Samsung, the title sponsorship of the Tel Aviv Marathon, has turned Israel’s flagship 26.22-miler into a videogame-like mass participation event.
All runners tackling the physical course are encouraged to collect virtual coins as they run and after the finish the sponsor will convert its digital currency into real money and donate it to charity.
The marathon, which is held on 24 February, sees each runner badged with a timing chip that collects their personal race data and tracks their progress and Samsung is using this chip to donate its digital donations.
Throughout the physical marathon route, the brand and the race organisers placed stepping pads which represent the virtual coins: runners can then collect the coins by stepping onto the pads as they run by.
When each runner steps on a pad, his or her ‘coin count’ is registered on the racer’s electronic chip and then sent on to Samsung’s database where it is turned into real money.
Once the race was over, main sponsor Samsung donated the money on behalf of the runner to the charity of their choice.
Samsung’s Gaming Marathon, which has been developed in harness with agency Leo Burnett Israel, was promoted pre-event across the brand and the agency’s digital and social channels from early February.
#LeoBurnett #Israel present: #Samsung #Marathon– #turning the #runners into #gamers #Health #technology #New #Campaign #Neverstoprunning pic.twitter.com/kcPBmOscdH
— LeoBurnettIL (@LeoBurnettIL) February 21, 2017
The thinking and planning behind the initiative is that with more and more marathon events being held around the world races are becoming increasingly competitive in terms of participation and choice.
So Samsung’s objective was not just to boost charity funds, but also to make the Tel Aviv marathon more interesting and more attractive for potential participants.
Activative Comment:
This gamification approach to activation leverages existing marathon technology to boost the event’s charitable giving.
This leverage initiative adds to a growing list of contemporary innovative and admirable marathon sponsor activations: other recent notable campaigns include Lucozade Sport’s #MadeToMove leverage programme for the London Marathon (see case study).
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But several members of the Activative team having tackled a gruelling 26.22 mile challenge in person, we are great supporters of compelling marathon incentive campaigns – so we are fully behind this initiative.
Some of our other favourite marathon incentive campaigns include Asics’ ‘Extra Mile’ in the USA (see case study), Standard Chartered #ReasonsToRun in Dubai (see case study) and, perhaps the best of all, ASB’s ‘Run Down Your Rate’ in New Zealand (see case study).
Links:
Samsung
https://www.instagram.com/samsungisrael/
https://www.facebook.com/Samsung.Israel/
https://www.youtube.com/user/SamsungIsrael
Leo Burnett Israel
https://www.facebook.com/LeoBurnettil/
https://twitter.com/LeoBurnettIL
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCry1r0w6CXiA_yqMgAUeCmw
https://www.snapchat.com/add/leoburnettil
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110214556920554470057
https://www.slideshare.net/leoburnettisrael1
Tel Aviv Marathon
