The Race to Equality

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

In the latest chapter of Michelob ULTRA's fight for visibility for women's sports, the brand highlighted a pioneer in marathons, while also helping to close the representation gap in marathons by creating an avenue for more women to run their first marathon.

How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?

Michelob ULTRA's brand positioning is centered around active enjoyment. The brand's tagline is "It's Only Worth It, if You Enjoy It." This positioning puts the brand in a unique space to have a point of view on equality within sports.

Last year, ULTRA committed more than $100M over the next five years and tackled women's sports visibility on social media with the "Save It, See It" campaign. Since then, the brand has made a commitment to highlight women in front of and behind the camera and throughout their work.

This campaign is the latest chapter in that effort aimed at increasing the visibility of a little-known marathon pioneer and helping to close the gender gap in major marathons like the TCS NYC Marathon where less than half of the participants are female or non-binary.

Objective

Overall, women's sports only makes up about 4% of the media coverage in the U.S. and women's sports typically do not garner the same amount of interest as men's sports. Women's sports just do not receive the same visibility as men's sports.

That was especially true in marathons. Only 55 years ago, women were not allowed to compete in major marathons until Kathrine Switzer broke barriers and ran the Boston Marathon.

Although many many strides have been made in women's running, a gap still remains in even the most progressive marathons like the TCS NYC Marathon.

In 2022, there is still not an equal breakdown of women and male runners (46% women, 54% male) and only this year was a non-binary division added.

This campaign was centered around using Kathrine Switzer's story to jump start an effort to close the gender gap in marathons and add another chapter to ULTRA's fight for visibility for women in sports.

Strategy & Execution

This campaign was centered around using Kathrine Switzer's story to jump-start an effort to close the gender gap in marathons and add another chapter to ULTRA's fight for visibility for women in sports.

We took consumers inside the iconic photo of Kathrine being assaulted at the Boston Marathon and used Kathrine's voiceover to create a moving film that aired during the NYC Marathon to help raise awareness of the gender gap in marathons and jump-start our Michelob ULTRA "Run Fund" initiative. The Run Fund will help cover race fees and provide training to first-time female and non-binary runners to help close the gender gap.

In addition to the film and Run Fund, we supported this campaign with OOH and a panel discussion on women's running with Kathrine Switzer, Jocelyn Rivas (youngest woman to run 100 marathons), Olympian Alexi Pappas and the founder of the NYC Marathon non-binary division Jake Federowski in advance of this year's marathon.

Organizations

• GUT
• 160/90
• Starcom
• Code3
• 3PM

Featured Athletes/Influencers

• Kathrine Switzer
• Jocelyn Rivas
• Alexi Pappas

Credits

Miles Ritenour
Sr. Director, Digital & Earned Media Marketing
Michelob ULTRA

Ricardo Marques
VP Marketing
Michelob ULTRA

Talita Andrade
Head of Brand Communication
Michelob ULTRA