Samsung is the official sponsor of the Tel Aviv Marathon* - Israel’s biggest sports event of the year. It has been for a number of years and true to a tradition it started back in 2017 - it decided this year to use the sporting event to do good.

As is true for all sponsorships, Samsung’s objective was to strengthen the esteem in which consumers hold the brand. But due to the growing popularity of running as a sport, over the last years, the number of marathon events and also the number of brands sponsoring these events has dramatically increased. As a result, sports sponsorship’s value has eroded and become gradually less effective, visible and impactful. Our objective was to make Samsung’s sponsorship highly visible, engaging and inclusive.

Samsung is the official sponsor of the Tel Aviv Marathon* - Israel’s biggest sports event of the year. It has been for a number of years and true to a tradition it started back in 2017 - it decided this year to use the sporting event to do good.

The idea: The “Samsung Calories Marathon”: RUN. BURN. DONATE & FEED

Run the marathon, burn calories and Samsung will donate on your behalf a package of food equal to the calories you burned to people in need.

People who run marathons do it mainly for themselves. They live to brag about their accomplishments and tell the whole world how well they did, what place they came in at and what medals they won. If you have a friend who runs, just check the posts on his feed and you’re bound to fall on a few pictures showing off his/her athleticism.

But what if we could transform people’s self-centered motivation into an altruistic one?

Samsung as the sponsor of the Tel Aviv Marathon, decided to do just that and channel people’s passion for running into helping feed people in need.

Samsung launched its campaign with a commercial that called for sports fans to take part in the Marathon and burn calories to feed the needy. While the press echoed our call, to amplify our effort, “Samsung Calorie Treadmills” were setup in shopping malls where people could run and add their burnt calories to the general ‘calorie count’. An activity that allowed people to donate their calories once, twice or more.

On the day of the marathon, runners’ number bibs were outfitted with a calorie-counting chip. Special counters along the marathon route showed the total calorie-count burned live, encouraging runners to burn even more.

Smartbooths placed at the end of the marathon, allowed runners to extract the data of their number bib and put together a food package in a dedicated nearby area.

Days before Passover, special teams delivered the foodpacks to people’s doors, so they’d have a joyous feast.

On the day of the Marathon 40,000 runners showed up

and burned 29,730,783 calories

the equivalent of 5000 Passover holiday food packages

Ensuring many poor people will have a festive meal this Passover.