It feels good to be able to run 26.2 miles on any given day, but I was particularly happy to finish the Boston Marathon on April 16, 2018.

For starters, this was the 11th time I’ve run Boston for charity, the fifth time for Christopher’s Haven, raising nearly $2,000 this time around for this ridiculously awesome non-profit organization.

It was also especially gratifying to be able to go the entire 26.2-mile distance despite such extremely inclement weather conditions.

Pouring rain. Stiff headwinds. Cold temperatures. The long, challenging journey from Hopkinton to Boston this year was about as far from a walk in the park as you could imagine.

After I crossed the finish line on Boylston Street, I asked one of the volunteers to take my picture, as I wanted to capture the moment for posterity. I knew that MarathonFoto had been taking pictures all along the route that would be available for purchase, but I wanted at least a handful taken with my own camera.

Little did I know what Adidas was doing with their own personalized video campaign.

What an incredibly good idea!

Adidas went above and beyond to provide some 30,000 runners who participated in this legendary race that day with an exclusive, custom-made highlight film. All you had to do was enter your 2018 Boston Marathon bib number at this URL and up would come a short, little clip starring you, the average (well, if you’re like me, average) Boston Marathon runner taken along the course of this historic event.

Thanks to this article in Adweek, you can read all about how Adidas pulled together this impressive campaign with the assistance of their agency, Grow.

Kudos to them for coming up with this idea to immortalize so many marathon runners, each of whom — if they’re anything like me — certainly appreciated having this epic experience captured in such a, powerful personalized manner.

In making it all about their audience in the Boston Marathon, Adidas and Grow made the campaign of a marketer’s – and runner’s – dreams.

Author

  • Bob Cargill

    Bob Cargill, who was named the New England Direct Marketing Association's "Direct Marketer of the Year" for 2009, is an independent social media director, content marketer, copywriter, storyteller, creative director and public speaker...available for hire. You can follow Bob on Twitter at @cargillcreative.