Runners in this year’s TCS New York City Marathon will be able to build their own Facebook video in less than three minutes to memorialize their arduous training and triumphant finish.
Inspired by Facebook’s popular “Year in Review” project in December 2014, New York Road Runners and its social media consultant Spredfast are bringing the concept to a brand for the first time with the NYC Marathon Journey slideshow generator.
Organizers hope to leverage the tens of thousands of photos that runners already post on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as they train, and turn them into lasting marketing vehicles for both the race and title sponsor Tata Consultancy Services. Last year, race enthusiasts using the branded hashtag #TCSNYCMarathon posted 70,000 images on Twitter alone, and marathon-related content generated 3 billion impressions across all social media in 2014, according to Mary Kearl, NYRR senior manager of social media and digital content.
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Moments like Caroline Wozniacki’s 2014 celebration with Serena Williams could be part of her Journey slideshow.
Photo by: COURTESY OF NYRR
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Tennis star and 2014 race participant Caroline Wozniacki volunteered to promote the Journey campaign, appearing in a promotional video published online this week that illustrates how the final product will look. Marketers used her own photos and professional race images from last year to build the example slideshow.
“We noticed runners were sharing photos, videos and experiences for months after the marathon, and they were very creative in doing that,” said Ronnie Tucker, NYRR vice president of marketing and digital. “Some really beautiful work. So in our 2015 agency brief, we asked how can we talk about all that wonderful energy and emotion, and aggregate all that amazing content?”
Beginning this week, anyone who tags their posts #TCSNYCMarathon will have their images posted at journey.tcsnycmarathon.org. Before race day, the site will be a basic aggregator meant to build hype. On race day, the site will shift into the video-making tool.
Users will input the runner’s name and choose from three to 20 images. The tool will generate a 15-second video montage set to upbeat background music. In addition to prior photos, live race images from spectators and from official photography partner MarathonFoto will be available, too.
In December 2014, Facebook debuted its Year in Review slideshows, which were automatically populated by popular or significant posts from the prior year. It generally got good reviews, but the company had to apologize when the tagline “It’s been a great year!” came with images of a grieving father’s deceased 6-year-old daughter.
Marathon runners must opt in and choose their own photos, a trade-off that will mean less participation. NYRR’s goal is that 10 percent of the marathon field will build a video, Tucker said.
“We decided since marathoners are on such a personal journey, we wanted to give them a personal option to choose which photos were most meaningful to them,” Kearl said.
All the videos will live on the microsite but will be available to share on personal social networks.
NYRR approached Austin, Texas-based Spredfast with the concept earlier this year, and Spredfast was eager to help, said David Hinojosa, Spredfast’s director of sports and event partnerships. Spredfast has worked for the NBA, NFL and U.S. Tennis Association.
“Facebook’s Year in Review has a similar look, but it didn’t pull in content from multiple sources and didn’t pull from a hashtag to enable a video journey around a specific event,” Hinojosa said. “We can’t comment for Facebook, but we’re not aware of any other branded experience like this.”
