Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Run Easy

by Rachel on May 13th, 2007

Posting has been rather light this week; I’ve been invaded by parents and kept a little busy running around doing the tourist game. One thing I have noticed, heavily pushed on the subway and outdoor placements, have been all the posters for Reebok Run Easy.

I found it interesting that none of the posters I had seen had a URL on them; the only call to action was to text, to a number of different questions calling for different responses. And you can see these on the web site. But that’s not all you can do; look deeper and you will find a pretty decent set of tools and calls to participate, built on a solid platform that is not flash, but what looks like some nice ajax. It moves, it flows along and easy to interact with, but not all locked into one flash file. I wish more companies would build like this. (You may notice that I’m not always a fan of heavy flash sites!)

By creating an account, you can do a lot on the site, making it personal and well as interacting with other runners.

• Create your favourite runs. You can rate and comment on the runs of others, find out who runs similar areas and start to connect out. The maps on the site are a gorgeous use of google maps.
• Watch the commercials (on YouTube) or load up your remix of them (to Jumpcut)
• Load up your photos against your running routes
• Browse everyone’s texted answers to the poster questions, or discuss more in the forums.
• Share and rate your favourite playlists for music to run by.

I have to say, I love this site. A lot of thought and work has gone into it ( I need to find out who built it). The lack of URL on the posters made be curious enough to go and find the site and I’m not disappointed. Whether it can do enough to compete with Nike+ and their partnership with the iPod remains to be seen, but they are giving it a good go. The UGC here is useful, it’s not just for entertainment, so it looks like you are getting some quality.

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POSTED IN: Engaging the Customer, Outdoor Advertising and Experiences, User Generated Content