adidas and deviantART: Celebrate Originality

May 10, 2009 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: News, Social Media

While partnering and running major brand contests is nothing new for deviantART, they have crossed into a new social media interactivity zone with their newest collaboration with adidas.  Dubbed as the “Celebrate Originality” campaign, adidas and deviantART have created an online fingerpainting contest that seeks to engage (and presumably draw in even more) deviantART members in a competition to create and submit original art using the worldwide know adidas ‘three stripes’.  With a user base of over 9 million members, attracting some 26 million unique views per month, there certainly isn’t a lack of talent and/or usership at deviantART.

Promoting the 60th anniversary of adidas, the contest is seeking out the most original, stylish, and celebratory entry.  Contestants can use almost limitless forms of media for their entry: traditional, digital, sculpture, photography, etc.  Instead of having the general public have to come to deviantART to view the entries, here’s where things get interesting: artists can now use an embeddable widget that can be placed anywhere on the internet (think facebook, wordpress blogs, etc.).

Naturally, adidas is not only helping to showcase the talent of entry artists, but build a nice bit of self promotion (like this article, for example) through the powerful effect of social networking and embeddable tools.

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.”

Sadly, open only to residents of the United States, the adidas Originals FingerPainting Contest grand prize winner will be flown to New York to view their artwork showcased at the adidas Originals store located in SoHo.  If that wasn’t enough, the winner will also receive a $2,500 Amex gift card, a $400 adidas gift card, an Online exhibition and artist bio on the adidas Originals Facebook page, a painting made in the commercial by the band The Ting Tings, and boatload of deviantART swag.  All entries must be submitted by 11:59:59 PM (PT) on May 15, 2009

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.”