adidas turned Stockholm's billboards into a citywide race

adidas found that 70% of urban runners follow the same routes every day, losing motivation. Rather than telling them to vary their run, adidas changed the city they ran through.

The Billboard Run, created with Accenture Song and Ocean Outdoor, turned digital billboards into race checkpoints across Stockholm. Four starting screens in Vasastan, Solna, Södermalm and Östermalm let runners trigger a countdown with their phones; the connected app tracked the run, and screens showed real-time stats along the way.

A finish-line billboard at T-Centralen metro displayed finishing times and leaderboards, making the competition public on the street. Runners were no longer exercising in private — the city was watching, which is exactly the extra motivation the campaign was selling.

The April 2024 activation was shortlisted at D&AD 2025 and honored by the One Show, as an example of media bought for advertising doubling as event infrastructure that creates its own content.

Turn the city into a racecourse

Billboards already existed in the right places; the campaign added a layer, not new hardware

Public leaderboards turned private exercise into social competition

The phone connection made each race personal and trackable

Runners generated the content and the community adidas wanted

If your audience is stuck in a habit, change the environment instead of the message: repurpose media you already own into infrastructure for a new behavior, and the behavior becomes the campaign.

The Billboard Run ran in Stockholm in April 2024 and was shortlisted at D&AD 2025. It positioned adidas inside running culture rather than alongside it, and showed outdoor media owners that screens can sell participation, not just impressions.