RUNNING STORIES

Short List
TitleRUNNING STORIES
BrandRUNNING STORIES
Product / ServiceRUNNING STORIES APP
CategoryA01. Activation by Location
EntrantBBH Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation BBH Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production FREEFLOW PRODUCTIONS Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production 2 CRYSTAL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION CO LTD Hanoi, VIETNAM
Post Production FUSE ADVENTURES IN AUDIO Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Joakim Borgström BBH Singapore Worldwide Chief Creative Officer
Sascha Kuntze BBH Singapore Chief Creative Officer
Lynette Chua BBH Singapore Business Director
Dillah Zakbah BBH Singapore Creative Technology & Innovation Director
Gaston Soto BBH Singapore Creative Director
Omar Sotomayor BBH Singapore Creative Director
Luke Somasundram BBH Singapore Writer
Jia Rong Sng BBH Singapore Junior Creative Technologist
Wendi Chong BBH Singapore Executive Producer
Lesley Chelvan BBH Singapore Head of Delivery

Background

We discovered a neglected audience of casual, unmotivated runners, who struggle to make running a consistent habit. After all, running can be boring. For that reason, they use passive entertainment apps to train - podcasts and music apps - so we decided to create something interactive and exciting that encourages them to put in their running shoes, and help them create a habit. That’s how Running Stories was born. Running is the simplest way to kickstart your healthy living, and has multiple benefits, like reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases by 45% and helping you live longer. But in 2020, as all of us are put into lockdown, the WHO advised people to go out and run to help cope with stress and anxiety. It became the perfect context to launch Running Stories, as people are more willing to get out of home for a breath of fresh air.

Describe the creative idea

Let’s be honest, running can be boring and monotonous. That’s why we created Running Stories. It mixes storytelling, fitness and audio like no other platform has done before, and it casts you as the protagonist of a gripping story by using real-time data. As a result, you get to listen to an augmented audio narrative that integrates with your surroundings and keeps you ‘enter-trained’ on runs. The storylines are triggered as runners pass GPS markers and landmarks. Designed for beginners or seasoned runners alike, each story is made of binge-worthy episodic storylines that keep runners hooked and motivated to head out on the road for more.

Describe the strategy

To help our casual runners get a fun and exciting run that they can frequently look forward to, we decided to create something immersive, interactive and exciting that encourages them to put on their running shoes. Through GlobalWebIndex, we also found that there was a sizable overlap between casual runners and interests related to books (40%), movies (10%), and podcasts (30%). And late 2020 was the perfect context to launch Running Stories, as people were more willing to get out of home for a breath of fresh air.

Describe the execution

How it works: Stories are told on a route using GPS trackers that are in-built in all phones. We turned these GPS markers such as landmarks, shops and streets into story data points. We created an app that controls this through a CMS backend that pushes hyper-localised custom audio tracks each time you pass our curated GPS markers. Runners will be treated to a tailored immersive experience through engaging storytelling each time they pass a GPS marker in real life. - Devices: iPhone 6s or later - Platforms: iOS 11.0 or later / Android version coming in February - March 2021 - Development stage: Open Beta

List the results

Running Stories has been covered by top international news and technology press, such BBC, Mashable, GQ, and Esquire, and also gotten positive reviews from top professionals in the tech industry. We have gotten interest from runners and running clubs globally - from London to Iowa, from Oman to Paris. Big international brands in sports, entertainment and technology have also expressed interest in collaborating and investing. Running Stories currently has over 16,000 website views, close to 2,000 app downloads, and over 60,000 case film views.

Links

Application URL