Closing the gap between visiting marathon runners and the locals cheering them on. 

MassMutual is a key supporter of the NYC Marathon, but as a Massachusetts-based company, they don’t have an inherent rationale for being there. They were looking for a way to promote their brand mission of ‘people supporting people’ through the lens of the NYC Marathon, so when we found out that 70% of runners are traveling from outside of NYC to run with no one to cheer them on or hold a sign for them, we knew exactly what to do. 

We created Adopt a Runner to pair visiting NYC Marathoners with NYC residents who would already be attending the race, so that every runner would have someone in the crowd rooting for them, and every New Yorker would have someone to root for as they watched the crowds go by. We blanketed New York with a digital, social, and out of home campaign to get the word out locally, and worked with international race organizations to source runners who would be visiting the city, ultimately matching over a thousand visiting runners with New Yorkers who came out to support them on the big day, and making sure that nobody had to run without people supporting them.