2019 London Marathon Activation
The brief
The 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon welcomed New Balance for the second of their ten-year partnership as official footwear and apparel sponsor. The event itself has huge cultural currency across the globe and shares many of the values that live at the heart of New Balance; heritage, community, inclusivity and diversity. Following a successful first year, the brand goal in 2019 was to create a campaign that celebrates and amplifies these values whilst strengthening the brand partnership and cultivate long-lasting consumer loyalty in the UK.
Work type:
Campaign Activation
The strategy
Bridge & Tunnel were briefed to develop a social media content strategy that amplified the campaign story of the huge physical effort in the 120 days preceding the London Marathon.
Targeting
With the objective of increasing brand affinity and establishing greater authority and trust amongst this highly targeted audience, our content was optimised for engagement & consideration with commercial opportunities woven in where we were able to drive more chances for conversion.
Audience Insight
Tapping into insights around how runners plan their Marathon training and leveraging key moments in the running calendar we developed a multi-channel content and engagement plan designed to demonstrate New Balance’s commitment to providing valuable training support to all runners. For 120 days we followed the journeys of the running community on Instagram and initiated a community engagement program that saw us start conversations with over 800 UK runners.
Ambassadors
We worked with the campaign’s five ambassadors to create a weekly series that shared key moments and milestones during their training journey. This episodic content was distributed through Instagram stories, reaching our most engaged audience with (close to) real-time and relevant content that felt contextually relevant to the platform format.
Athletes
Our social coach series, hosted by Team NB athletes and coaches, gave the brand an opportunity to share valuable training advice through recognised, professional figures. We designed the series to be as easily accessible as possible and to provide runners unable to attend London training events to get expert running advice. Using the Q&A functionality on Instagram Stories we opened up direct and immediate channels of conversation between the consumer and the brand.
The work
The Results
8.6m
social media impressions - up 400% YoY
290,000
social media interactions - up 500% YoY
40,000
new Instagram followers
6,400
organic website sessions interactions - up 500% YoY
10,000
content saves and
shares
What they said
"Bridge and Tunnel were a huge support on our ‘120 Days’ marketing campaign for the 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon. They approached the project with enthusiasm, creativity and focus and continued this momentum throughout. They developed and executed a social plan that incorporated key campaign visuals alongside UGC to engage and grow our New Balance community by over 40%- a result myself and the rest of the team were delighted with. They are always a pleasure to work with!"
Harriet Smith
Marketing Manager, New Balance