• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 18, 2016

John Hancock, long-time sponsor of the Boston Marathon, found a more social way to encourage racers through the final push, with 26 banners selected from its #RunBold campaign.

The effort, part of the company’s “Extra Mile” project, has allowed runners to upload their photos for months now, selecting from a dozen key theme words chosen by Hancock, such as gratitude, passion, psyched, heart, drive, and determination. The app gave them the option of saving the picture for themselves, sharing on their own social media networks with a #RunBold hashtag, or entering the image in consideration for the banners.

The company says the idea was to have runners, fans and volunteers shouting out about their own personal connection to the world’s most famous marathon. It says it received 800 entries for the banner competition.

“We felt the initiative would allow us to take the annual citywide banner program and make it come alive by having runners create and share, through their own social platforms, personalized banners,“ says Robert L. Friedman, Hancock’s head of sponsorship and event marketing.

Hancock has sponsored the race for 31 years, and the street banners it has been using for the last 20 years are “the epicenter of how we think about our messaging and it then extends to all of our integrated marketing messaging and materials,” he tells Marketing Daily.

Hancock notified the 26 who were chosen to line Boylston Street about a week ago, “and they were all thrilled,” says Breanne Diorio, brand content manager, in an email. ”This year’s campaign focused on the journey that runners take to get to the start line (never mind the finish) and the endurance, both mental and physical, that is required." 

Other sponsors of this year’s race -- which was run under sunny skies and for the first time, swept by Ethiopian runners -- were making plenty of noise too, including Adidas, AT&T, and Jet Blue. Samuel Adams cooked up a special 26.2 Boston Brew just for the occasion, served along the race route. Gatorade Endurance made a video tribute focusing on a handful of racers explaining the mile of the course that mans the most to them.

And New England Acura Dealers, the automotive sponsor, used the race to show off its brand-new Acura NSX. It served as the Grand Marshal pace car, with Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the marathon 50 years ago, riding inside.