Telfair, Billups and Arenas Launch adidas Gameday Lightning
December 2, 2004
adidas continues its relentless pursuit of becoming the leader in innovative basketball footwear and marketing with the launch of one of the industry's lightest basketball shoes, the adidas Gameday Lightning (GDL). Supporting the launch of the GDL will be the third of four groundbreaking advertising campaigns.
In a new design with a minimalistic, lightweight approach, the adidas Gameday Lightning brings the art of creativity to the court. Its streamlined design omits unneeded materials without compromising performance; leading to a fairly consistent reaction, "wow." The GDL is scheduled to hit the market December 15 for $75.00 in 15 different colors; twelve are available at a variety of retail locations with the remaining three limited edition versions exclusively available at
www.adidas.com/basketball.
The adidas Gameday Lightning is already being worn by a variety of the NBA's most creative, quick and exciting point guards.
The print campaign, "Circus of the Guards" will feature Detroit Piston Chauncey Billups as the "Ringmaster," Washington Wizard Gilbert Arenas as "The Aerial Magician" and
Portland Trail Blazer Sebastian Telfair as the "Coney Island Express." "Circus of the Guards" can be found in a variety of magazines (Complex, DIME, ESPN the Magazine, NBA Inside Stuff, School Sports, SLAM and XXL) starting with December issues.
"There aren't a lot of breakthrough creative ideas in basketball communication these days", stated Chris Kyle, adidas Global Marketing Manager. "We're working hard to change that with each campaign we launch; beginning with 'Carry' (The Garnett campaign), then 'Unstoppable' (The T-MAC 4 campaign) and once again with 'Circus of the Guards'/'Improvisation.' This print campaign is about finding a unique and fun way of celebrating the creativity that Billups, Arenas and Telfair all exhibit nightly. It's about the talent and style that makes these point guards some of the most exciting players in the game."
The television execution (
"Improvisation") centers on the way Chauncey Billiups demonstrates creativity as he faces a very familiar adversary, the Court. In 'Improvisation', the court has a personality of its own that Billups discovers quickly. The Court will throw a number of obstacles at him, forcing Billups to think on his feet and use his skill to overcome everything that comes at him.
After a number of difficult challenges Billups will overcome the Court's every attempt to stop him. "Improvisation" will begin airing December 13th on BET, The Comedy Channel, ESPN, Fox, MTV and WB.
