This action was the most important step in a large project to renew running culture in Brazil. In the social networks alone (Facebook, Twitter and Blogs), 2.9 million people were impacted. Nike showed a new way of running and today its running group, launched in July 2010 with 100 people, already brings together 2764 runners. The fanpage grew from 152 thousand fans to 181,000 during the three days of the event. Today, it already has 459,000 fans. With this audience, owned media has gained power; it has been helping launch products and decreasing the investment in paid media.

To take the athletes’ experience to digital channels, it was apparent we needed a mechanism that required no effort from them. We found in RFID technology the solution to provide frictionless sharing. We created interactive installations in the race that sent sharing messages every time the runners went by them. The interactions generated animated GIFs, Like messages and videos on the athletes’ walls. Without requiring any effort beyond that of running, the athletes became the triggers that spread the experience to other people in real time.

Nike proposed to change the perception of running in Brazil, where the sport is normally practised by older people. Running needed to be rejuvenated through communication actions.The audience was composed of young runners who had been recruited through the Nike+ tool. Some of them were already part of one of the brand’s relationship programs with young runners.The idea was to use the runners themselves as media triggers to tell the story of the event in an authentic manner to everyone who was not there.The athletes became the protagonists of a new way of running, and Nike raised the banner of cool, fun, youthful and connected running.