How would you inspire a nation to run with just a mobile phone?

“Last One Run” is a 10km elimination group race where the route is divided into 10 checkpoints. Each runner could only reveal the next leg of the route by texting their unique registration number to a 5 digit short-code found at each checkpoint before.

Runners had to pass each stop as quickly as possible, with the last person at each checkpoint eliminated until the last one running is crowned the victor of that group race.Nike’s digital running community, Runners’ Network, was central to online registration, race selection dates and recording of run times. Banners, campus media and buzz seeding drove awareness, interest and ultimately, participation.Marrying digital with the real world, “Last One Run” took the idea of play and mobile and weaved it into the nation’s very first SMS-powered running race.

4 weekends and 6 cities later, 1,077 people covered a distance of 1,920km in 192 group runs. The 16 to 29 age group accounted for more than 87% of the total registrations, a core target audience for Nike.Many signed up with friends to form group races, with word-of-mouth being the key event awareness driver.

Even when it rained, the group races went ahead in full steam as participants saw this as an alternative way to hang out with their mates whilst doing sport. The challenge of “running where you don’t know” was both exciting and fun for them.This is now an on-going initiative to include more cities, more races and more runs with more people.