Red Door worked with ASICS America to increase awareness of their involvement and apparel sponsorship of the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) New York City (NYC) Marathon. Red Door blended social media content, influencer relations and social advertising with the brand’s existing PR and brand activations. ASICS America, already a social media and SEO client, tasked Red Door with bringing the marathon experience to life on social media and increasing awareness of ASICS around the event.
Goals:
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Increase awareness of brand association with TCS NYC Marathon
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Increase consumer (marathoner) preference
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Expand digital influence
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Promote brand activations
Strategies and Tactics:
We invited five bloggers to join a group of editors to be a part of the Bloggers/Editors Challenge and #teamASICS for the marathon.
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We partnered with the ASICS PR team to provide an elite coach – Ryan Kastor – with customized training programs, ASICS clothes, shoes and gear, as well as meet-and-greets with ASICS Elite Athletes like Deena Kastor, Gwen Jorgenson, Ryan Hall and Sara Hall.
- Bloggers were not given any requirements so that any coverage would be authentic and organic.
In order to reach and engage marathoners, we created content and experiences to celebrate and empower them.
- "We Are Marathoners" infographic
- Embedded infographic on website, promoted with blogger outreach and social media (paid and organic).
- Developed shareable images to promote the infographic and theme on other channels, using quotes from blogger challenge participants.
- #BESTrun Twitter chat
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Hosted a one-hour Twitter chat regarding anything related to running a race. We invited the Blogger Challenge bloggers to submit questions and participate in the chat.
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To extend the reach and relevance of the ASICS “Mini-Marathoner” activation (in which participants received statues to commemorate the experience), we conceptualized a video that turned the Mini-Marathoner into the motivating voice for ASICS Elite Athlete, Ryan Hall.
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30-second video lived on YouTube, embedded on ASICSamerica.com and promoted across social channels.
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15-second video garnered Instagram attention and promoted across social channels.
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We shared user-generated content of runners who posted photos of their own Mini-Marathoners.
Real-time event coverage on social media.
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Red Door team attended the marathon to capture the pulse of race day and the days leading up to it.
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On race day, we coordinated with ASICS photographers to share photos of runners and scenery across the course so that each could tell a story:
Results:
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The TCS NYC Marathon (Nov. 2) - one of the most engaged weekends to date, and the ASICS Instagram account out-performed all competitor KPIs on race day. This image demonstrates ASICS' Instagram interactions:
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ASICS received a higher amplification rate (total per post shares) on Facebook than competitors in October and November, indicating that the content strongly resonated with fans.
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Infographic produced more than 38,000 social media engagements, about one million social impressions, and about 20,000 page views with a 4:53 average time on page.
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Twitter chat trended as the No. 6 topic in the U.S. with 154 participants and over 1,000 participating Tweets. Brand reach and activity was the highest ever on the ASICS America Twitter account to date.
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About 988,000 Mini-Marathoner video views across channels.