This was a media campaign with one goal in mind: women's representation. While most brands sponsor the NYC Marathon, we pledged to sponsor every woman running. We reached runners by creating OOH media placements on the most popular running routes in the city, inviting women to sign up on-site via QR code. We worked with a technology partner to dynamically serve images to hundreds of digital screens and billboards, which included photos taken at our booth at the NYC Marathon Expo. These dynamic placements continued into marathon weekend and the following week to congratulate our finishers.

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 idea was to offer all women runners at the NYC Marathon the experience of being sponsored athletes—before, during, and after the race. We created OOH ads on popular city running routes, directing women to a sign-up page via QR code. We provided nutrition, stretching and training advice ahead of the race in IG live sessions. We also took over the Javits Center, offering our runners premium experiences like nutrition and personal training advice as well as a performance zone photobooth where women had the opportunity to get their pictures taken and be featured on city-wide outdoor ads. During the race, we lined the 23rd mile with a cheering squad. After the race, we invited them to our state-of-the-art recovery lounge to refuel with chocolate milk and get massage treatments. We supported them at every point of the race.

Milk has been fueling athletes for centuries and has more nutrients than any formulated performance beverages. Based on this insight, we set out to reposition Milk as a performance drink.

Despite the category being in decline, subcategories have been growing. Value-added milks (VAM)—whole, organic, grass-fed, protein-infused—saw 11%-14% growth a year. We found potential in doubling or tripling VAM.

The people who were buying were younger, affluent audiences—more than half having children at home with strong usage of more premium, branded Milk: for overnight oats, protein shakes, and chocolate milk for workout recovery. Milk was their partner in performance. We call them “Modern Milk Families,” with moms and girls being priority audiences.

In terms of media, our approach was simple: Meet women marathon runners where they are. That led us to a combination of high-impact and digital OOH along popular running routes, influencer marketing, and street teams.

“26.2” began with an epic OOH ad on the NASDAQ Board NY that resembled a glass of milk. We enlisted 100 women Influencers to share their stories, inviting women runners to join Team Milk. OOH boards placed along popular routes featured women marathon runners and included a QR Code driving runners to sign up on our site. We provided nutrition, stretching, and training advice ahead of the race in IG live sessions and directed our team to the Javits Center to collect athletic apparel, consult with a trainer, then take photos that became real-time digital ads all around the city. During the race, we stationed a cheering squad at mile 23. After the race, runners were invited to a state-of-the-art recovery lounge to receive massage therapy and refuel with chocolate milk. It was produced in 85 days. Media ran for a month prior and two weeks following the race.

Our “26.2, You’re Gonna Need Milk for That” campaign 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 of all 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.