As one of the fastest-growing brands of ABInBev, Michelob ULTRA has a unique connection with the sports world, and thus, wants to use its brand platform to champion equality in sports. For “Run Fund,” we tapped the biggest influencer in the history of women’s running, Kathrine Switzer, the first woman marathon runner in history, and partnered with her and her non-profit 261® Fearless, as well as the TCS NYC Marathon, to help advance this race for equality via the Run Fund. This also activated running influencers globally to take part, using #ULTRARunFund to share this important initiative across social media.

Only 55 years ago women were not allowed to run marathons. Kathrine Switzer did it anyway. When she was attacked by the race director, just for being a woman, the photograph of her attack sparked a revolution in women’s sports and started the race for equality. But it is a race that we’re still running. So we brought the iconic photo to life with a stunning modern film technique that made it possible to jump inside the world of the photo, taking a closer look at the reactions of the witnesses to the attack, the cultural context that created it, and Katherine’s own inner monologue.

The film was tied to a $100 million dollar initiative that gives free bibs and training to first-time women and non-binary runners to participate in marathons around the world called The Run Fund.

We wanted to tell Kathrine Switzer’s story in a powerful way, showing how she paved the way for women and non-binary runners everywhere to take part in marathons, and ultimately, how Michelob ULTRA (MUL) uses its platform to continue to champion gender equality in sports.

Our current and future consumers, athletes and people who support women athletes and sports, and ultimately, women runners who could benefit from the Run Fund, which is an extension of the brand’s $100 Million commitment to gender equality in sports.

To amplify this message, we partnered with the TCS NYC Marathon, which MUL has been a longtime sponsor of, with the goal of the Run Fun to provide training programs and resources for women and non-binary athletes making their marathon debut and a contest giving these runners a chance to win a bib for the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon.

The film was shot in one single day, using a Phantom high-speed camera. This camera gave us the unparalleled ability to slow video down to a degree that it would look more like a moving photograph. From there, we were able to carefully craft every frame to give more context to the photo that shocked the running world in 1967. We could see the attack from every runner’s perspective, a viewer’s perspective, even a police officer’s perspective. The most important perspective was Katherine’s which we added in the form of her internal monologue.

Overall media coverage had a positive sentiment, with in-depth coverage of the campaign and initiative across publishing categories, including in top sports/running-related outlets like Sports Business Journal, Running Insights, Runners World; advertising trade media including Ad Age, Adweek, Marketing Dive and The Drum; as well as in international press including AdLatina; among many others.

Additional results include:

4.4M paid IMPs

2.5M earned IMPs

1.2M video views

8.3k social mentions

99% positive sentiment

50M PR IMPs

40 PR Placements

5k run fund submissions across 4 continents

Brand affinity up 108%

Purchase intent up 31%

Most shared Michelob ULTRA reel of all time