adidas —
Giving runners a better way to share their race story.
Boston Marathon / Event-Based Experiences
the ask
Mark adidas' 30th year as sponsor of the Boston Marathon with (so much) more than a logo on race bib.
Sponsoring a world-class event usually ends up with your logo plastered everywhere, but for adidas’ 30th anniversary of sponsoring the Boston Marathon, they wanted to do something a little unexpected. The brand wanted to mark each runner’s big milestone by showing support and winning a place in their hearts beyond the finish line.
Services
the insight
The race of a lifetime deserves a stronger finish.
When you decide to run a marathon you train, hurt, and push through. When that marathon is Boston you do all that while taking in 26.2 miles of one of the world’s most legendary races. At the finish line, you get the pride of a photo and the glory of a medal but nothing that truly captures the most important moments of one of the biggest achievements in your life.
the solution
30,000 highlight films in record time.
We tapped into the RFID tags in runners’ bibs (the things that track their time) and turned the entire race into a content creation engine. Each runner got a video that paired footage of them throughout the race with personalized performance stats to tell their unique marathon story. And the best part? They were signed, sealed, and delivered within hours of the race—no #latergrams here.
Cameras along the course kept pace with every. single. runner.
Data from their bibs let us sync up their stats.
Infinite combinations, custom-mixed by algorithm
A URL for each runner to share their story.
THE RESULTS
Taking a victory lap
Runners loved it. So much in fact, that they wanted us to come back and do it again the next year.
“An astounding example that speaks to how effectively content personalization can combat content shock."
— TheNextWeb
"Most runners would love to have a beautifully crafted recap video. Fortunately if you’re running this year’s Boston, someone else is doing the work for you."
— Runner’s World
"While crossing the finish line at the end of the day is likely a deeply satisfying reward in itself, adidas added a lovely (and very impressive) personalized touch for each runner."
— Adweek
80,000+ site visits, 13,000 continuing to adidas.com
+113% email open rate
+84% shares across social
We’re capturing the excitement, support, and celebration that is Boston in a way no one has ever done before. ”
PAUL BOWYER — HEAD OF ADIDAS RUNNING U.S.
We’re capturing the excitement, support, and celebration that is Boston in a way no one has ever done before. ”
PAUL BOWYER — HEAD OF ADIDAS RUNNING U.S.
We could not be happier. Grow was extremely thorough, tactful and planned down to every detail to bring this to life. ”
Scott Frost — DIGITAL MARKETING, ADIDAS RUNNING U.S.
Explore more
TL;DR: We won the internet with Madden memes.
If it’s called activewear… shouldn’t it move?
Marketing materials for every small business in America. (No really.)
