Event Marketing

Objective:

• Leverage marketing to grow the race from 7 cities in 2012 to 32 cities in 2013 – Goal of 2,000 runners per event.
• Develop a consistent, year-long social media strategy for The Ugly Sweater Run brand.
• Grow the existing social media presence.
• Create unique promotions to drive awareness and registrations.
• Manage the marketing and promotions budget for entire series.
• Create and manage partnerships with businesses, deal sites (Groupon / LivingSocial), bars and charities.
• Main announcer and crew for the Midwest / East races.

ACTION:

• Developed a marketing budget and action items starting 90+ days out from each event.
  • The budget was divided out per city and included city specific activations.
• Create social media campaigns to promote the race during “out of season” times.
  • Launched an “alumni” campaign to promote return participants via social.
  • Created the “50k50” campaign to drive over 5,000 registrations in July/August.
  • Created Christmas in July promotions.
• Launched marketing campaigns through deal site platforms (Groupon / LivingSocial) to leverage their existing marketing platforms.
• Partnered with local parks & rec, businesses and radio stations for promotion / giveaway opportunities.
• Designed HTML, image centric emails to distribute to past participants in each area.
• Oversaw a national PR campaign to various news outlets to draw awareness.
• Executed strategic partnerships with other race organizations to peak awareness.

RESULT:

• The Ugly Sweater Run hit all series goals despite jumping to 24 new cities in 2013.
• Average of 2,400 runners per event.