Hoka is spending September pitting New York's five boroughs against each other in a "Run Your City" challenge hosted on Strava. The interesting part isn't the challenge — it's that the results feed straight into the campaign creative, making this a real-time data OOH campaign rather than a fixed billboard buy.
Runners in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island compete over a month to see which borough logs the most miles. Hoka, owned by Deckers Brands, already had a global partnership with Strava; this effort layers a local competition on top of that existing relationship.
It also extends "Together We Fly Higher," the brand platform launched last July that spotlighted coaches and others who hold running communities together. This time the runners' own metrics are pulled into the creative.
Digital screens in Times Square, Tribeca, SoHo and Williamsburg carry weekly updates. Ticker-inspired creative cycles through miles logged, pace and other stats.
That inverts the usual job of out-of-home. OOH normally displays a finished message; here it reflects back numbers the audience produced. Checking your borough's standing is a reason to look again, and looking again drives more participation.
Paid social on TikTok and Meta amplifies reach. Collectively, a creator marketing company inside The Brandtech Group, leads a program of six creators representing the boroughs, each documenting their own progress. A publisher partnership with Highsnobiety adds a recap.
The challenge closes with an Oct. 3 block party at McCarren Parkhouse, and footage from that event feeds an October social campaign. Jellyfish, also a Brandtech Group company, developed the concept and leads creative and media planning.
A competition needs something to count. Hoka chose borough-level cumulative mileage — a number Strava already tracks. Not inventing a new metric removed most of the operational risk.
Design the creative as a frame with blanks rather than a finished asset, and the same media placement stays fresh for the full flight without new production budget.
Ending a numbers-driven competition with a physical gathering makes the campaign generate content one more time. It's the same logic as United broadcasting an ESPN show from 35,000 feet and Coca-Cola's 74-campus college football tour: show the thing happening instead of claiming it.
The supportive tone stands out against Nike, which in April ran and quickly pulled an outdoor ad reading "Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated." Nike's misfires have left room for Hoka, On and Brooks Running to gain ground.
Through September, closing with a block party at McCarren Parkhouse in New York on Oct. 3.
Start with a number that is already being measured. Inventing a new metric adds collection and verification overhead; Hoka used a value Strava already tracks and built the creative as a template with slots for updates.
Yes, at smaller media scale. Keep the three parts — a local competition, a placeholder for weekly updates, and an offline finale — and in-store screens or a pinned social post can stand in for the billboards.
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