball presents a unique opportunity to own a small piece of sporting history, and to help those suffering across the globe.”

Urs Kluser, UEFA Foundation for Children said, “We are proud to be able to support such a worthy cause with the auction of an iconic piece of sporting history, and hope that its proceeds help make an impact to some of the lives that have been affected by conflict and persecution.”

Andy Taylor, Chief Creative Officer, Global Portfolio, tms (formerly The Marketing Store) said, “This campaign has been a true pleasure to work on and an amazing opportunity to show that human value is worth more than commercial gain. With millions and millions of people displaced around the world, we hope this one ball will not only pass a message of peace, but also make a physical difference to many people who are affected by conflict”

On the 27th of March, Manchester United Women played their first match at Old Trafford Stadium, beating Everton Women 3-1 in the Women’s Super League.

To mark this historical moment, we collaborated with adidas and Manchester United Women to showcase their debut match at Old Trafford and celebrate the launch of Predator Edge. We captured the team with a custom-made Predator Edge Throne set at the heart of the stadium — the content was proudly featured on a screen on the side of the venue for the public and supporters to see.

Fergus Small, Account Director at tms (formerly The Marketing Store), said, “We are proud to be involved in the movement that advocates for more inclusivity in football and look forward to more opportunities to partner with adidas and Manchester United Women.”

Marc Skinner, Manchester United’s Head Coach, said, “It’s a really exciting opportunity and another fantastic milestone for this team to play at Old Trafford in front of thousands of fans.”

Over 20,000 supporters gathered to witness the monumental event in women’s football. Although the team had previously played at Old Trafford in 2021 against West Ham, the game was behind closed doors due to COVID-19 restrictions.

For many years now, mainstream culture has adopted and appropriated the practices, rituals, beliefs, artifacts and language of Black and Asian communities.

From bindis at festivals to Gucci turbans on the catwalk, white models sporting faux braids on Instagram, to the popularisation of clothes, jewellery and tattoos featuring cultural iconography, brands have been quick to spin a profit from the cultural ‘cool.’

But they’ve also been slow to give back. tms’s (formerly The Marketing Store’s) If Not Now, When? Report found that 86% of Black consumers and 71% of Asian consumers feel that their culture is exploited for profit, compared to just 46% of white consumers.

By creating a pool of products and services with just enough cultural ‘flare’ palatable for a white audience, whilst completely marginalising the originators, brands are exploiting not just the communities that birthed these ‘trends’, but also their own position within the cultural zeitgeist. A position that is increasingly under threat.

In the 80s and 90s, brands were responsible for curating—even dictating—the cultural cool. Now, in an age of cancel culture and performative activism, the zeitgeist has become a tightrope brands must tread with increasing care, whilst simultaneously playing catch up to trends already established by online communities. The stakes are high for those who step out of line. Just look at the backlash against Pretty Little Thing; a brand that has long commoditised Black fashion and culture for a predominantly white consumer base, when they posted a poorly designed Black Lives Matter Instagram post without making any form of donation.

At The Marketing Store, we work hard to elevate and protect the cultural legitimacy and relevancy of our clients’ brands. We do this by creating an exchange between ourselves (brand-agency) and the community we’re targeting.

To do this, we must start to think of our brands or agencies as communities in their own right—a hub of people, resources, skills and opportunities.. More often than not, our audiences tell us they don’t just want free trainers or discounts on your clothes, they want access to your brand. They want long- term investment into their culture, to connect with experts, and they want opportunities to create and learn.

By reframing our thinking in this way, we set the foundation for a fair exchange between our brand’s community and that of our intended audience.

Here are three principles we believe brands should follow if they want to create ethical and equitable cultural exchange:

Represent them

At The Marketing Store, our rule is: at every stage of the creative process—from insight, to creative to production—we partner with our audience. This means, as we develop a campaign, we’re better positioned to catch any cultural faux-pas before the work leaves the door. It also allows us to create equity within our own industry. From day one, we’re engaging with our intended audience from a place of shared experience and opportunity.

Understand them

Quantitative surveys only tell you so much. When faced with a new brief, take the time to have face-to-face (or Zoom, thanks COVID) conversations with your intended audience, in their communities and in their homes. Get to know them, and their networks. Speak to their family and friends. The key to building an exchange lies in understanding what they want and need from you. For our award-winning adidas GLITCH campaign, we did exactly this. Playing Xbox with our audience in their homes to creating bespoke content with them to making them the stars of the campaign. By involving them in the process from the beginning, we collaborated to create something that felt authentic and credible to the masses, and empowering to them.

Elevate them

Once you’ve identified what they want, focus on building in an exchange that has roots—something that can grow over time. Make it clear the short-term and long-term opportunities partnering with your brand will offer them, and explore a way to make them concrete. When we launched the adidas Football Collective, we ensured every individual featured in the launch film would have a long-term partnership with the brand. For some, this means future investments into refurbishing their community facilities, for others this will be training opportunities with our roster of football clubs and giving their community access to products. This is a fundamental principle for the way the adidas Football Collective chooses to behave, and we – and the client – ensure everyone delivers on this.

This article originally appeared in Little Black Book.

“Sport has the power to change lives. Football can do more and has to do more.”

Today, we are excited to announce the launch of the #adidasFootballCollective, a grassroots community initiative that has been a year in the making from tms (formerly The Marketing Store) and global adidas Football team.

This is adidas Football’s vision for a better world—a new movement committed to creating change through football and empowering individuals, teams, and communities around the globe.

It represents adidas’ commitment to opening up the game to everyone, through long-term investments into football facilities and communities, and will see the brand launch a number of initiatives over the coming years, together with its football partners.

The launch film tells the stories of those who have already seen football change their lives for the better and was produced by Sunshine Agency with Some Such films, featuring stories from Paris, London, Tokyo and North America.