Source: MilesforPizza
Before you get too excited the location for the free pizza is in Williamsburg in NYC and the campaign is in support of the NYC Marathon, so in the words of a famous New Yorker, “No pizza for you,” outside of the City… Actually this isn’t true. If you plan on traveling to the City for the event, you can log miles and then get your grub on when you arrive in NYC. Think about this however, what if this was expanded across the country in conjunction with local eateries in a variety of cities? First let’s get the logistics from NB on how this works:
Runners from around the world can join the “Miles for Pizza” Challenge through the Strava App and log miles from wherever they are, then cash those in when they arrive in New York and visit the NB Pizza Co. shop during operating hours. Runners in NY will have additional opportunities to cash in their miles on the weekends leading up to the race. To start earning free pizza runners can download the Strava App, join the “Miles for Pizza” challenge, which starts October 2nd and ends November 4th, and start running. To cash in those miles, runners can visit the NB Pizza Co. pop-up and show staff the miles logged in the Strava App and redeem for free pizza provided by L’Industrie Pizzeria in Williamsburg. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday the NB Pizza Co. will offer regular programming including Friday Happy Hour Run, Saturday Long Runs and Single Sundays where the first 50 runners to join receive a free branded singlet. For more information on the NB Pizza Co. please visit www.newbalance.com/milesforpizza and runner’s joining the regular programming are asked to engage with the brand by tagging @newbalancerunning or @newbalance.
Miles for Pizza Calculator:
- 5 Miles = 1 Slice
- 10 Miles = 2 Slices
- 25 Miles = 2 Slices
- 50 Miles = 4 Slices
- 75 Miles = 6 Slices
- 100 Miles = Full Pizza
NB Pizza Co. Hours of Operation:
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Friday – 5:30-9PM (Oct. 11th, Oct. 18th, Oct. 25th, Nov. 1st)
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Saturday – 9AM-9PM (Oct. 12th, Oct. 19th, Oct. 26th, Nov. 2nd)
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Sunday – 9AM-9PM (Oct. 13th, Oct. 20th, Oct. 27th)
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Race week hours are:
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Thursday, October 31st – 5:30-9PM
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Friday, November 1st – 9AM-9PM
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Saturday, November 2nd – 9AM-9PM
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Sunday, November 3rd – 3PM-9PM
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Monday, November 4th – 9AM-5PM
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Performance Running Sales are Down
If you read reports every quarter on most websites you’ll read the same sentence over and over, “Performance running is down. It’s all about athleisure.” Yet the best campaigns and activations for brands in sportswear remain attached to events for performance footwear categories. Why would a brand spend money here? What’s the point if people aren’t buying more running shoes?
Marketing in many cases can’t be quantified. There is one thing for certain however, the brand that dominates wall space in stores, dominates sales. Nike remains the dominant brand at retail. This establishes almost a default in purchasing by everyday consumers. In a consumer driven economy that is extremely noisy a brand has to deliver the product to every sense a consumer has. In casual footwear there aren’t events attached to the clothing and shoes, outside of fashion week and that tends to be luxury (which does matter). This leaves casual footwear at the mercy of influencers on IG and other social platforms. Which only hits one sense.
Look at this number as of 10-3-2019:
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- 12,266 Participants
- 49,297 Total Miles Run
- 12,266
Performance influences fashion and community by engaging the consumer in every aspect of their lives. These campaigns can’t be measured typically, but in this instance New Balance has a fantastic measurement and more important they are integrating themselves for a short time into the lives of the community in NYC.
New Balance is also rolling out some of the best looking sportswear around this event which will eventually be carried over to their casual attire.
While it makes sense that carrying this program over to other cities at a local level would be a daunting task, if you told Memphians, for example, that they could get a free slice of Rock N Dough pizza every five miles, they would be #nbxrockndough all day and I’m certain it would be happening in my former hometown of San Diego if the opportunity was there.
Purely crunching numbers for sportswear companies can lead to a lack of creativity and sameness between brands. When performance leads, even when the data says it shouldn’t be dominant, the technology filters into lifestyle. When a company decides to focus solely on fashion for athleisure that company could find itself without a heritage line in the future. This is a fantastic campaign by New Balance.
What do you think?