The context: we were six weeks out from the event itself, and ASB needed an idea to drive awareness and brand love by going beyond a pure naming sponsorship. Timings was tight, as was our budget.

The brief: to create a newsworthy idea associated with the ASB Auckland Marathon which activated runners to engage before, during and after the event.

The objective: generate awareness as a sponsor, and drive brand love for ASB under their brand platform ‘Keeping New Zealanders one step ahead.’

The idea: to make runners of the ASB Auckland Marathon feel even better about their marathon time, we pledged to match every minute run in the race with a minute of work in the community.

The ASB Marathon Effort tracked every minute live at the event on a bespoke digital billboard at the finish line and thanked every runner for their time.

In the lead up to the event we utilised event sponsors, social influencers running the race, and earned media to explain the concept. During the event we used live data to count the hours run and congratulate every runner on their time. And beyond the event, we’ve created a campaign of ongoing social content to keep our audience engaged with how the hours are being used in the community, as well as promote broader CSR efforts both internally and externally

Every runner loves an opportunity to talk about what they’re training for and why. We used this insight to inspire influencers running in the event to feel even better about their marathon time and boost our positive message.

The Marathon Effort – turn your blood, sweat and tears from the race into blood, sweat and volunteers for the community.

Our target was Auckland city. To reach the masses we directly targeted runners of all races within the ASB Auckland Marathon – leveraging the excitement around it to generate registrations and awareness.

We launched with a social film and personalised eDMs explaining the concept. Followed by influencer callouts, and media kit to national news and event partners. We celebrated the runner with the longest time to use as social content. Finally, we partnered with local charities to build content of ASB staff in the community putting the marathon hours back in.

Every runner loves an opportunity to talk about what they’re training for and why. We used this insight to inspire participants of the event to feel even better about their marathon time, boost our positive message and create groundswell in the lead-up to the race.

We approached our target audience systematically to make the most of our budget. First leveraging our database generated with direct comms which launched the idea in tangent with a film on ASBs social channels. Then inviting influencers and followers to help us spread it.

Followed by a push at pre-race events to register at Marathon Effort branded kiosks.

Almost half of the marathon participants were aware of the initiative and over 2,000 registered. On the day we personally thanked every runner with an SMS once they’d crossed the finish line and invited them to follow the Marathon Effort in action.

The campaign moved the needle significantly on the brand’s key metric; brand love, it has completely repositioned the way employees within the bank think of the business too. The initiative launched at ASB Live, a national internal conference seen by the workforce to resounding applause and has seen employees lining up to get involved and help communities in need.

45.1% awareness of the campaign by event’s participants

22% more engagement than the brand’s previous marathon campaign.

• 6,800 visits to the microsite in the weeks leading up to the event, 7-31st October

• 2,403 runners registered their time – 28% increase in total number of entries to campaign equivalent in 2017

• Over 5,400 hours pledged (325,013 minutes)

• 75k views on Benji’s Marathon Effort follow up story.

• 2 point increase in awareness of ASB’s support of ASB Auckland Marathon.

• 5 point increase in “Actively supports the community”