TNF100 is an ultra trail of 100km long, one of the toughest race of all, with thousands of participants attending every year. However, for the past three years, everything had to stop:

* Gansu ultramarathon tragedy: 21 runners died after an extreme weather change in a government-run 100km trail running race held in north west China.

* Multiple citywide lockdowns: Over the past two years, China’s zero-Covid policy led to multiple full or partial lockdowns in at least 27 cities across the country, affecting up to 180 million people, according to CNN's calculations.

After this 3-year hiatus, TNF100 finally returned in 2023. How could we encourage Chinese runners to go back to trail and embrace the beauty of nature once again? And how to bring back its relevance?

Our solution - While runners needed one reason, we gave them 10,000 (100∞) leveraging on the power of ChatGPT and Mid-journey; 10,000 reasons why we should all return to the mountains showcased in a fully AI-generated 2-hour 42-minute film, an expansive billboard and campaign posters at TNF100 race camp in Moganshan (China) and on Chinese social media. 10,000 reasons to go back to trail, you only need one.

TNF100 is one of the biggest ultramarathon IPs in the country; The North Face created it 10+ years ago, and has gathered over the years a tremendously active community of runners and brand lovers, with true love for endurance.

Our approach was to leverage ChatGPT to generate a 2-hour 42-minute long film featuring 10 000 (100∞) reasons why we all need to go back out there, and keep running.

AI was used during the entire process of this campaign; ChatGPT generated 10 000 reasons why we should all return to the mountains, and a few hundreds prompts for Mid-journey to create visuals related to the topic; then showcased in a fully AI-generated 2-hour 42-minute film, an expansive billboard and campaign posters at TNF100 race camp in Moganshan (China) and on Chinese social media.

200% increase in trail running participants

416% increase in event registration

6.2 million impressions on social media