VIDEO: New York Marathon

Every year in early November, the streets of New York City are flooded with 50,000+ marathon runners and millions of on-lookers. And in 2013, the then-startup, Zoomph, grabbed the opportunity to build the live social media buzz for this world-wide event. 

Working in startup-land, my scrappy marketing team of two (just myself and my tech & video producer!) rolled up our sleeves and got to work to deliver something as big as New York City itself. We collaborated with back-end developers, to build a series of three-story digital media billboards that would line the path of the entire marathon — sharing live social shout-outs from onlookers and fans. 

In addition to real-time marketing, we also worked across national media outlets to storyboard video plugs that the NYC marathon could use to market future events. And…while I’m typically the content producer behind the scenes, I even jumped in front of the camera once or twice to give context on how social media can amplify brands.

Result: 

When our approach went live on marathon day, it was like capturing lightning in a bottle. The energy of the live event in NYC was translated into millions of tweets, facebook posts, and social stories that reached every corner of the earth. Sponsors loved this strategy so much that Zoomph became the official engagement team for the NYC Marathon (and related events) for the next 5 years.