Olympikus, Brazil's top sports brand, has always sponsored Brazil's top athletic stars, and Vanderlei was no exception.

During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Vanderlei wore Olympikus gear, so it was fitting - 20 years later - to bring him back to Athens, where he and indirectly Olympikus made history.

Our briefing was to not just create a campaign but to recreate the journey of one of Brazil's greatest heroes through various steps and content formats, storytelling all his journey from preparation and training to the finish line.

Olympikus challenged Vanderlei to return to Athens and run the course that made him a global athletics hero. He hadn't run a full marathon in 15 years.

We decided to recreate, 20 years later, every step Vanderlei took to reach the 2004 Athens Olympics, in a content journey that accompanied him throughout this saga.

We repeated the same training protocol as in 2004, with the same coach, and same sponsor, Olympikus.

Afterwards, Vanderlei went to Athens to run again the same and exact 42KM marathon course from 2004, with the same tag number from the Olympics as well: 1234. To motivate Vanderlei further, Brazilian fans and creators recorded and wrote supportive messages alongside the hashtag #VoaVanderlei(#FlyVanderlei)

During the marathon, as a surprise, hundreds of fans awaited him at the spot where he was attacked, paying homage to him as the great sports idol he is.

Every brazilian knows that Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima is a sports and media phenomenon. Whenever someone mentions him at a bar or on the street, someone will say, "ah, that's the runner who was attacked but didn't give up and won a medal. He's an idol."

We knew that simply bringing Vanderlei out of retirement and having him train for a marathon would attract media attention. Still, challenging him to recreate all his steps from 2004, from training in Colombia to finishing his marathon in Athens would capture the attention of all Brazilians.

Therefore, each content piece was meticulously crafted within this scenario, from preparation, fan interaction, training, creators, and of course, Vanderlei's final race in Athens.

All content broke audience records on Olympikus channels and attracted lots of Media Coverage from Brazil's top channels.

Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima ran a marathon 15 years after retiring, at the same location where he experienced the lowest point of his career and also his greatest victory.

We documented every step of this journey in exclusive content over three months, spanning from the preparation phase, through the marathon phase, and into the post-marathon phase, where the news was already a topic across Brazil, connecting creators, TV Channels, and the brand's platform.

Only the fact that Vanderlei returned to the most important place of his career was enough to attract a huge media coverage of Brazil's major news portals and media outlets and also Greek ones, which sent teams to Athens to follow the race firsthand and, of course, the tribute at KM36.

At kilometer 36, Vanderlei stopped being an athlete and became a hero.

We caught the attention of the major Brazilian media channels and outlets, which flew teams to Athens to cover the race, the tribute, and the journey firsthand.

Over 10 minutes of airtime on Brazil's top sports TV show.

Huge coverage of media outlets. Over 58 published articles about the subject. 7 of them were in Greek media outlets.

2.025.662.206 of media reach through these articles.

All posted content sets records for views, engagement, and audience for the Olympikus brand.

Over 80.000 interactions and over 700.000 organic reach with our content during the campaign period.

Vanderlei's return to athletics after 15 years of retirement not only produced excellent results for Olympikus but also for himself, completing the race in under 3hours, with 54 years old.

Moreover, Vanderlei left his pair of Olympikus shoes to be exhibited at the Museum of Running in Marathon, Greece, once again etching his name in history.