The idea was the Sovereign Medal – While waiting for athletes we gave supporters a gold medal they could engrave a personalised message onto for their loved one, which they could present at the finish line.

Triathlons are long events. taking hours as competitors run, cycle and swim around a course – leaving supporters waiting hours for their loved ones to cross the finish line.

This gave us the idea - The Sovereign Medal.

What we saw was an outpouring of engraved heartfelt messages congratulating their participant on taking on this challenging journey.

“Congrats Daddy”

“Go Andrew, best coach ever!”

“Go Sammy Kinloch 2016”

“Lightening McQueen”

“Well done Mummy”

The medal served as a powerful ambient media aperture, creating a tangible expression of the brand that would be kept and remembered forever.

It enabled Sovereign to create a deeply meaningful experience with supporters making them more open to giving us their details.

First, we made 3,000 Sovereign gold medals for the event. Each medal had a blank space at the back for the engraved message.

Next, we invested in two engraving machines.

At the event we created a ‘Take Charge’ zone where supporters could come, win prizes, chill out, and create their medal. To get in, they had to sign in.

Sovereign brand ambassadors were there to help supporters to create their messages of support.

We created a branded podium, so once their personalised medal was created, supporters (and Triathletes) could have their photo taken by a Sovereign ambassador.

Where possible Sovereign ambassadors also captured the special moment at the finish line where the medal was handed to the triathlete. These images were shared on Sovereign’s Facebook page.

The event ran over 3 months in 7 locations across the North and South Islands.

1,728 personalised medals were created.

1,534 leads - 89% conversion rate and 10% more than our 1,400 leads target

63% of triathletes received a Sovereign medal.

We drove deep engagement – on average people spent 10 minutes at our activation, 3x the industry standard on events of this type.

People were much more willing to have a conversation with us and valued the experience we gave them. Some of the feedback:

• “What an awesome idea! I've never seen something like this”

• “I’ve never been to an event where I received a free personalised medal”

• “How are you going to top this next year?!”

• “Love the personal touch!”

• “Never seen something like this at any event. So unique and encouraging”