What a difference a year makes. Last summer TV bulletins and newspaper front pages were plastered with photos of youths looting shops wearing Adidas hoodies and trackies.
This summer Adidas again featured on the front pages almost every day for a fortnight. This time on the sports kit of Team GB's Olympic gold medallists, and the odd royal or three.
"It is a real coup. Incredible publicity," says Imogen Power, a brand analyst at market research firm Mintel, of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry wearing Team GB polo shirts prominently featuring Adidas's logo.
Mark Borkowski, a PR and branding expert, said: "They just lucked out really with the royals. The young royals are probably a bit more relaxed about branding – 30 years ago there would have been an uproar [if a member of the royal family was seen wearing branded clothing in public].
But, Borkowski says, the athletes are more important than the royals. "A year ago they [Adidas] had front pages with every rioter wearing their clobber going in and nicking stuff, now they have all these heroes wearing their gear. It is an amazing turnaround.
"They now have control over some of the best athletes who will prove to be a new set of heroes and heroines."
It only cost Adidas £127m over five years to be a London 2012 "tier one" sponsor, according to Mintel – a sum seen as a bargain in the industry.
"It's money very well spent," Borkowski says. "There will be lots of marketing people giving themselves high fives this weekend. The hype is going to carry the brand to new levels. The starting gun has only gone off now."
Adidas has already started to count the benefit. Last week the German company, which is the official sportswear partner for the games and the kit provider to Team GB, said it had sold about €100m (£78m) of Olympic-related merchandise. It is more than three times the amount it achieved from the Beijing 2008 Olympics (but a fraction of the €1.6bn it expects from football kits and associated products this year).
Herbert Hainer, Adidas's chief executive, said: "We are very happy with our sales, especially since the Olympic Games started. There are queues in our stores in Oxford Street and Stratford every day. People want to associate themselves with Team GB and the exposure we get through Team GB is excellent."
YouGov's BrandIndex, which scores the public's reaction to brands, found Adidas's score increased from 4.2 on the day before the opening ceremony to 16.5 on Monday.
Adidas' #takethestage campaign in the run up the Olympics and #stagetaken video featuring Team GB stares and David Beckham lip syncing to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, have proved particularly popular.
Dr Dre also had a successful Olympics with an ambush marketing campaign that saw athletes, including Tom Daley and Michael Phelps, wearing his Beats headphones.
The brand, which is not an official sponsor, skirted strict rules on ambush marketing by sending headphones to British team members branded with union flag colours.
McDonald's also benefited from social media, with athletes excitedly tweeting about their fast food pig-outs after finishing the Olympic events.
