The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024-2025
adidas turned Stockholm's billboards into a citywide race
Digital screens became start and finish checkpoints for a real-time urban run, giving routine runners a new route and a public leaderboard.
adidas
the move
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.
why it works
- 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
what transfers
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.
what came after
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.
references
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