Eko Marathon Maribor

in-house project

BEHIND THE PROJECT

Maribor as the second biggest Slovenian city did not have a marathon event worth mentioning until the year 2009. Organizing a big marathon in your own city is definitely a challenge, which we welcomed with open arms. With our teams efforts and with the help from the City of Maribor we organized a two day event joining the Saturday cycling marathon (70km and 113 km) Sunday running marathon (21km and 10km).

 

THE BIG IDEA

We wanted to create more than just a recreational sporting event, we wanted to create a well communicated event, which will be a flagship event for the City of Maribor resulting in their active participation in the organizational and promotional sense, promoting the positive, environmentally friendly and lifestyle healthy way of life. Eko Marathon is strategically placed during the annual European Mobility Week a renowned yearly event communicating the importance and awareness towards the environment and our place and practices within it. The marathon has only one basic promotional activity among partner communication tools and sponsorship communication and that is the “Step Forward” movement, which includes runners and cyclists with branded uniforms promoting the event year-round at all major recreational events around the country. 

 

RESULTS

Our effort and dedication to the project has been shown by a steady growing number of participants and their satisfaction with the organization of the event, which has been awarded “Best Organized Event” chosen by participants in the last few years. We pay special attention to details making sure that all sponsor activations are carefully and strategically managed. 

 

THE POTENTIAL

Eko Marathon is a huge event, getting bigger and bigger every year involving more than 500 people in the organizational team. The idea we are following with the event and the potential is twofold, first of all we love sports and sporting events and second of all we are creating a platform for effective sponsorship communication.

 

AWARD

- Best organised recreational event by the vote of participants in 2011, 2012 and 2013