Fast Or Fail
- Brand
- Messi
- Year
- 2014
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Racing & Sports
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Iris Worldwide
- With
- Monks
Objective
With Lionel Messi's adizero f50 boot and Team Messi collection launching roughly 100 days before the 2014 World Cup, adidas needed a hook to turn fan chatter about its star player into visible social buzz — and a reason to bring that audience back to the brand's own channels.
Solution
Fast or Fail opens on a low-poly running track: you're Messi in his adizero f50s, sprinting toward Rio de Janeiro across five levels, dodging faceless defenders, laying off passes and firing shots on goal. A buzz-meter on screen tracks how much the internet is talking about Messi right now — live #TeamMessi mentions and tweets pour speed into your run, so the faster you want to go, the more you post and the more you get others posting too. Controls are just the arrow keys on desktop or touch on mobile, and each run ends with a clock time; the quickest times entered players into a draw for a trip to the World Cup and match tickets.
Results
Over 1 million minutes played across 250,000+ completed sessions and 400,000+ players. The campaign drove 14,000 Messi mentions and 50,000 shares on social media, reaching 80 million total impressions — including 12 million post impressions on Team Messi's Facebook page and 1.8 million views on the promotional video.
- 1
Players reach the game at adidas.com/fastorfail and it opens straight in the browser on desktop or mobile, with no app to install.
- 2
An intro screen sets the goal: guide Messi across a low-poly world to Rio de Janeiro in the fastest possible time, with top times entering a draw for a flight to Brazil and World Cup 2014 match tickets.
- 3
The run itself is an endless-runner: Messi, wearing the adiZero f50 boots, sprints forward automatically through a polygonal, low-poly world while the player steers him (arrow keys on desktop) to dodge faceless mannequin defenders and keep the ball and his speed.
- 4
Beyond dodging, the player can pass, sprint, and shoot, using these moves to get Messi through five levels of the world on the way to Rio.
- 5
Along the route, the player collects energy from crowds in the stands, which boosts Messi's running speed.
- 6
An on-screen buzz-meter tracks, in real time, how much people are currently posting about Messi on social media (including #TeamMessi tweets); the higher the buzz, the faster Messi runs and the more the game's speed, music, and colors intensify.
- 7
The game explicitly invites the player to affect their own run from outside it, by posting about Messi and sharing the game to drive up the buzz and, with it, Messi's speed.
- 8
Each run ends on arrival in Rio de Janeiro, where the finishing time is recorded and compared against other players' times, with the fastest in contention for World Cup 2014 prizes; the player can replay to improve their time.
