The San Francisco Marathon (via The Lemonade Agency)
Years of decline reversed with a story instead of a discount.
Price promotion was the obvious move and the wrong one. What the race meant to the people who ran it was the asset nobody was using.
Where things stood
The San Francisco Marathon had seen years of declining registration and turnout, with branding and messaging that no longer connected with the runners it needed to attract.
The call
The obvious move against declining registration is a price promotion. I turned that down. Discounting a race people already weren't excited about would have just trained them to wait for the next discount, so the strategy was a brand repositioning built around what the race actually meant to the runners who kept coming back, not a markdown.
What got built
- Built a brand repositioning strategy centered on the runner as customer, not just the event as a fixture on the calendar
- Rebuilt the event's creative and messaging around what the race meant to its most committed runners
- Carried the new brand and creative through every channel it touched, including the email and social programs, rather than treating those as separate campaigns layered on top
Results
Reversed
years of decline in event turnout
Record
turnout for the event under the new positioning
Scope
Brand and customer-focus strategy as VP of Strategy, via The Lemonade Agency. Creative and media ran through the agency team.
Aaron always manages to connect all of those dots.
Trevor Dudeck · CEO, The Lemonade Agency