NEDBANK RUNIFIED 2021 BREAKING BARRIERS

Nedbank’s longstanding heritage in the sport, coupled with the Nedbank Running Club’s leading status in elite road running meant the ingredients were in place to proactively provide a solution to the void of elite running showcases as a result of COVID-19.

We believed we could use the equity the brand had built in the sport to entice a starved ecosystem of runners, media and the public, if we provided a compelling proposition. All while reinvigorating Nedbank’s involvement in road running and entrenching the brand as ‘money experts who do good.’

The race, fully owned and executed by Nedbank and the Nedbank Running Club, challenged male and female athletes to break the 50km IAU world record.

The race was broadcast live on South Africa’s traditional home of running; SABC 2 where viewers watched top elite athletes from around the world to battle it out on the Marine Drive route, in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.

The broadcast was used as a promotional platform for the Nedbank Running Club as well as the second edition of Nedbank Runified, with relevant messaging featuring across race collateral.

A combination of social media tactics, influencers, and traditional PR was used to promote the race, provide live coverage and land relevant brand messaging all the while ensuring that Nedbank’s brand purpose of ‘money experts who do good’ was brought to life through the race coverage.

Nedbank Running Club athletes broke the IAU 50km World Record in both the men’s (Negasa Ketema) and women’s (Irvette van Zyl) race

+700K  viewers tuned into the event (race-day broadcast plus highlights packages, re-airs and live stream)

#1 Twitter Trend for #NedbankRunified on race day (23 May 2021)

26% increase in Nedbank Running Club Facebook Page followers