My shots Monday: Marathon Marketing

With good running brands come good running campaigns and on the day after one of the biggest running events it’s only right that we should share and celebrate some of the best on shots.

With around 36,000 runners taking part in yesterday’s Virgin Money London Marathon, there’ll be some tired legs today but our selection of motivational spots below will prove that the pulled muscles, aching tendons and blistered toes are all worth the pain in our latest My shots Monday compilation.

Light jog

To run a marathon, half the battle is in the mind [or so we’re told] and if you come with commitment and a can-do attitude you’re on the right road to achieving something special. Wieden+Kennedy’s web film, Jogger, for Nike’s Find Your Greatness campaign, introduces Nathan, a 12 year old boy from London Ohio who proves you don’t necessarily need to be blessed with the best physique in the world to get your big run training plan off the ground, and that everyone needs to start somewhere. Lance Acord is the director on the simple yet powerful commercial which puts a refreshing twist on sports spots.

Partners in pace

Others will look for motivation in a training buddy to get them through those hard winter months and in another Nike running spot, I Would Run to You, a couple confess their love for each other, in the medium of song, during their own respective runs, with the commercial based on their mission to meet each other in the middle of their separate locations. Again created through Wieden+Kennedy Portland and directed by Rattling Stick’s Ringan Ledwidge, the piece flicks between various scenery and presents two very different levels of fitness in a fun running campaign with love at the core for the brand’s Free shoe.

Making contact

Shunning the romance put keeping it very playful, the same brand’s Tag spot from the same agency pits a man against his fellow commuters in an epic game of tag [‘it’ if you’re more UK-minded]. Transforming the city into a playground the commercial begins with a man being tagged on the shoulder and earning the task of having to pass the responsibility onto another member of the public. The problem is, nobody else wants his title and the city becomes a ghost town as people flee the scene leaving him with all the work to do on foot.

Out in the shade

Staying in the city and sticking with the game theme, a female runner keeps cool by only running in the shade on her route in another Nike spot, this time directed by Frank Budgen. Anyone running yesterday’s race will know that the sun can prove a demanding obstacle during a long run but in Wieden+Kennedy’s Shaderunner, the athlete manages to shield herself with the shadows from surrounding trees, cranes, buildings and even a passing jumbo jet.

Credit cardio

So, at last a non-Nike spot. And for the protagonist in Visa’s Running Man, the high heat of the burning planet is the least of his worries after being left out in the sweltering desert on the day of his wedding. Starting his journey he runs naked, armed with only a Visa credit card, to find food and clothes before eventually heading for the venue. Saatchi & Saatchi’s commercial conveys the message that the card and its services will get you through anything life throws up and the seamless piece, directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet via Partizan shows that sometimes, you have no choice but to just run.

To view our complilation on Marathon Marketing, go to our My shots playlist here.