To integrate Bank of America into the marathon experience, the campaign sought to leverage stories of individual achievement and shared celebration, realized in the campaign theme: “Greater as One.” The “Greater as One” theme was manifested through each campaign touch point leading up to the marathon, through marathon weekend.

The “Greater as One” theme was brought to life in the event poster by authentically engaging with Bank of America’s Chicago-based audience. To achieve that, we collaborated with Chicago-based artist Hebru Brantley. With local pride, Hebru depicted his interpretation of the campaign theme, illustrating landmarks of the diverse neighborhoods populating the marathon loop. He also incorporated his iconic “Flyboy” character, recognizable to Chicagoans as a motivational figure who appears on city murals and art spaces.

The artwork was realized in a collaborative process, relying on the strengths of Hebru Brantley’s highly recognizable and celebrated style.

Hebru typically places his “Flyboy” characters against a highly detailed backdrop of black-and-white sketches. Incorporating Hebru’s art allowed the Bank of America Chicago Marathon team to highlight the diversity of the city of Chicago and the landmarks in and around the marathon loop. Hebru was provided with a list of landmarks, which he brought to life with his sketch technique.

The final artwork was realized in mixed media, combining line art with hand painting and digital renderings.

The poster was given to approximately 50,000 runners and local employees. The digital Facebook Canvas post organically reached 46% more people compared to benchmark. On average, the post captured users’ attention for 30 seconds and 27% of those served the post watched it. The post had a 1.52% open rate compared to a benchmark of 0.79%.

The poster was a single element of the larger multi-channel campaign which collectively led to a +12 point increase in sponsorship awareness among the Chicago-area mass consumers and drove brand favorability (+10p) and consideration (+17p) among those aware of the bank’s sponsorship in Chicagoland.

Personal stories shared throughout the campaign resonated with Bank of America’s audience, which drove engagement (17.02% Twitter; 37.73% Facebook) and reach (impressions per post on Twitter increased 28% compared to benchmark) with content shared. Social conversation surrounding the marathon was positive and drove a +1.24 increase in brand sentiment.