Inside Nike’s fall marathon season strategy

Nike is associated with many sports, but the company’s roots are in running. The brand’s co-founder and chairman emeritus, Phil Knight, ran track and field at the University of Oregon, where he was coached by Bill Bowerman, Nike’s other co-founder.

So it’s probably no surprise that the fall marathon season, when major races including the Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York City marathons take place, is kind of a big deal at Nike.

The brand is an official sponsor of races including the Portland and Chicago marathons, has wide-ranging deals with elite marathoners like Eliud Kipchoge and Conner Mantz, and is involved with the run-club scene that’s growing in popularity. Even at races where Nike isn’t an official sponsor, like this weekend’s New York City Marathon, the swoosh is hard to miss.

“We don’t necessarily look at only showing up in those races that we sponsor,” Seema Simmons, VP and general manager of Nike Running for North America, told Marketing Brew. “It’s really all of those moments that mean something to runners. Some of those are sponsored moments, where it gives us a bit of leeway to be more creative, but then you can definitely see how we show up in others, like the Boston and New York marathons, where hopefully you still feel the presence of Nike.”

During peak running season, we spoke with Simmons about Nike’s running strategy and approach to its various marathon activations.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

There’s been a big surge in interest in running as a hobby this year thanks to run clubs. How do you think about engaging with more casual runners, in addition to pro marathoners?

We will also show up in race moments where we’re not sponsoring that event. The New York City Marathon is a great example: We’ll do a race…called Race 212, inspired by the zip code of the city, bringing to life the running culture, and celebrating those that are really inspired by what’s going on in the city building up to the marathon moment. That one is a 2.12k race, and it will be on a helipad on the East River, so [it’s] a pretty cool location. After the race, there’s a community celebration with a DJ and food, just celebrating that running culture that really has become a lifestyle movement.

What’s unique about running that gives Nike an audience or a way to activate that you don’t get with other sports?

There’s no other sport, really, where you have the elites and you have the everyday runners all running on one course. It’s really cool; everyone is out there. You have your own goal in mind, but you’re all out there, and you get to experience some of the same challenges and really test your own personal goal out there, so I love that about running. The other thing that I love about running, which I think is maybe helping contribute to the growth of it, is that you can grab your gear and go out for a run…It’s accessible…and it’s also something that spans all ages, abilities, and skill levels, too…We do a lot to support youth running, high school, and collegiate running.

How do you connect with runners beyond the day of a race?

One example is called Project Moonshot, where this year we are working with about 200 women who are registered for a major marathon. Many of them are running and training for the Chicago or New York marathons, and we’re supporting them with a bespoke training journey, as well as access to our running coaches, and then access to some of our innovations, so they get seeded some of the product before it’s out. It’s a cool way to just show how we’re supporting runners and her specific needs, in this case, as she’s getting ready for race day.

What are your KPIs for marathons or other running events?

Like all brands, we’ll look at financially how we’re growing, but also what is showing up on the feet of runners…We can all see market share indicators as well, so those would be things that we’re looking at…My eyes just go straight to what people are wearing. I’m like, ‘Look, she’s wearing the new Vomero Plus [sneakers], and she’s hooked it with the pink bra.’ I just immediately see how runners are pulling together what they’re wearing, because we’ve seen that surge, even with marathons, of headlines that say marathons are the new fashion week. It’s actually really fun to see collaborators showing up and what runners are pulling together for their race-day fits…That should be showing us that, hopefully, we’re connecting with runners, at least from the product perspective.