• by Karl Greenberg , November 4, 2010

The ING New York City Marathon is upon us, although New Yorkers have been looking at the "I'm In. We're In" out-of-home campaign for two months. The effort has led up to Sunday's race with advertising, promotion, social media, events, and licensing.

The event, part of the World Marathon Majors series of yearly top-tier marathons, gets two million spectators roadside, and at the finish and the global viewing audience tops 300 million. The other races in the series are in Chicago, London, Berlin and Boston.

The marathon, run by the New York Road Runners Club, now has about 24 consumer brands sponsoring the race. They include Asics, Continental Airlines, the Foot Locker, New York Times, and Timex in the starting lineup of "Principal Sponsors." Timex is in its third year as Official Timekeeper.

The next tier of sponsorship, "Signature and Supporting," comprises 19 brands, including Tata Consultancy Services -- which, along with third-tier sponsor Unilever, is new this year. The two companies also represent two new sponsorship product categories: consumer packaged goods and financial services.

Also new are Subway and Nissan. Subway's most famous customer, Jared Fogle, will be running the race as part of an effort to get back into trim, after having gained back some of the weight that he famously lost eating subs. The company has activated with ads and is activating at its 200 area stores.

Nissan will have the most visible presence for viewers, as it is using the race to tout the new Leaf electric car, and is driving consumers to its MasterTheShift.com site. Nissan will have its vehicles at "cheer zones" along the race route and the Leaf is the pace car for the course.

On the media side, Rodale Press's Runner's World returns as a sponsor and the publication's Editor in Chief David Willey will have the preparatory challenge of both running the race and conducting "Live on the Run" interviews with other runners for NBC's broadcast.

Adidas, which is sponsoring racer Haile Gebrselassie, brought him to speak to the press about the race on Thursday. For the race -- this is the first time he is participating -- he will wear Adidas AdiZero Adios running shoes.

The sports shoe and apparel company used the event to showcase a product it revealed at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the miCoach training platform -- a digital wristwatch or clip-on device that verbally coaches a runner during training.