Mexico Marathon Hijack

The Mexico City Marathon is one of Latin America’s biggest running events, with more than 30,000 runners and hundreds of thousands of people watching from the streets. Running is a key category for Nike, and race day is when runners care most about the sport.

Adidas was the official sponsor and owned the event: the start, the finish, the expo and the branding. Nike had no rights and no official presence. It risked being invisible at the biggest running moment of the year in one of its most important markets in the region.

We stopped trying to get into the event and went after the runner’s experience instead. Every runner goes through the same moments in a marathon: the easy downhill, the hills, the wall, the last kilometres. We mapped the route against those moments. With W+K México and Mindshare, we took over 90+ out-of-home spots along all 42 km: billboards, walls, fences and street furniture. Each one carried a message written for that kilometre, in red and black with almost no logo: - At the Insurgentes downhill: “Claro, de bajada todos vuelan” (“Sure, everyone flies downhill”) - At the hills: “No será fácil, pero será épico” (“It won’t be easy, but it will be epic”) - At a water station: “Te deshidratas más llorando que corriendo” (“Crying dehydrates you more than running”) - Near km 40: “Estás a 2.195 km de ser maratonista” (“You’re 2.195 km from being a marathoner”) We added a Nike cheering zone near km 39, so the brand had people there in person, not only signs.

Runners, spectators and the press treated Nike as the marathon’s real presence. The campaign generated 13M+ organic impressions and 1.5M+ social interactions, reached 30,000+ runners along the route, and won Gold for Out of Home plus two Silvers and a Bronze at Clio Sports 2025. It also became a model Nike reused across the region, for example at the Buenos Aires Half Marathon in 2025.