Paramount and agency Droga5 London created the first Slow-Mo Marathon to promote the studio’s new Baywatch reboot movie.
Sure, it’s not the Berlin, Boston, or London Marathon and it isn’t about to knock one of the Big Five out of the elite group, but it does offer an opportunity to see ‘the world’s best slow motion runners compete in an exhilaratingly slow race to the finish line’.
The brand/agency created stunt slow sports event celebrates the upcoming release of the new Baywatch film and draws creative inspiration for the well known, much mocked, iconic Baywatch opening credits from the long running TV series that sees super-fit swimsuited lifeguards run in slow motion down a beach.
The event itself, held in late April in downtown Los Angeles, was the first ever marathon run completely in slow motion and, as well as the actors, thousands of people turned up to ‘slowly, sexily and sassily strut down the 0.3km track’.
The race even actually got fairly competitive in nits closing stages with a bit of slow motion pushing and shoving and a surprise winner (who doesn’t love a twist at the end of a good movie?).
The race was central showpiece of a campaign that included a spoof spot called ‘Baywatch (2017) -The Baywatch Slow Mo Marathon’.
The movie reboot of what was once the biggest TV show on the planet stars Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra and Alexandra Daddario and it arrives in cinemas from 25 May.
Activative Comment:
We’ve heard of mini marathons and ultra marathons, but a slow mo marathon?
It is the very definition of slow and steady win the race!
Marathons and athletics will never be the same again.
Could the super slow mo race even make it to the Olympics?
No! Of course not!
Sure, this isn’t a sports campaign, a piece of marathon sponsorship activation (like Lucozade’s ‘Made To Move’ London Marathon campaign & Samsung’s ‘Marathon Game‘ for the Tel Aviv race), neither (despite the spot’s claim that it is a “serious sporting event”) is it a brand-created race on the same scale or with the same degree of athletic credibility or seriousness as Nike’s #Breaking2 (see case study).
But it is an inventive, creative and fun take on promoting a marathon (of sorts) and might have one or two major marathon marketers kicking themselves that they didn’t come up with this campaign creative idea first.
Links:
Paramount
http://www.thebaywatchmovie.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BaywatchMovie/
https://twitter.com/baywatchmovie
https://www.instagram.com/baywatchmovie/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
http://www.paramount.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Paramount
http://www.instagram.com/ParamountPics
https://twitter.com/paramountpics
https://www.youtube.com/user/Paramount
Droga5 London
