This fall marathon season, some brands are sprinting to Strava

Fall is for spooky movies, comfy sweaters, and hot apple cider. Oh, and marathon training.

With the Chicago Marathon in October and the New York City and Philadelphia Marathons in November, to name a few, it’s a big season for running brands, according to Zipporah Allen, chief business officer of exercise tracking app Strava. And it’s also a big time for Strava, which has become a must-use resource for many runners in training (and, perhaps, athletes looking to show off their exercise habits to friends).

As the app gains popularity, especially among younger runners, the platform has grown into a marketing vehicle for brands looking to reach a young and engaged audience. Allen’s team works closely with partners to co-create activations including branded run clubs, and brands like Chipotle, Cash App, and Adidas have worked with the platform to sponsor challenges that invite users to compete to cover a certain amount of distance, time, or number of activities.

“Every brand wants to recruit that next generation…and we’re seeing that population come to Strava,” Allen told Marketing Brew. “Our fastest-growing cohort on Strava is Gen Z. They are uploading runs, in particular, at a much faster rate than any other generation that is on Strava right now, so I think there’s a cultural thing happening where we are where the consumer is right now.”

Running of the brands

When Strava first started striking up brand partnerships in 2011, it mainly attracted running and cycling brands, Allen said. Lately, though, the list of brands activating on the app has expanded beyond endemic sports companies, reflecting a trend that’s been picking up steam across sports.

Earlier this year, Chipotle partnered with Strava after finding out that almost 70% of its customers who are runners said they’re “likely or very likely” to eat at the chain after training for a race, according to Stephanie Perdue, VP of brand marketing at Chipotle. The result was “Chipotle segments,” or portions of trails that end outside of Chipotle restaurants, in six key markets. There was also a giveaway component: “Local Legends,” aka Strava users who completed those segments more than any other athlete got free Chipotle for a year.

At the start of 2024, Chipotle set up a “No Quitters Challenge” timed to the second Friday in January (aka Quitters Day) when people are likely to abandon their New Year’s resolutions, giving Strava users who logged at least two 20-minute workouts per week from January 15 to January 28 a free side of guac. More than 190,000 athletes competed, logging more than 9.25 million miles, Perdue said in an email.

“We were amazed by the passion for Chipotle from the Strava community,” she said.

Cash App has recently taken advantage of Strava’s sponsored challenge option with a “Health is Wealth” challenge, which gives users who complete 45 miles of running, walking, or wheelchair activity in 45 days from September 27 to November 10 the chance to win $450 through Cash App, CMO Catherine Ferdon said.

“We’ve been thrilled with the engagement on that so far,” Ferdon told us in late October, a few weeks into the campaign. “It’s taken off like wildfire.”

Adidas, meanwhile, is currently challenging people to run for a little longer than 45 minutes. To tie into the fall marathon season, the athletic apparel brand worked with Strava to create a sponsored “Best Efforts 26.2 Challenge” for users who complete a marathon distance, Allen said. Winners will get a customized print of their marathon route. It seems to be a well-tested approach for Adidas, whose marathon-linked challenges with Strava in recent years each saw about 16,000 participants.

“Speed of culture”

In addition to its Gen Z-heavy user base, Allen said user engagement and Strava’s own brand positioning—inclusive, but with “wit and swagger”—can be selling points for advertisers.

Unlike some other social apps, “it’s not a passive thing where you’re scrolling,” she said. “Strava is a place where you come to do things, and you feel like the brand is participating with you.”

Through its brand partnership and its own marketing, Allen said she hopes to keep Strava “moving at the speed of culture” while maintaining a sense of authenticity.

Fall marathon season is a period of high engagement for the brand, and Allen said that 60% of finishers of the World Marathon Majors so far this year have uploaded their runs to Strava, including John Korir, this year’s Chicago Marathon men’s champion. Strava also shows up at some of the majors in person, including with a cheer station at Mile 8 of the New York City Marathon on November 3, and by supporting run clubs whose members may be competing, she said. Leading up to the race, Strava gave bibs to four winners selected as part of a challenge hosted in partnership with New Balance and SoulCycle.

“We want to be that encouraging, sort of coach, best friend to our community,” Allen said. “We’ve intentionally made this shift to be just a little bit more fun and not take ourselves so seriously…We want to celebrate all those different types of achievement.”