PROBLEM

Adidas has plenty of what they call ‘lean in’ content with their football talent (short, sharp bursts of visual storytelling), but to promote 2019’s new boots, they wanted to get into the world of ‘lean back’ vlogging…using talent who are NOTORIOUS for wanting to get in and out of the camera frame as quickly as possible.

SOLUTION 

We put the power in the hands of the talent – in this case, Paulo Dybala. Despite having no idea about football, we undertook some intensive research to get under Dybala’s skin, before sending him a bespoke phone, lens and mic rig that would allow him to film his own authentic responses to the stories we’d uncovered (like, “why the gladiator mask?”). An intimate team then went off to film supporting content later on.

The result is a first for football – an unfettered view of the talent’s life, free of the usual polished media presentation. Directed by Dybala himself, no less.