German sportswear company Adidas Group has had a good run in India on the back of new products it has been introducing from time to time. Both the Adidas brand and sister brand Reebok caught the consumer’s attention with their high-decibel campaigns. The two brands’ association with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and other international soccer tournaments such the Euro Cup and the Champions League last year provided the much needed platform to talk to their target audience.

But then came the news of the fraud case involving senior officials of subsidiary company Reebok India. Senior officials from the parent company stepped in for damage control and ensure that the brand image was not hurt. In a conversation with FE Brandwagon?s Anushree Bhattacharyya, Tushar Goculdas, brand director of Adidas India, talks about its successful campaigns, its plans for this year and how brand Adidas remains unaffected by the scam. Edited excerpts:

How do you rate your performance in 2012? Which were your best campaigns?

2012 was one of our best years in India. The year ended with us being rated as the second most exciting brand in the country across all categories and also the most exciting sportswear brand. That is a testament to the fact that we were able to excite our target consumer with some amazing innovations throughout the year.

We started the year with a fantastic IPL campaign which featured three teams with the main protagonist?Sachin Tendulkar. The campaign was called We are all owners and was about the fact that a team is actually owned by its fans. After the tourney, we moved over to a massive football season because there were two key events happening in the months of May and June?the finals of Champions League and Euro Cup 2012. Both the tournaments were promoted in key metros with interesting out-of-home campaigns and also we launched one of our most innovative products?Predator Lethal Zone?which has a technology wherein there are five zones created on the shoe and these zones help the footballers. The shoe has been specially designed for mid-fielders. We followed this with the launch of another innovative product called the Adipure and launched a campaign featuring cricketer Suresh Raina. And then we ended the year with the launch of the lightest running shoes ? Adizero ? and also launched a campaign to support the product.

Every time Adidas launches a campaign, how do you ensure that the new one is different from the old one?

You need to be consistent about what your brand stands for. So the core values, the core messaging and the core look and feel of every campaign needs to be aligned to what the Adidas brand stands for. However, within that it is important to bring out one specific differing factor that the product offers. And it is always important to maintain this balance as it is very easy to go overboard behind a product and dilute the core of the brand. On the other hand, it is easy to remain true to the brand?s philosophy and not highlight the benefits of the product.

What are your advertising plans for 2013?

From the product perspective it will be a highly innovative season. In fact, 2013 is going to be a year of innovation. We have kicked off the year with the launch of our new shoes called the Boost. One of the most revolutionary running shoes, the Boost not only provides cushioning and comfort but also returns energy. So as one walks, stands or runs wearing the shoes, he/she also gets back energy from the shoes. In the months of June, July and August, Adidas will be launching various new products and each will be backed by an interesting marketing campaign. We will be launching eight to ten products this year. IPL, too, will be very different from last year as we will be launching a highly innovative product called Climacool Plus during the tournament this year. This is an upgraded version of what we had in the market. Climacool allows the body to remain two degrees cooler, so all our IPL jerseys will be made of Climacool technology.

Has the controversy about Reebok impacted the brand?

While I am not authorised to speak about the brand, one thing I can surely say is that all the negativity has not affected the brand Adidas. In fact, 2012 was one of the best years we have had so far. As for Reebok, without getting into too much of details, I can say that during that period we conducted several consumer research studies to gauge what the consumer thought about the brand. Interestingly, all that negativity had no impact on the Reebok brand too.

So from a consumer?s perspective Rebook continues to be what it was earlier.