When you live in Australia, sport matters. You may not be personally into running around after various differently shaped balls, or propelling yourself through water or pushing yourself to the limit of physical endurance, but at a societal level, there is nothing more socially acceptable in this country than sport. And social media usage is starting to cause considerable angst where the coverage of sporting events is concerned.
On one level, sport and social media are a perfect fit. On an average day, it is estimated that between 700 and 800 tweets are sent out every second. During the recent Football World Cup, that number rose to over 3000 a second whenever a goal was scored.
This demonstrates the reach of social media. Five to 10 years ago, while watching a game at home, you’d ring up a mate to point out that your team was wiping the floor with his. At best, you’d have had an audience of several friends to whom you could complain about a referee’s decision. Today, thanks to social media, you can share your thoughts with the world.안전놀이터
It’s a state of affairs that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the traditional conduits of mass sporting communication. During the recent Bathurst 1000 motor race, the broadcaster Channel 7, beholden to its advertisers, paused the action at every ad break, meaning that the race on TV finished 30 minutes behind the race in real life.
Twitter, however, didn’t have to stop for adverts. Meaning that the race result was widely known while Channel 7 was still trying to create the impression of a ‘live’ event – leading to some very annoyed viewers. As has been pointed out here, Channel 7 was in a Catch-22 situation. If it hadn’t paused the action, viewers would have complained for missing out. If it hadn’t gone to the ads, it would have lost a lot of revenue. Which raises an interesting question…
Social media is changing the way the world interacts, the way the world thinks and the way the world expects to receive its information. It is not only traditional broadcasters and media outlets that need to accept and adjust to this rapidly changing situation. Advertisers currently pay a premium to be associated with high-profile sporting events. Pretty soon, they are going to have to ask themselves whether they want to be associated with a delayed transmission or with the real-time coverage social media provides.
In a country like Australia, where sport has such a strong hold on the national psyche, and where a new generation of tech-savvy individuals with disposable income are already demanding that they receive instant, bite-size info updates, surely there is only one logical answer.
Adidas is one of the most easily recognised brands in the world. Indeed, they enjoy a global reputation, with outlets in all for corners of the globe. Their popularity as a brand is unsurprising, they have the unique ability to create sportswear that is comfortable, enhances performance, protects sportspeople from overstraining, but with the added bonus that their clothing is also fashionable. This gives them a much wider appeal than to the sporting community alone, their popularity encompasses a much broader audience.
Many sports personalities prefer the Adidas brand; you simply need to look to their advertising projects to see that even the highest calibre sportspeople endorse the Adidas brand. In part, this is because Adidas celebrate sports, and sports personalities, for instance, they pay tribute to favourite sportspeople by developing lines of clothing named after some of the world’s greatest sportspeople. For example, the Adidas Beckenbauer track top is a tribute to the incredible German footballer, Franz Beckenbauer, who played in three world cups, 1966, 1970, and 1974.
These personalities would not endorse these products if they did not meet the highest specifications, which the Adidas brand certainly does. Adi Dassler created the Adidas brand during the 1920s (although it was not until 1948 that he chose Adidas as the company name). His vision was to create a line of sports shoes that would protect the player from the injuries and stress inherent with professional sports, this meant creating shoes that protected ankles, provided suspension, had a strong outer shell, and yet were also malleable and would allow freedom of movement. His vision continues to be the underlying ethos of the Adidas brand, and we see it in all the lines of merchandise that the company produces.
Over the course of the past two decades, Adidas extended their vision; they wished to create sportswear that was fashionable and appealed to a much broader audience. From this expansion, Adidas Originals was born. Cottoning on to the popularity of the retro fashion scene, Adidas began rereleasing lines that had long since stopped production. The Adidas Beckenbauer track top is a perfect example; first released in 1982 it has now made its comeback and is a firm favourite amongst many fashionable people.
Urban fashion fans love the Adidas Originals line of fashion, which the hip-hop and the Britpop community finding it particularly attractive. Amongst the Adidas fashion ranges, there are many accessories, that are geared towards fashion tastes, rather than sporting requirements: the retro shoulder bags, digital watches, socks, holdalls; these are all available from the Adidas Originals range.