The news: Footwear and apparel brand Hoka launched a campaign with fitness-tracking platform Strava that pits New York City boroughs against each other in a running competition, per Marketing Dive.

Participants compete for their home borough by logging their running activity in Strava. The borough with the highest total mileage by the end of September wins the competition, and one participant will be awarded a head-to-toe Hoka running kit.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) screens placed throughout the city display weekly competition updates sourced through Strava data, such as total miles logged, runners’ pacing, and other stats.

“Let’s Race NYC” has more than 42,000 participants. A recap of the competition will eventually appear in a Hoka social campaign and a tie-up with fashion and media company Highsnobiety.

The bigger picture: Partnering with community platforms is an effective way for brands to access rich consumer data that doesn’t need to be owned to be useful.

• Community platforms like Strava and Reddit own troves of personal data that consumers willingly share. By collaborating with those platforms, brands can tap into this data to create targeted marketing campaigns.
• Even though brands don’t acquire and own it themselves, the data can provide insights about a consumer—like their niche interests and daily activity—that make the collaboration beneficial.

Why it matters: Brands need alternative ways of accessing and using rich consumer data to achieve their marketing goals.

• A diversified data strategy is key to navigating consumer privacy concerns amid the fragmentation of marketing channels.
• Consumers are showing digital fatigue, which could impede efforts to acquire first-party data.

In-person marketing is a particularly effective vehicle for meeting consumers who want a break from the web. These efforts can also include a virtual or at-home component to extend reach to consumers who aren’t physically present—Hoka’s competition allows participants to log their miles out in the world or on their home treadmills.

Recommendations for brands: Treat collaborations with community platforms as a long-term play, in which value is bidirectional between brand and consumer.

• Develop a presence on partner platforms so the collaboration feels natural and not opportunistic to consumers. This could be an official club in Strava, a branded subreddit, or a group on Facebook.
• Offer clear benefits to consumers, like a fun competition or a reward, to attract participation.
• Give participating consumers the opportunity to formally connect, such as through surveys, so that the relationship doesn’t end when the campaign does.

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