Some quick background: For the 30th anniversary of their Boston Marathon sponsorship (2018), we helped adidas celebrate runners with a first-of-its-kind digital experience, creating personalized films for each of the marathon’s 30,000 runners.
Each video featured footage of the individual runner, captured at multiple points throughout the course and isolated in-frame to the millisecond based on data from his or her RFID-enabled race bib — the very bib that sported the adidas logo. The footage was sliced and woven together with a custom, cloud-based engine and included personalized motion graphics with the runner’s starting group, split times, and completion stats.
Amazingly, we were able to deliver all 30,000 personalized videos within hours of the race completion — a speed and scale never before achieved. And we did it all with some of the worst weather conditions in the marathon’s history.
The bar for 2019’s follow-up campaign was high.
What’s the story?
As we thought about how to delight runners for a second year in a row, we dug deeper on what they most value. A runner’s time is an important part of the race, but it’s far from everything. In fact, if you’ve ever talked to a runner in the Boston Marathon or read a story about one, you might not have even heard the race time.
You might have heard that it was the runner’s first race and the completion of a lifelong dream.
Or perhaps you heard that she’s been running for an incredible ten years straight.
A runner might tell you he’s traveled over 7,000 miles from Nepal and was proud to be the only runner representing his country.
Or perhaps you’d hear the story of why he ran: to raise funds for a cause near and dear to his heart.
These are the stories of the Boston Marathon. And for this year’s adidas films, we sought to capture those stories by looking deeper into the data.
Discovering meaning in complex data
It’s not enough to repeat back to someone what he or she already knows. Next-level digital experiences surface new insights and ideas for their users.
If you want to find unique stories within your data, start by connecting those sources which have previously been disconnected. We combined data including race registration, historical race performance, and real-time event performance, and added third-party information like hometown populations, race-day weather, and topographical data for the course. Within these rich data sets, we could explore for unique comparisons, trends, and outliers.
For example, we could programmatically calculate a runner’s pace for each mile and identify where elevation changes were a likely factor in a runner’s performance. So if a runner had a challenging stretch at Heartbreak Hill, we could surface the footage from that section of the course and thereby share a more meaningful, personal reflection of the individual’s race.
Elevating the film craft
Having built and honed the capture-to-render process in last year’s execution, we sought this year to level-up the film craft.
We added more capture points along the race course to more closely follow each runner’s race journey. We also enhanced our overall approach to the cinematography with 4K footage, slow motion shots, and enhanced lensing with more intimate angles and dramatic effects.
We also customized the b-roll shots to follow the different story arcs, allowing for more variation across the full set of 30,000 videos. A charity runner’s video featured different shots than a performance runner, and so on.
The elevated film experience helped ensure each video was valuable to its recipient.
Earning brand ambassadors
In addition to leveling up on personalization, the activation delivered on increased shareability. Runners were excited to watch and share their highlight films.
We saw a 39% increase over last year in videos viewed, with each being viewed an average of seven times. Additionally, the post-race email open rate saw a 42.3% increase, and an increase of nearly 165% in click-throughs. Social shares of this year’s videos were up 84% across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The email open rate for the campaign was 113% over the brand’s year-to-date baseline and adidas received more than 80,000 visits to the campaign microsite, with more than 13,000 visitors continuing on to adidas.com.
Beyond the statistics, though, the campaign generated connections and brand value of a higher degree. That is, it helped adidas earn a place in the hearts, minds, and conversations of the world’s most elite runners.
Beyond personalization: telling meaningful stories
Personalized content has become table stakes. Consumers have in their pockets: best-in-class cameras, editing tools, and one-click content generators. And with so many brands looking to be part of the conversation, the noise level is at an all-time high.
Brands cannot simply share back with audiences the information they already have. It’s our job as digital marketers and experience designers to create value and meaningful interaction that our audiences invite into their lives.
We must go beyond personalized content — with original ideas, insightful viewpoints, and exceptional craft — to discover and share stories with our audiences that they might never have found or crafted on their own.
The next chapter of branded storytelling is ours to write.
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