• by Fern Siegel , October 31, 2024

Yard NYC teamed with the New York Road Runners organization to create the omnichannel campaign for this year’s New York Marathon.

And for the second year, several agency members are among the 50,000 running the 26.2-mile five-borough event. The race is this Sunday, Nov. 3.

Yard continued the “It Will Move You” platform, but divided it into two parts. An Apply campaign kicked off earlier this year, reminding runners to sign up and the Tune In campaign, which just rolled out on TV, online and OOH in Times Square, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center and the NYC subway.

Creative also included social posts, animated logo reveals, global magazine prints, and large-scale printed and digital out-of-home placements.

Plus, the spot, rather than focus on the pros, zeroed in on everyday people who want to participate in a communal event — and the love they receive from New Yorkers cheering them on.

“To really understand what makes the NYC Marathon unlike any other, we knew we had to experience it for ourselves. With many of our agency team investing in a 16+ week grueling training routine to run the race, it’s given us first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to experience the true magnificence of this event, which has been fondly dubbed the biggest block party in the world. Naturally, this has fueled our creative ideas and executions,” said Ruth Bernstein, CEO of Yard.

The 2024 campaign scored. It registered a 51% increase from 2022 in the number of people applying to run. The Marathon app was downloaded 500K+ times, a 9.5% increase YOY. The campaign reached nearly 100M digital impressions, an increase of 120%.