das gud, ja?

shoooweee ... adidas have seriously shaken things up with their latest german campaign.  they've fully embraced all that is digital, and designed this crazy online, interactive world - to celebrate the launch of the german soccer team's world cup kit for next year.

 the star players have been virtually rendered into this graphic novel, where you, the viewer become an integral part of recreating the team's historic victories, by playing the various stages of a game.

north kingdom, the agency behind this masterpiece have layered this campaign with elements of augemented reality, an interactive story and community blog.

"but what's the story?" you may ask.

essentially, teamgeist is the story of a team that "loses" their identity when their uniforms dissolve into "blankness"; viewers are then challenged to help the team claim back their identity by revisiting their most celebrated victories in 1954, 1974 and 1990. it's an ingenious way of immersing fans in the history and national pride of the team - driving home the notion that the identity of the team and the patriotic design of their jersey's, are inseparable.

inside the game, players have been positioned as comic-book superhero's (which i assume would make any german soccer fan rather hot and horny).
but even i got stuck into chapter 1's match against hungary.  it's rather addictive, even if it's just out of sheer intrigue and admiration for the graphic execution.

check it out here (takes a smidgen longer than usual to load - but really is worth the wait)  adidas - teamgeist

it's a highly effective way of engaging fans (and random visitors, like myself) whilst adding fuel to the fire of excitement and anticipation for the 2010 world cup.

i wonder how bafana's teamgeist story would go. maybe instead of restoring their lost identity, you'd have to collect as many new coaches as you could within the remaining days to the world cup?

mainy zanks tu leza, zee cherman