3 Bar Superstar
adidas
Issue 57 | December 2020
Agency
McCann London
Creative Team
Co-Presidents and CCOs Rob Doubal, Laurence Thomson Creative Director Matt Crabtree Creative Lead Matt Searle, Olly Wood Senior Creatives Tom Dixon, Erik Uvhagen
Production Team
Chief Production Officer EMEA Sergio Lopez Executive Producer Jonathan Davis Agency Producers Anna Cartwright, Tom Ayling, Alex Dougan, Duncan Groves Implementation Director Adena Phillips Design lead Lisa Carrana Designers Richard Hart, Julian Kerr, Russ Gilbert, Mark Fraser Luke Ororke Project Managers Chloe Lockett, Paul Gillespie
Other Credits
Business Lead Tilly Cooper Account Directors Kate Hindley, Tom Oliver Senior Account Manager Beth Kojder Account Team Support Greta Biggie CSO Theo Izzard-Brown Planners James Appleby, Emily Ellis Junior Planner Arianna Namaki
Date
2020
Background
London had been a prolific global powerhouse in music for decades. However, arts funding was slashed. There was a lack of investment and a lack of interest in music talent.
Idea
adidias Originals and JD Sports collaborated with music star Kano to find undiscovered talent through the “3 Bar Superstar” initiative.
Kano’s newest track, “Pan Fried”, left a three-bar gap. Londoners were invited to drop their own three bars in its place.
Kano would choose his favourite entrants and the overall winner would get to take part in a recording session with him, giving young talent a voice and industry exposure.
Thousands of entries were recorded through a ‘swipe & spit’ mobile platform as well as in a phone-box booth that toured JD Sports flagship stores. Grime publications and sites wrote about it with popular influencers posting about it and spitting their own bars.
Results
Within two weeks nearly 38,000 recordings had been made, generating 10 million media impressions. 1,432 rappers got to be seen by industry reps.
Our Thoughts
It’s difficult to have dreams these days.
However talented you may be, lockdown plus the absence of investment in creativity make the chances of success look dismally remote. adidas, who publicly admitted they had become too obsessed with short-term sales objectives, have turned here to building the ‘lurve’. The long-term results will, I’m sure, more than justify the investment in hip-hop culture.