Virgin Active pulled off a sneaky beach stunt at the end of The Sun Herald City2Surf (Sydney’s largest participatory running race) by bring their commitment to ‘going the extra mile’ to life through a real-world demonstration that saw the brand create a second finish line one mile after the race’s official end.
The gym brand teamed up with running club the Sydney Striders for the stunt and the elite runners from the group surprised those spectators watching the 80,000 runners at the end of the race by not stopping at the official finish line, but rather continuing to run passed the crowd to Virgin Active’s Second Finish Line in Marks Park (Tamarama).
The stunt was amplified on the brand’s YouTube channel,
and Facebook page.
While the stunt was further boosted with in-person and social support from Virgin Active ambassadors Jill Wright (@iamjillwright) and Brittany Bloomer (@brittbloomer).
The stunt, developed for Virgin Acvtive’s head of brand and marketing Anton Brown and social media and PR manager Adele Rogers, was created by agency Marcel Sydney and the stunt spot production company was Paperhouse Productions and the video was directed and edited by Tim Kindler.
“We wanted to inject a bit more fun into Sydney’s most iconic fun run. Virgin Active is all about helping people go the extra mile, so what better way to show this than by actually getting people to do it,” explains Virgin Active PR and social media manager Adele Rogers.
“And The Striders were happy to get on board in name of good fun.“
“When Virgin Active contacted us we were initially surprised, but it sounded like a laugh, so we decided to do it. We’re serious about our running, but it’s just a bit of fun anyway…it seemed like a perfect fit,” adds Dave Criniti of the Sydney Striders – who finished 9th overall, but was the first runner to cross the Second Finish Line.
Says Scott Huebscher, executive creative director at agency Marcel Sydney, explains that “Virgin have a history of doing audacious and cheeky stunts, so this felt right on brand. It was guerrilla marketing in the truest sense. Credit to our Virgin Active clients and agency staff for all mucking in to make it happen.”
Comment:
We’ve seen a slew of imaginative and innovation brand activations around running races and marathons in recent months.
These have ranged from Nike’s blockbuster, brand-owned #Breaking2 (see case study), to New Balance applying its global #MyFutureSelf initiative to its Comrades Marathon partnership in South Africa (see case study), and even the Baywatch movie slow motion marathon stunt (see case study), but this new Virgin Activative stunt shows that low cost, simple stunts can be effective too.
After all, is there a more straightforward way to bring the brand’s ‘go that extra mile’ message to life than running an extra mile?
Links:
Virgin Activative
https://www.youtube.com/user/VirginActiveOZ
http://www.virginactive.com.au/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/116439415907855080655
https://twitter.com/virginactiveoz?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/virginactiveaustralia/
Marcel Sydney
