React, the epic shoe from Nike features a foam that’s softer, lighter and bouncier than anything out there. The moment you wear them, you want to run. To work, to the park, run errands. You get the idea. But running in Bangkok is restricted to gyms. (Not fun) Or parks, where you’re running in circles. (Boring) A shoe that makes running fun needed an innovation that did just that.

We turned the city of Bangkok into a real-time running game. The moment you step out of your house, and switch on your Bluetooth, it’s game on. Like Mario Bros, but in the real world. The more streets you explore, the more tokens you collect. The more tokens you collect, the more rewards you unlock. We even motivated you to explore more of the city via surprise missions. Making every run a different one.

Core Segment: Anyone and everyone who's interested in running.

Broader Segment: Anyone who's a fan of Nike Thailand with an athletic outlook towards life.

The Strategy: We wanted elevate running into an fun and engaging experience. But we made sure, the UX of the game does not interfere with actual running experience. Working with LINE, we were able to build the entire game inside their messenger app. This allowed more people to participate without having to download any additional app.

Also, we were able to track the routes the runners were taking and what time they were running. In order to encourage more runners to explore different parts of the city, at different times of the day and night, we started releasing special missions that rewarded runners with 2X coins if they ran at odd-hours or took routes unexplored by other runners.

This made the whole running experience more competitive.

By spreading 200 beacons across Bangkok, we could seamlessly connect all the runners. Working with LINE (Thailand's biggest messaging-app), we built an integrated platform inside their chat messenger. Which meant, anyone and everyone could play. We didn't want our tech to interfere with existing running behaviour. So we built the entire game inside Line's (Thailand's biggest messaging app) chat messenger. Just switch on your Bluetooth and your phone would automatically collect the tokens.

15632 runners, 35,380 km run, 3,362,021 tokens collected in 15 days.

Nike has been in the forefront of technology when it comes to running shoes. With the launch of the Epic React, we wanted to bring the fun, back in the run. This idea took the running experience to a whole new level. Turning the city into a real-time video game was an ambitious but relevant way to bring this to life. Not only did people in Bangkok see running in a whole new light, the buzz around the shoe spread merely by word of mouth. More importantly, the shoe sold out in every store in Bangkok within 10 days.