Every year Susan G. Komen celebrates Race for The Cure, a 5K race against breast cancer. This event represents 56% of the organization’s net income. A huge part of it goes to the local community to fund breast health education, breast cancer screenings and treatment projects.

The last few years the number of participants in Puerto Rico began to drop from 14,500 attendees to 11,580, over 20% less participation over the last 5 years.

Recent studies showed that the community lacked awareness of the impact the Race had on women’s lives. SGKomen had to showcase the event’s big end results and why it’s so important to participate each year.

It was clear SGKomen had to start the race with the finish line. The idea was to make people “Save the Date,” not for the race, but for a wedding celebration. Prints, TV-spots and radio-spots were turned into invitations to this special moment, one single event out of thousands made possible because of the community’s support of the race.

The day of the race, almost 15,000 came to see the celebration, an activation that became a clear symbol of the event’s true finish line.

Over $160,000 was gained in earned media.

By having a wedding celebration during the event, the finish line of the race took on a completely different meaning. The campaign’s communication prior to the event and the actual day of the wedding made people understand what was the real payoff of the race: That it gave breast cancer patients and their loved ones the opportunity to be present in life’s big celebrations and experiences.

The day of the race there was a total of 14,698 registered participants, an 18% increase in participation from last year’s event. This represents a total of $367,450 in inscription alone.

To the organization’s surprise, the overall attendance was almost 17,000, the most attendants the event had ever witnessed over the past 9 years.

Not only did the inscriptions increase; historically, 2013 was the year where more partners and sponsors joined the cause. This helped the organization raise a total of half a million in revenues.

During the month in which the campaign aired, the Susan G. Komen of Puerto Rico Orientation Hotline reported a 70% increase in calls, in comparison with the calls received during the previous months.

Facebook likes increased 24%.

Visits to Susan G. Komen’s local website (komenpr.org) increased by 15%

Over $160,000 was gained in earned media. These results was measured a total of 44 days.