NIKE Cheer me on

The Nike Budapest Half Marathon has been a cherished event for the running community for over two decades.
Nike has reached out successfully to the athletic community as the event already attracts over 10.000 professional and casual fun runners. In 2012 we wanted to enhance the experience of the runners by engaging a new target group: the social network of the runners’. We created “Nike Cheer Me On”, a unique, integrated experience that connects runners and their friends through advocacy and by delivering personalized motivational messages and cheers.
First, we created “Cheer me On”, a fun Facebook application that connects runners and their friends. Runners can invite their friends to cheer for them. Motivating cheers can be text messages photos or both. These cheers also appear on the feeds of the runners thus creating public visibility and a viral effect. On the leader board runners can track the cheers of their social network.
The real test of online effectiveness is how a digital idea crosses over into the offline world. So we brought the cheers to life. From Facebook to the Half Marathon. Utilizing RFID chips and huge LED-walls during the event we displayed the cheers for runners in a personalized way. When any individual runner who registered previously with “Cheer Me On” passed the sensor we displayed the inspirational messages from their friends – exactly the moment they passed by.
As Nike says, “If you have a body, you’re an athlete”, so we believe that the involvement and participation of non-runners today will convert into a new group of fun and everyday runners tomorrow. Thousands used Cheer Me On, over two thousand inspirational messages have been sent and over ten thousand runners have experienced “Cheer Me On” during the race. But amongst all these numbers, hits, impressions, there is really only one statistic that matters. Thanks to “Cheer Me On” we helped Nike Budapest Half Marathon to become an even stronger community. And that is what both Nike and running is really about.