Fast or Fail
Open the game- Brand
- Messi
- Year
- 2014
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Sports
- Mechanic
- Platformer
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- iris Worldwide
- With
- Monks
Objective
Adidas launched this interactive game to promote the new adiZero F50 football boot designed for Lionel Messi during the 2014 FIFA World Cup build-up. The campaign aimed to create a real-time, engaging experience that connected the sport, star athlete, and social media audiences, while generating buzz around the product launch with the incentive of World Cup tickets.
Solution
Fast or Fail was a real-time browser and mobile game where players guided Messi through five levels across a dynamic polygon-art environment toward Rio de Janeiro. Gameplay involved dodging opponents, passing, sprinting, and shooting. The core mechanic linked social amplification to game difficulty: Messi's speed increased based on the volume of mentions across Facebook, Twitter, and other social channels during live play. Players competed for the fastest completion times. The game was developed by MediaMonks and creatively directed by Iris Worldwide.
Results
The campaign achieved 1 million+ minutes of total playtime with 250,000+ games completed. Players generated 14,000 mentions of Messi across social media and created 50,000 shares, demonstrating strong viral engagement and social integration during the tournament anticipation period.
