For 15 years the Bridge to Brisbane charity run has been great at attracting runners (40,000/year) but not so good at getting them to raise money.

Advertising campaigns have failed to address this. The global financial crisis, charity fatigue and over-familiarity with the event also posed problems. Rather than change the ad campaign, we changed the race with Hero Time. Every dollar a runner raised for charity equalled one second off their race time. The concept was launched and promoted via TV, events, social media, press and outdoor. It was simple and novel enough to strike a chord. Multiple media outlets picked up the story and the people of Brisbane got behind the idea. The number of fundraisers doubled. The previous fundraising record was passed with 7 weeks to go. The final fundraising record was 221% of the old record: $355,00 to $785,000. 214 charities joined in.

For the past five years, emotional charity campaigns have not increased fundraising for the event. But while there is not a lot of interest in the charitable efforts of the race, there is always a lot of interest in the race times which are published the following Tuesday. By focusing on race times instead of the heart strings, Hero Time made fundraising novel and completely integral to the race, it fueled existing competition amongst friends, family and co-workers – every dollar raised was a one second head start - and it meant people could ask for time instead of money.

Fundraising for the Bridge to Brisbane is traditionally slow until the final week. The launch of Hero Time saw fundraising for the first 3 weeks up 470% compared to the the previous year. Following the race, the Hero Time winner (a man with cerebral palsy who finished in negative time) became a favourite of TV chat shows.

Overall:

- Media coverage increased by 17%

- 214 charities promoted Hero time to their audiences.

- Previous fundraising record ($355,000) passed with 7 weeks to go.

- Final fundraising total more than doubled ($785,000) old record.

- Runners who actually fundraised doubled (from 4% to 8.3%)