Throughout our 20-year partnership with Energizer, we were involved in every aspect of the brand’s outreach. A unique international project challenged us to connect a series of races around the world into one, cohesive effort to launch a new global communications platform: That’s Positive Energy. To bring the idea to life, we forged a partnership between Energizer and One Million Lights, a global non-profit whose mission is to provide safe, clean and affordable solar lighting to rural communities without electricity. The partnership resulted in Energizer Night Races for a Brighter World.
The official kick-off in the U.S. took place on 11.11.11 with an 11k race in Houston, which hosted more than 1,200 runners and received extensive news coverage, including The New York Times. In the months that followed, Energizer Night Race for a Brighter World events took place internationally. Participants raced with only the light of an Energizer headlight to guide them, knowing that each step was helping shed light on an important cause. To support the program, we created a global toolkit to help local markets customize materials and share assets while maintaining consistent messaging. We also coordinated with OML on the distribution and documentation of Energizer solar lantern and bulb donations in rural communities around the world.
In order to maximize exposure, we extended the reach of the night runs through a series of social touchpoints including blogger outreach, a Night Race custom tab on the Energizer Bunny Facebook page, Facebook ads, Facebook sweepstakes for cash and prizes, local market event pages and discount codes. More than 75,000 people participated in the global race series and Energizer donated 23 million hours of solar light to OML to distribute to people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.