They called it a content gap. It wasn't.

Reframing a content problem as a system design problem.

My role

I led the creative strategy and brand partnerships on this work, defining how adidas showed up inside a culture-first platform.

Role
Head of Creative Strategy & Brand Partnerships
Company
COLORSxSTUDIOS
Client
adidas Originals
Year
2023
Outcome · What the numbers signaled
7.4M
Organic reach across platform
52%+
Penetration in 18 – 24
20%+
Brand lift across campaign
Context · The brief as given

A meaning problem, framed as a content problem.

Gen Z decides credibility in seconds. adidas needed to be embedded in their lives, not parked in their feeds.

The brief pointed at awareness. Campaign-by-campaign thinking was generating spikes and nothing in between. What the incoming assignment described as a content gap was, on closer read, something else entirely.

Reframe · What the real problem was
The brief said
"We need more awareness. Make the campaign bigger."
The real problem
adidas was behaving like a publisher in a world that rewards platforms. The fix wasn't louder. The fix was infrastructure.

Culture runs on trust built in the spaces between campaigns. The brands that accumulate real standing are the ones that show up consistently, carrying the right people, and knowing when to step back.

COLORSxSTUDIOS was the right carrier, a platform with earned credibility across exactly the audience adidas needed to reach. The structural move was to let COLORS lead, let the artists carry the narrative, and design adidas' role as infrastructure rather than foreground.

Key decisions
01
Reframed the brief from awareness to system design.
I restructured the engagement as a platform with three expressions. This could not be a campaign with three executions.
Shifted from campaign logic to platform logic
02
Shaped the artist selection criteria around identity alignment, not reach.
I shaped the artist selection criteria around identity alignment, not reach. Berwyn, Amili, Saint Levant, and Varnish La Piscine were the right artists because their audiences were the audience adidas needed, and their credibility was what would give adidas access to the right customer. The content had to feel like it belonged to the artists first and to adidas second.
Borrowed credibility through alignment, not placement
03
Led the design of a three-surface platform, not three executions.
I led the design of the partnership across digital, London, and Paris, with each surface doing a different job in the same cultural arc. Not three executions of one idea. Three expressions of one system.
Continuity across formats without repeating the same beat
04
Made participation the conversion metric.
I designed every surface around active participation rather than passive consumption. The London event at Abbey Road was built to feel like access. Paris was a physical space designed around contribution. Digital assets were native to both platforms and made to feel organic.
Increase in adiclub registrations · Increase in audience participation average
Work · Three surfaces

Digital, London, Paris.
Same system, different job.

Surface 01 · Digital · Artist-led assets

The launches across COLORS and adidas channels were built to feel native to each platform and true to the consumer.

Surface 02 · London · Abbey Road Studios

An experiential workshop and jam session designed to feel like access, not advertising. The largest audience AR Studios had ever hosted.

Surface 03 · Paris · La Maison de Conversation

Dance sessions, live performance, DJ. A physical space designed around contribution rather than observation.

Observation · What it taught me

The audience moved from passive attention to active participation. We saw this in a huge spike in sign-ups to adiclub and through social engagement.

They did more than watch. They joined. We found an increased penetration in audiences aged 18 – 24. The platform reached the audience with the longest compounding horizon. These are people who let the brand into their cultural attention.

Brand lift and organic reach came from building something worth being part of. That distinction is the whole game.

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