Iris wins Adidas global running business

Adidas has appointed Iris as the lead agency for its global running business after a pitch. It is understood to have included incumbent agency 180 Amsterdam.

The agency will now be responsible for the strategy, advertising, retail and experiential communications. The agency already handles retail campaigns for Adidas’ running business and will continue to handle that.

It has already started developing a new campaign for the category, which includes its products for serious runners rather than consumers. It will break next year. 180 Amsterdam will remain leads agency on the brand’s wider sports performance business.

Shaun McIlrath, joint executive creative director of Iris, says the appointment signals the agency’s emergence as a “global creative force”.

The agency has had a strong new business year so far winning the £2m integrated brief to launch the Employment and Support Allowance for the Department for Work and Pensions (MW May 8), £10m pan-European business for Hertz (MW.co.uk March 12), as well as being appointed to handle Sony Ericsson’s global activation strategy (MW.co.uk March 11).