How Adidas got 250m organic views on a CGI billboard celebrating Messi’s World Cup win

After Argentina won the World Cup, a grainy six-second, unbranded video of an incredible out-of-home ad in Dubai did the rounds on social. The clip, complete with choppy audio, gave the impression a member of the public had shot the impossibly huge full-motion 3D billboard. It showed the ‘Impossible Rondo’ video, bringing together different World Cup editions of Messi from 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 into one collage.

But all wasn’t as it appeared.

The video showed the Dubai Frame, a 150-meter-high concrete frame. It’s a monument, not an advertising installation. And certainly not one with a screen capable of 3D motion graphics. Furthermore, that six-second clip turned out to be the furthest thing from a fan video. In the name of authenticity, Adidas Mena (Middle East and North Africa) adopted a degree of deception to create a larger-than-life media moment worthy of Messi’s mythos.

The short video came from Adidas itself. Its authentic approach generated 100m organic views within two days, plateauing at 160m views and 12.5m engagements across Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter.

Read the Drum's article to know how it all came to life.