Banco Popular is the largest bank in Puerto Rico, an island going through a 7-year economic slump. In order to succeed as a business, Popular needs Puerto Rico to recover.

2012 was an Olympic year. So the bank sponsored Puerto Rican athlete Javier Culson, who was chosen not because of his ability, but because of his event: the 400 meters with hurdles.

By making the country see the hurdles Culson jumps as the obstacles the country needs to overcome, Popular invited Puerto Rico, and especially the Puerto Rican media, to give his race a completely different meaning.

Months before the Olympics, Popular launched a PR campaign inviting Puerto Ricans to run with Culson. It featured traditional media, a promotion where people could overcome symbolic obstacles that formed a giant track around the island, a 30-minute TV documentary that viewed the event from social perspective, and even a wake-up call from Culson himself.

An underlying media relations effort made sure that everyone saw the race not in terms of what it meant for sports, but in terms of what it meant for the country.

Beyond providing original content for TV networks, the campaign’s message set the tone for the race’s coverage by daily newspapers, bringing it from the sports section to the front page (one of which featured the bank’s CEO).

By redefining the event, the bank kept alive a movement it had sparked in 2011 by remaking and changing the message of a very popular Puerto Rican song.

By making the country see the hurdles Culson jumps as the obstacles the country needs to overcome, Popular invited Puerto Rico to run with Culson and gave his race a completely different meaning.

First, it turned the entire island into a track by placing 10 giant hurdles in different locations. Each one symbolized an obstacle the country needed to overcome. Many checked-in for the chance to win a trip to the Olympics.

Next, as the event began at 6AM Puerto Rican time, Popular opened an IVR phone service where people could subscribe to receive a wake-up call from Javier Culson himself just before the race.

Finally, the bank partnered with Univisión and became a content provider during the Olympics. It produced a series of episodes as success stories of overcoming obstacles and even a 30-minute TV documentary about Culson that aired the night before the race.

Over 350,000 people subscribed to receive the wake-up call and heard the message just before watching the race.

As inspirational reminders and additional content was sent to these subscribers, our story about the race of a country reached more than a million. At the same moment when subscribers received a symbolic medal through MMS, the CEO of Popular, who is synonymous with the brand in Puerto Rico, awarded the Olympic medal to Culson on live TV. Even while the final result was bronze, 4 million Puerto Ricans looked beyond the sport and viewed the outcome as a triumph.