Nike dominated the quarter-finals of the Euro 2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland as sponsor of the majority of the national teams competing at that stage of the tournament, but Adidas will have the last say, sponsoring the two finalists, Germany and Spain, in the final match this weekend.
Earlier this month, as the Euro 2008 football championships moved into the final rounds, Adidas said that it would significantly exceed sales of €1.2 billion for football products this year. This represents a double-digit sales increase compared with 2006, when Adidas reveled in the excitement of the World Cup, held in Germany. Compared with 2004, when the European football championships were last held, Adidas has lifted its football sales by about 50 percent, says Herbert Hainer, the company’s chief executive.
The Three Stripes had set a target for this year of 1 million jerseys of the German national team, which has already been reached. Adidas should easily reach a target of 1.5 million jerseys from all of the football teams sponsored by the brand. Furthermore, the company could confirm that it would sell more than 6 million balls of all sizes this year.
Adidas says it reaffirmed its market leadership in European football, with NPD placing its market share in functional football shoes at 40 percent in the five largest European markets in 2007. This amounted to a substantially larger share than a combination of the next two brands, Nike and Puma, which had respective shares of 28.9 percent and 7.7 percent.
Adidas, Nike and Puma each sponsored five teams at the European championships, leaving just one to Umbro. Although Adidas’ marketing budget was significantly lower than at the World Cup, it still came up with spectacular displays such as a 42-meter-high cut-out of Petr Cech, the Czech goalkeeper, with eight arms forming the structure of a Ferris wheel. As official sponsor, licensee and supplier of UEFA, the organization that governs European football, Adidas also had its own activities in Austrian and Swiss fan parks.
The events unfolding on the pitches were most favorable to Nike, as the Adidas-clad French team underperformed while the Nike-sponsored Dutch dazzled. Puma was well-positioned to take advantage of the competition as well, as its five teams included the reigning world champions, Italy, as well as the two host nations, Switzerland and Austria. Puma set up its own fan activities, such as an open terrace in the Volksgarten in Vienna offering free viewing, music and cool surroundings to fans of all stripes.
However, they were somewhat affected by the weakness of popular enthusiasm in the host cities, as well as some odd behavior by the authorities. For example, Puma had brought along "ice bicycles," with red freezer units and the Puma logo at the front, to hand out ice cream to fans around the town. But just a few days before the opening of the tournament, they were told that the ice cream distribution could not go ahead. Puma was left with a truck full of ice cream and a park of idle bicycles – minus two that were impounded by zealous Viennese police.
