We noticed that Delta’s competitors behaved more like outsiders than insiders, buying big media around the city, slapping a logo on local sponsorship's.

We needed to get inside the things that make New Yorkers tick, and make them talk, in a way that only Delta could.

Delta’s brand philosophy, Keep Climbing, is a mantra that promises a flying experience that enables the pursuit of opportunities out in the world, and a believe that the pursuit is as important as the outcome.

Our creative media idea was Only in New York + Keep Climbing Moments: we would activate in quintessentially New York moments, where New Yorkers were collectively reaching for new heights.

Nike+ data told us that the typical New York marathoner’s training regimen peaks with a big run two weeks before the race. It’s the decisive moment in their climb. Further digging into the Nike+ data told us that a 2-mile stretch on the West Side Highway was the training zone with the most steps counted, calories burned and miles logged.

That weekend and that route became our focus. On October 23, two weekends before the Marathon, we created a keep climbing message of support for runners GOing for their goal, ‘NY is GO’.

The NY is GO activation turned the 2-mile training ground into a social media hotbed and public pep rally, setting up stations where runners could refresh, refuel and rally their friends and fans on social media.

With runners providing the initial social spark, we poured on paid social to fuel the local love.

Preference is a typically stubborn metric to move for Delta, particularly in a crowded New York.

Their preference score was 4% points higher in the month following the campaign, smashing our goal of a 2% increase. Our ‘little’ 2-mile, 2-week activation represented the highest ever level for the metric, and the biggest advantage over Delta’s competitors in 2016.

Our social media content delivered over 3.4mm impressions. We dramatically exceeded engagement goals for activations of this size and spend, delivering +234%.

We also earned our way into the local conversation, appearing in 10 city calendars from local publishers and blog posts. By taking a courageous approach to insights and strategy, Delta won the battle for local love in New York.