Adidas is no stranger to the street culture scene, and their latest move seems right on target: the Adidas Urban Art Guide to Berlin is an iPhone travel guide listing Berlin’s best graffiti.
Users download the application for free, giving them access to a Google map of Berlin that’s pegged with the locations of its urban art masterpieces. The map can be navigated in several ways: "Find artworks nearby" provides users with a map of art works in their immediate vicinity; "Tour guide" calls up a curated walking tour of local urban art; and "Gallery" gives users the option to browse the city's street art and then seek out their favourite pieces. Users can click on each marked location to call up images as well as information about the piece, the artist and further references.
The app’s interactive elements including rating and commenting functionalities, and letting users upload their own snaps of new art, which keeps the map cutting-edge at no extra cost to Adidas. Berlin is currently the only city on the Urban Art Guide's map, but plans are underway to develop similar guides for other cities.
Although a growing audience appreciates street art, few traditional guide books make any mention of it. So this is a smart move on behalf of Adidas, getting the brand straight into the hands of its target audience, while reaffirming its street credentials. Other brands—what kind of map-related content can you offer your (niche) audiences on the go? (Related: Free coffee for iPhone users at Swedish 7-Eleven — Louis Vuitton’s walking tours of Beijing, Shanghai & Hong Kong — trendwatching.com's take on mapmania.)
Website: www.urbanartguide.de
Contact: info@urbanartguide.com
Spotted by: Susanna Haynie
While it's definitely an interesting idea and use case they do seem to have pushed a bit too hard with this one. While they might have reaffirmed their street cred with a larger audience they alienated the actual street artists they highlighted quite a bit by coming in way too marketing oriented. There is already a push back going on with more and more street artists railing against the commercialization of their scene. Thread carefully if your going to try and do branding here i would say.