Samsung is the official sponsor of the Tel Aviv Marathon - Israel’s biggest sports event of the year. It has been for the last seven years, but a year ago, the brand famously reworked its brand promise and now communicates under the “Do What You Can’t” tagline. A promise that sets a completely new standard and is notoriously challenging to live up to.

Like all sponsorships, Samsung’s objective was to strengthen the esteem in which consumers hold the brand. But due to the growing popularity of running as a sport, in recent years, the number of marathon events and brands sponsoring these events has dramatically increased. As a result, sports sponsorship’s value has eroded and become gradually less effective, visible and impactful. Our objective was to make Samsung’s sponsorship highly visible, engaging and inclusive while allowing people to live up to our brand’s promise.

Everyone knows that you don’t WIN a marathon; you RUN a marathon.

That is except for Samsung whose motto is #DOWHATYOUCANT.

That’s why it created the “Win Win Marathon”: the first marathon ever where everyone and anyone can definitely win 1st place in their own, very, very, very specific category.

RUN. WIN. TAKE 1ST PLACE. SHOW OFF

People who run marathons live to brag about their accomplishments and tell the whole world how well they did, what place they came in at and what medals they won. But let’s face it, the chances of winning 1st place are slim. But what if Samsung could help people #DoWhatYouCant?

Samsung used runners’ data to create a personal category for each individual runner, which they were sure to win in. Specifically, Samsung asked every runner to complete a personal online questionnaire as part of their registration. The data collected at that point and after the race (personal time, pace, distance etc) were fed into a system that created for every runner their very own, exclusive ‘category of one’.

Thus, there was only one winner who called David, who lived in Tel Aviv, is a sworn ‘Grateful Dead’ fan and surfs a SUP in his spare time.

Samsung used runners’ data to create a personal category for each individual runner, which they were sure to win in. Specifically, Samsung asked every runner to complete a personal online questionnaire as part of his or her marathon registration process. The data collected at that point and the data collected after the race (personal time, pace, distance etc) were fed into a system that created for every runner their very own, exclusive ‘category of one’.

Thus, there was only one winner who called David, who lived in Tel Aviv, is a sworn ‘Grateful Dead’ fan and surfs a SUP in his spare time.

Thanks to this data driven approach, Samsung gave all marathon runners the encouragement they needed to face whatever challenges they came up against and emerge victors.

10.000 personal winner certificates were awarded at the finish line

Fame – we took pictures of every winning runner and projected them on digital billboards giving our runners the honor they deserve and their moment in the limelight.

Bragging rights & Buzz - We sent each runner their winner certificate to share on social media