United Airlines believes in connecting people. Uniting the world.

As an official sponsor of the TCS New York City Marathon, they had the opportunity to do just that. This year (2019), Million Miler Minerva Tanag flew from Guam to NYC to run her 15th marathon. It was also her last. United followed her journey – then made it even more spectacular.

We brought Minerva’s friends and family from around the globe to the finish line to cheer her on.
This is her journey.

I helped concepting for extensions of the main idea, such as the geo-tagged ads, worked on the race day posters, and assisted the team with the production of the video and the Instagram live on the day of the marathon.

The Design

A visual design system representing Minerva’s journey from Guam to The New York Marathon was created ad hoc to be used across platforms such as video, race day posters, social media posts, and t-shirts.

GEO TARGETED INSTAGRAM POSTS

We found out that the 20th mile is the main make or brake point of a marathon.So we geofenced social ads all over New York to draw people exactly at the 20th mile, 94th & 5th, to cheer for Minerva and all the other runners. Once there, the ads were replaced with a “Thank You” in form of a short video of Minerva’s journey.

INSTAGRAM LIVE

During the whole marathon, United tracked Minerva’s progress live on their Instagram stories, encouraging viewers to cheer for her even online.

What was my part?

I helped concepting for extensions of the main idea, such as the geo-tagged ads, worked on the race day posters, and assisted the team with the production of the video and the Instagram live on the day of the marathon.