26.2 miles may be the distance of a marathon, but the road to the finish line is further for women.

Recognizing that only 7% of the $30 billion of the global athlete sponsorship pool goes to women, we created “26.2. You’re Gonna Need Milk For That,” a program designed specifically to address gender inequality in sports. With the NYC Marathon, we saw an opportunity to make a difference. While most brands sponsor the race, we pledged to sponsor every woman running. For every woman who joined Team Milk, we matched their entry fees with a donation to Girls on the Run and provided them with support before, during, and after the race. We created a community and celebrated real women runners in our media. We earned over a billion impressions; received 3,473 sign-ups; raised $600,000 for the next generation; and created a long-term platform for change.

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. Given the inequality of sponsorships dedicated 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.

Sports media is dominated by male athletes, and with media attention comes sponsorships—which women significantly lack in comparison. Women are overlooked and under-supported; however, the distance of a marathon—26.2 miles—is an equalizer. The numeric distance is the same for everyone no matter their gender. Since 1967, when Kathrine Switzer was invited to participate, 26.2 has signified the determination of women. Our objective was to address this by treating every single woman running the race like a pro and giving them the support they deserve, with the end goal of helping up-and-coming women runners through our partnership with Girls on the Run, a nonprofit that empowers girls through running. The idea was to create not just a one-off activation, but a program that could scale to different races across the country. NYC functioned as our inaugural event.

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 sales have been in decline for decades based on changing habits and new competition. We needed to give people new reasons to believe. Led by a fundamental truth, Milk has been fueling athletes for centuries and has more nutrients than formulated performance beverages, we set out 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 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 platform allowed us to sponsor, support, and spotlight moms and daughters, eliminating the barriers that prevent them from reaching peak performance.

“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” 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

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