Meanwhile Takes Creative Lead for parkrun

A Manchester agency has been appointed to lead parkrun’s 20th anniversary campaign.

Meanwhile won the campaign following a competitive pitch process for the global health and well-being charity. The first challenge that is facing the agency is to celebrate the charity, that provides free, weekly community events, anniversary and increase its awareness amongst lower socio-economic audiences.

The team have also been tasked with increasing visibility for underrepresented people at parkrun and highlight the misconceptions around fitness levels and required kit that may act as barriers. The parkrun marketing team continue to work with a number of agencies across certain specialisms, but Dido O’Reilly of parkrun explains why Meanwhile has been appointed for creative projects: “Meanwhile have proven their ingenuity and ability to tap into the public zeitgeist though their work with iconic brands and it felt like a natural fit to now spread the message of parkrun.

“Meanwhile’s passion, creativity and enthusiasm for parkrun shone through in their pitch and it’s an exciting next step to work with them as our creative partner to empower people to come together and be social and active outdoors, with a cutting edge campaign celebrating parkrun’s impact of 20 years.”

Everyone at the agency are parkrunners, so we can’t hide our excitement in being given this challenge for such a good and inspiring cause
Al Marchant

Al Marchant, CEO and Founder at Meanwhile, added: “parkrun is such an iconic brand that is a massive part of our popular culture, so we are genuinely really excited to be working with the team. Cliches aside, everyone at the agency are parkrunners, so we can’t hide our excitement in being given this challenge for such a good and inspiring cause.”

The first parkrun took place on October 2 2004 with just 13 runners and five volunteers in London’s Bushy Park. Now the UK-based charity supports over 300,000 people taking part in free events across 2,200 locations in 23 countries.

More than 8.5 million people have registered for parkrun and over half a million people have volunteered worldwide. The runs are entirely volunteer led and open to anyone of any age, ability or background and people are welcome to walk, jog, run or come and watch.

5K events take place on Saturday’s and a 2K event series for children aged four-14 is held on a Sunday morning.

Does your agency have news to share? Email us at [email protected]