Challenge
“Nosotras Corremos” is the third 10K women’s race organised by Nike in Mexico City. For the past two years the race has successfully recruited women aged 26-35 years old. The challenge was to keep the existing runners and to attract a younger audience to broaden the base of consumers to spread Nike’s message; “If you want it you can do it”.
Women between 15 to 25 years old have been historically indifferent towards running. In 2012 the challenge was to increase the number of runners by at least 15% compared to 2011. However, this challenge is not easy to overcome considering Mexico is ranked as the most obese country in the world. According to World Health Report and the National Health & Nutrition Survey, in Mexico, almost 80% of women over 20 years old face obesity and overweight problems.
Insight
Mexican women like doing things in groups; this motivates them and enhances the experience. This is particularly true for younger women, who MPG named "social network natives”. They use these networks to find family, friends or neighbours when they need to solve problems, find entertainment, meet people, get advice, be pampered, share good news, or just for gossiping.
Based on this insight Nike wanted to have a social strategy focused on developing an interaction with young women and use enthusiastic runners to encourage the younger women and get them to sign up.
Solution
The campaign began with a TV spot where celebrities called for women to participate. Three radio stations, popular with young women in Mexico, were also used to promote the race.
To support the campaign adverts were placed in women’s magazines, stickers were given out on university campuses and guerrilla posters were place near running courses and local gyms.
As digital was key, an application was created on Facebook where girls were able to invite their friends, create groups, set challenges together, gain recognition along the way, get running tips and share the experience, all of which encouraged them to run the race together.
To nurture Nike’s core fans their running hot spots were targeted and bags containing three bracelets were given out, one for themselves and two to pass on the friends to invite them to the race. The bag also contained information on the Facebook app as well as the data for the registration.
On the day of the race, a giant screen was placed to display programmed tweets from the runners’ accounts. The messages were published after they went across the finish line.
Results
25% increase in the number of runners on the previous year
40% increase in participation in the target group of women ages 15-25
Out of the 10,000 participants in the race, 37% used the application and 483 groups were created within it
Nike’s fan page increased fans by +25% by the end of the event