With over 40,000 participants, the New York City Marathon is a marquee event for the running community. We envisioned Nike’s branding for the 2009 New York City Marathon as a love story about New York and the runners who choose to live in the city where every day is a marathon. The campaign engaged viewers by asking the simple question: what are you running for? The answers were played out at the retail level through an in-store film, window displays, and user generated content in the store. And on the day of the Marathon itself, as the rivers of runners poured through the streets, we engineered the street campaign, with event collateral and morale boosts along the road reaffirming Nike’s presence as the foremost lifestyle and community running brand for New York City.
