It was outside.

Actually it wasn't just outside... we put a fully stocked supermarket aisle in the most remote New Zealand wilderness 50km into one of the worlds most demanding ultramarathons.

That's how outdoor it was.

An ultramarathon is 60km and takes 8 hours on average.

There are usually small and simple aid stations with water and fruit, nothing like this.

The ‘Kepler track’ is one of the most remote tracks in the country, runners have to carry and an emergency blanket and transponder.

“FreshChoice have been a proud sponsor of the Kepler Challenge for eight years, and as a sponsor, we've behaved exactly as you'd expect: teardrop banners, branded hoardings, t-shirts, etc. With the advent of FreshChoice's new brand platform: 'That's Shopping Different,' we asked ourselves what does 'Supporting Different' look like? We know how difficult the Kepler challenge is for any runner, and wanted to show our support to this incredible community but we needed to execute through the lens of ‘Different’."

- FreshChoice Head of Marketing, Travis Tompsett

Imagine you're 50km into a bone numbing ultramarathon.

You have no energy left.

And then suddenly you come across a supermarket aisle stocked with everything you need to help you finish the race.

The Aid Aisle turned a sponsorship for an event for 450 elite athletes into a story resulted in over 80 pieces of content and reached millions.

Thousands of products were sampled with over 90% of runners taking something and cardboard bags allowed them to have items delivered to the finish for them. Each product supplier was also given unique content of their product in-situ, to share.

In New Zealand supermarkets have been suffering from bad press after Covid - the sentiment of the Aid Aisle was 100% positive - which is a big step in winning back trust.

The familiar elements of a supermarket aisle signage, wobblers, music and announcements became magical and entertaining elements in the leafy green environment.

But an incredible amount of thought also went into the design and construction, so that the aisle was elevated off the forest floor, carried in by hand and there were custom bins provided so there was no impact on the environment.

The Kepler Challenge takes on average 8 hours to complete so runners had been runnings for at least 4-5 hours before seeing the Aid Aisle.