DHL Carpathian Marathon at its 10th edition

Issue/opportunity

The quintessence of what DHL does is to connect people. And by connecting people, DHL plays an important role in improving their lives. DHL Carpathian Marathon was created to offer to the participants the opportunity to join a community of people sharing similar values, driven by the common aim of helping others. In 2019, the event reached its 10th edition, an anniversary one. After a successful edition in 2018, the challenge was to achieve even better results and manage to raise more money to donate for the cause, the Romanian Paralympic athletes.

The Research

Studies conducted worldwide are revealing event attractiveness and the need to push the limits and compete with others as main motivation to participate at a marathon. From the previous editions we discovered that the participants consider the marathon hard, but the motivation to finish the race is very high once you start it.

The Planning

Adventure became our challenge. The 10^th edition of DHL Carpathian Marathon became each runner’s chance for a top adventure, the event where you can be part of a bold community, where you can prove yourself that you can do it and where you find inspiration right near you at the start line, in the Paralympic athletes. The objectives were to make more attractive the event, to keep the visibility of DHL Express Romania as organizer, to emphasize the partnership with MPG Romania, the event logistic partner and organizer, and not losing the focus on the social cause – The National Paralympic Committee, for the 5^th consecutive year.

The slogan was “Give yourself the chance of a top adventure! Join DHL Carpathian Marathon at its 10^th edition!”, in order to emphasize the adventure in it, when exploring the unseen Carpathians, with alt its wild and beauty.

The Implementation

The communication started when the registration was open, more than 4 months before June 22^nd, the day of the event. In order to keep the attention such a long time, the strategy was to focus on strategic partnerships, with media, influencers and other sport events, in addition to the PR efforts.

The initial timing included 5 important waves – announcing the registration is open, revealing the social cause, announcing the ambassadors of the event through a press conference, the announcement of registration results and the results after the event.

As strategic approach, we addressed other important running events with similar vision to become our partners and cross promote the events, in order to consolidate more the running community and offer to the runners more options to answer their needs of socializing and push their limits in sport competitions.

The Evaluation

• The event was SOLD OUT a week before the event.
• We increased with 50% the number of children participating to the event.
• The PR materials generated a reach of 10,999,589 persons (more than 3 times higher than previous year when we had a reach of 3,561,068 persons)
• Efficient media partnerships – an audience of 5,612,234 persons in 2019, almost double comparing with 2018 when we had a reach of 2,861,823 people.
• 1,800 participants at the start line, with 300 more than at the previous edition.
• 20,000 euro raised for the cause, versus 15,000 euro last year.
• 360 social media posts, comparing with 2018 when we had only a half, 185.

Other numbers of this year’s edition – 146 online articles, 7 print materials, 11 TV material and 104 radio spots – also double comparing with 55 radio spots we had in 2018.  All the results were the effort off PR tactics, earned media, no paid media.

Creativity

It is not an easy task to keep being attractive when you are doing good the same thing for years. DHL Carpathian Marathon is a very loved event for its story, for its social cause and for the uniqueness of trails and spectacular views of Carpathians.

The Innovation

More than ever, the DHL Carpathian Marathon brought to live the story behind the event. The participants were all equal at the start line, professional runners, amateurs, children, influencers or high-level CEOs, all motivated by the story behind. 

The power of storytelling in the 2019 edition of DHL Carpathian Marathon helped us building a strong community, raising awareness, reaching new people around us, empowering the DHL brand, communicate MPG Romania as organizer and build trust around our cause – The National Paralympic Committee.