Urban Dash
View the case- Brand
- New Balance
- Year
- 2011
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Monterosa
Objective
New Balance was opening its first flagship experience store in North America, in Manhattan's Flatiron district, and needed a launch that would pull New Yorkers into the store rather than just past it. The brand built the opening around its running heritage, turning the whole city into the course and the new store into the finish line.
Solution
Players open the free Urban Dash app to a live map of New York and get a push alert whenever a digital relay baton drops somewhere in the five boroughs. Chasing one down means physically closing the distance — the app switches to a camera-based finder as you get close, and the baton is yours once you're within 100 feet of it. From there you're the target: any other player who spots you on the map and closes to within 40 feet can snatch the baton away before you cash it in. Reach the New Balance store in Flatiron with a baton still in hand and you trade it for a pair of NB NYC 574s, while the player with the most exchanges by the end of the month wins a solid-gold baton worth about $20,000.
Results
Over 70 million media impressions, more than 14,000 miles covered by New York players chasing batons across the city, and over 6 million blog hits on day one alone.
- 1
The player learns of the promotion from street advertising, press, or the store itself and downloads the free Urban Dash app.
- 2
The app opens onto a map of New York City marked with digital relay batons that New Balance releases daily across all five boroughs; the same map shows nearby players, including who is currently carrying a baton.
- 3
The app pushes a notification when a baton appears near the player, who then runs to its physical location, using the phone's camera as an augmented-reality aid to spot it up close.
- 4
Coming within 100 feet of a baton loads it onto the player's phone; whoever arrives first claims it, and from that moment the carrier appears on everyone's map as a live target to be chased.
- 5
A pursuer who closes to within 40 feet of the carrier steals the baton, which jumps to the pursuer's phone; possession can change hands at any time until a baton is delivered to the store, so the carrier's goal is to outrun rivals to the New Balance flagship in Flatiron.
- 6
Delivering a baton at the store redeems it for a prize: a limited-edition pair of New Balance NYC 574 sneakers, capped at 20 pairs on weekdays and 30 on weekends, with a first win earning an exclusive red pair and subsequent wins a $75 gift card.
- 7
Players repeat the chase-and-deliver cycle throughout the month-long campaign, accumulating deliveries in a running leaderboard.
- 8
At the campaign's close, the player who delivered the most batons wins the grand prize: a 14-karat gold relay baton engraved with the brand's logo, valued at more than $20,000.
