Adidas is confident that the European football championships, to be held in Austria and Switzerland in 2008, will help the brand to surpass the record level of €1.2 billion it attained in football products in 2006 thanks to the World Cup, said Herbert Hainer, Adidas’ chief executive. At a series of presentations in Vienna and Zurich, he also said that football sales should stabilize above the €1 billion mark for 2007.
The Three Stripes already claim strong football market leadership in both Austria and Switzerland, with respective shares of 40 percent and 47 percent, according to NPD Sports Tracking Europe and GfK. Adidas quotes the same sources to indicate that the 2006 World Cup enabled it to consolidate its leading European market share in football, from 36 percent in 2005 to 38 percent in 2006.
At the 2008 European championships Adidas will not be outfitting either of the host teams, which will both don Puma shirts, but it still stands to benefit from its position as official sponsor, licensee and supplier of the tournament, including rights to supply the match ball. Along the same lines as the spectacular investments made for the 2006 World Cup, Adidas will launch a large-scale advertising campaign for the European championships, and set up dedicated Euro 2008 outlets for its latest football products. Reebok will have a much smaller presence on the pitch, but for the first time its product ranges will be prominently sold by Intersport.
