Over the years, slow motion running has become shorthand for Baywatch. What started as a serious filming technique quickly became the pre-internet equivalent of a meme. This perfectly encapsulates the knowing tone of the new, updated and self-referential Baywatch movie.

Today, fitness and competitive running is growing in popularity with marathons now a big part of culture, bringing together people from all walks of life.

So we created Baywatch Slow Mo Marathon – a gruelling 0.3km race that had to be run entirely in slow motion. This was a real, live sporting event, complete with commentators, live stream coverage, the shutting down of 6 lanes of traffic in Downtown LA, and Under Armour as official sponsor.

The A-list cast were on hand to announce the event on their social channels and host the day; firing the starter's pistol, handing out water and giving 'professional' advice from the sidelines.

We created the world’s first slow motion marathon, announcing it two weeks before to 85 million people on Dwayne Johnson’s Instagram.

This was a real sporting event. A 0.3 km race, run entirely in slow motion. We closed 6 lanes of traffic in LA for an entire day, staged pre-race warm up sessions and set up rehydration stations for the thousands who came down. The cast of the new movie, including Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario, hosted the run, with Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier commentating live on Facebook. The winner was rewarded with a trip to the Miami premiere, to walk the red carpet alongside the cast.

The coverage spanned entertainment channels, event listings and sports platforms, turning the Baywatch Slow Mo Marathon into global news. Creating huge cross-category exposure for the new Baywatch movie and spurring thousands of fans to share their own #SlowMoChallenge on social.

The Baywatch Slow Mo Marathon generated nearly $12M in earned media. And in the middle of marathon season,

our LA event made headline news in 78 countries, garnering coverage in over 750 publications and outlets.

Over 1100 runners completed the slow motion marathon on the day, with a further 74K watching the events unfold on Facebook Live.

Our Slow Mo Marathon content after the event garnered over 11million views across platforms.

In the days following the event, Baywatch search terms skyrocketed as fans took to social media to share their own slow motion runs, generating 160M earned media impressions across social networks. The event itself started a cultural trend, with over 5,000 using the event hashtag, #SlowMoChallenge, to submit their own slow mo running on social.