The Work: Roger Taylor x Adidas
It’s not everyday that you find yourself between two icons. On one side the founder of Queen, on the other, adidas. This is a story of possibility, patience and belief. This is MTV Originals. 2020 can feel like a lifetime ago. The emotional rollercoaster of our lives, and one we all affected by, and endured in our own unique way.
My working life had gone full yoyo. The unplanned closure of one business; figuring out the foundations of another. Losing the weight of managing a team of people; gaining feelings of loneliness working alone..daily ups, daily downs.
Fortunately it was also an intensive period of reset and inward reflection, an opportunity for me to unpick and undo my habitual working practices, in an effort to create new ones; a focus on being more open, more curious and looking for possibility in as much as I could.
And then one day I got a call from an unlikely source, about an unlikely opportunity.
Manuela Gray is arguably Cape Town’s most prolific tattoo artist. A friend whom I’ve got to know through her relationships with my friends who use her professional services, while I watch along tattoo free. But we hang out from time to time, and imbibe.
Manuela is one of a kind. A rocker, rebel and free creative spirit who marches to the beat of her own drum. She is the epitome of unconventional, and so, when she got in touch regarding a business related project, I was intrigued about what it could be.
“Duncan can you help Roger Taylor build a partnership with adidas?”
Ok. Let’s just unpack this.
Roger Taylor is one of the most prolific musicians and artists of all time. The founder of the biggest rock band in history, Queen, and regarded as one of the greatest drummers to have ever lived.
He has sold over 300 million records, has had number one hits in four consecutive decades, been in the top 20 album charts consistently for 952 weeks, and is still touring. Outside of his gear sponsors, he has never had a brand partnership.
Then you have adidas. One of the biggest brands in the world, and a lifestyle business who pretty much exclusively target Gen-Z and Gen Alpha kids by utilising contemporary youth culture to build relevance and credibility with these audiences through endorsement deals with influential creators like Kanye West, Pharell Williams and Beyonce.
And then, Sunny*.
My initial instinct on the call was a combination of shock, disbelief, and fear. Could we do this?
And so challenged myself. I asked, “What If?” What if we were able to do this, what if we could find a relevant reason, and a way to connect these two worlds?
“Our first meeting together will be a career highlight! Roger joining the TEAMs call…on a throne! True Rock royalty.
You should also take huge credit for the project happening - your initial pitch and film was superb and was the reason we could see the opportunity to work together.”
Chris Walsh, VP Brand, adidas
A Strategy Rooted in Undeniable Truth - Rock n’ Roll isn’t a genre. It’s a mindset.
Roger holds more accolades than you can imagine. He’s smashed records in sales in music, at the box office, and he holds honorary doctorates in music.
But what Roger really holds is less tangible, but more valuable than all of the above combined - his lived experience. You see Roger’s life has been spent at the forefront of shifting culture forward. From race, gender, LGBQTi and political movements, his mindset and craft has broken down boundary after boundary, and united more people than any other group in history. He is living proof that rock n’ roll isn’t simply a mindset - it’s an optimistic creative spirit that challenges the status quo to change the world in a positive way.
And he is still living it.
Today’s youth are starved of role models. Social media and the attention economy has meant less access to those with real lived experience to share, and wisdom has become a disposable commodity, in one TikTok and out the other. This is a risk for the future, because we’re creating leaders from a position of entitlement not from empathy, and we’re creating ways to divide the world, not unite it.
I realised that if we could transfer Roger’s lived experience, perspective and mindset to the generation creating the future, we could create wave of impact at a time when we need it most. If we could instil his attitude and vision into the new artists breaking new ground today, we could continue his legacy in a way we hadn’t imagined.
I had the full support of Roger’s team into this direction. Roger’s wife Sarina, label manager Emma and Manuela became my dream team, but now our attention had to turn to our target, adidas.
By pulling a few strings we finally landed a meeting with Chris Walsh, Brand Director for Northern Europe. Game on.
Collectively we decided not to pitch a deck, but rather turn our strategic narrative into a 3 minute film, to convey the emotion of the story and demonstrate the credible link to adidas desire to position themselves as the creator brand that creates change through empowering the future.
The team got so behind the script they called in a favour like only rock royalty can, and we enlisted the help of Rami Malek to perform the voice over. Getting voice notes of Rami reading my script from LA in the middle of the night will forever be a surreal career moment.
Fortunately the emotional hook and purpose behind the partnership was too strong to ignore, and after a year of working through the details and plans, the work finally broke this August.
MTV Originals is a content campaign featuring three emerging artists covering one iconic track, in the iconic Abbey Road studios. Produced in partnership with MTV, the series follows three distinctly different artists, Che Lingo, Bow Anderson and Self Esteem as they work with Roger to interpret the iconic Radio GaGa through unique access to the master stems and sheet music.
The stories and creations are unique and compelling, and the execution is flawless. The campaign broke all of it’s KPI’s before the halfway mark, all three artists started blowing up over night and rumour has it Che Lingo may even release his track as a stand alone single.
The entire experience was a surreal one.
Nearly two years in the making this project was an exercise in patience and focus, in being open, in bringing others with you, and always giving yourself the chance to ask “What If?”
Thank you Roger, Sarina, Emma for your trust and patience. Thank you Chris for your courage and being open, MTV for flawless execution and thank you Manuela for calling me that day and inviting me into this project.
Now let’s all live a little more rock ’n roll.
Network Consultants:
Pitch Video & Edit: Nelis Botha
