New Online Video Site adidas.TV Set To Launch This Week

adidas Launches adidas.TV Site In Effort To Reach Young Consumers

The new adidas.TV site, set to debut this week, is a "nod to the vogue for sharing online content" and is "designed to spread Adidas video across the Web," according to Brian Morrissey of ADWEEK. adidas.TV "hopes to be vastly different from the ill-fated Bud.TV," and adidas' online approach is "similar to that taken" by NBC's Hulu. The service "soft-launched Tuesday as part of the Adidas basketball site," where it "houses content from the brand's NBA endorsers" such as Magic C Dwight Howard, Nuggets G Chauncey Billups and Wizards G Gilbert Arenas. adidas' strategy is to "use the lure of its star endorsers like Howard to counter the marketing might of rival Nike to reach young audiences." The site also has an "'Originals' channel of shorts created by Adidas." The site "aims to begin with a library of 75 videos and quickly ramp up to hundreds." adidas.TV content "will be available for syndication," and visitors to the site can also "transport video in an Adidas-branded player" (ADWEEK.com, 2/18).

EASTERN PROMISES: The Beijing Times Sunday reported that Nike is in talks with China's top soccer league over a "potential [US$200M] sponsorship deal that could cover the coming decade." Nike has "basically agreed to a [US$15M] deal that will provide" 12 Super League teams US$732,000 each in equipment and apparel and US$220,000 in cash for the '09 season. The remaining funds "would go to the league." An extended agreement "calls for a 15[%] annual increase, with the apparel contract to eventually cover all 16 league teams." No details were revealed on when a deal will be signed (AFP, 2/15). Meanwhile, Nike in a statement said that it "will build a logistics centre in eastern China." The statement added that the logistics centre "will become Nike's largest such centre in Asia when it is completed at the end of 2010." REUTERS' Kirby Chien reports construction on the center "will begin in the first quarter of 2009 and will help direct the flow of Nike shoes and apparel in China" (REUTERS, 2/18).