The initial objective of this project was to connect Milk to performance in a culturally impactful way in New York City—and what better cultural moment than the NYC Marathon. Rather than sponsoring the race as so many brands do, Milk turned the spotlight on the runner—the woman runner. Recognizing that only 7% of the $30 billion of the global sponsorship pool goes to women, we came up with the idea of sponsoring all women runners at the NYC Marathon. Our goal was to not only shine a light on these incredible athletes, but also prove to the younger generation of women runners that their dreams, goals, and finish lines matter.

Milk has a long history of championing professional women athletes going back to the iconic “Got Milk?” campaign. With “26.2,” our intention was to go beyond professional endorsement and instead make tangible commitments to real, everyday women runners.

Our “26.2, You’re Gonna Need Milk for That” program delivered over 1.3 billion impressions across earned, owned, and paid social channels. With 100,000 social media engagements and coverage in 269 articles, we received 3,473 women Team Milk sign-ups and raised $600,000 for Girls on the Run. We also succeeded in improving the perception of Milk as a performance beverage—a brand lift study conducted during this campaign showed that 51% of respondents exposed to the campaign were “more likely” to consider Milk as a post-workout beverage.

EARNED

1.3B+ earned media impressions over 269 articles

$11.57M+ earned media value

INFLUENCER

9.86M+ social media impressions over 80 posts

103K+ social media engagements

OWNED SOCIAL

3,752 engagements

2,462,325 impressions

PAID

224M total media impressions

Our overarching mission is to drive reconsideration for Milk as a performance drink, creating awareness of Milk’s modern performance benefits. But men and women don’t perceive these benefits equally. Women are less likely to associate Milk with benefits linked to performance than men. And women and girls don’t have the same opportunity to reach peak performance (or get the same recognition) as boys and men. To fulfill our mission, we need to help women and girls reach peak performance and drive more awareness of Milk’s performance benefits.

Our “26.2” platform allowed us to sponsor, support, and spotlight modern moms and daughters to help eliminate the barriers that prevent them from reaching their peak performance.

The NYC Marathon is one of the most iconic and inclusive events in all of sports. From the grueling borough bridges to the rolling hills of Central Park, it’s also one of the most challenging marathons. Our priority was creating an experience that made this very tough race undeniably better for our runners. In the lead-up, we spoke to dozens of women to find out what mattered. Matching entry fees for charitable donation rose to the top, but so did providing motivational support. So, we created a cheer section at mile 23. Decked in white, we equipped our squad with cowbells and motivational messages to provide our runners with the inspiration they needed to get through the final miles. Many Team Milk runners wrote to us about how the cheer section gave them the strength to push through the toughest part of the marathon.