Badminton. High-diving. Swimming. China has won international medals for many sports, but never for running. The current national marathon (recorded more than 12 years ago) stands a full seven minutes behind the world record. Backing for the national team has waned along with the entire nation’s belief. Running is viewed as a sport they shouldn’t take too seriously, because their body wasn’t built for it.

For a brand that stands behind human potential, discounting yourself because of your nationality goes against what Nike believes in. To drive this belief, a special project was set up to prove the nation wrong. It did not involve elite professionals, but selected everyday runners with regular jobs and lives. All of them were united with one motive: To surprise China and prove that they can compete with the best in the world. This project was called Dark Horse. We set out to tell a story that got a nation to believe.

The Shanghai marathon is China’s biggest race. Every year, leading up to the event, participants are hit by a plethora of the same old content like ‘How to finish your first marathon’ or ‘Ten ways to stay hydrated’. Brands perceive that, three months away from the race, practically is valued ahead of engagement. The result is that most of it tends to be ignored.

Running is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. A huge part of being successful in running a marathon is staying motivated throughout the training period. So instead of run-of-the-mill training videos, Nike wanted to go one step further. So, it gave the nation a point to prove.

Our mission was to tell the story that’ll get a nation to believe – The story of Project Dark Horse. Through a five-part docu-series launched on the Nike NRC WeChat, runners were engaged by the Dark Horse’s illogical passion for running. Every fortnight for ten weeks, runners got to see how and why the Dark Horses trained, getting them gradually fired up for the race. With the episodes serving as that jolt of motivation, the NRC WeChat account was then able to disseminate specialized content such as Dark Horse training tips, insights into how they stay hungry and the gear they used, ensuring that the NRC WeChat was the hub of all things running ahead of the biggest race of the country.

The series forged a connection with runners and opened up a two-way dialogue. Whenever an episode or post was updated, a high number of comments, training questions and words of encouragement were recorded. In the lead-up to the Shanghai Marathon, the Nike NRC WeChat account burst into life as an active community hub.

• 72 million total impressions

• 267,000 visits to the Nike NRC WeChat (3 times more than 2018)

• 80% click-through-rate to Nike NRC WeChat

• 1.3 million active engagements on Weibo

The national (and world) records remain unbroken. But two years in, the fastest Dark Horse is already within 16 minutes of the national record. New PBs (personal best timings) continue to be set in every race. Most importantly, through qualitative interviews, we’re seeing a shift in the nation’s perspective – China is starting to believe.