25 Years in the Making; Marketing the Nation's Largest Inline Marathon

Client

• NorthShore Inline Marathon

Deliverables

• Website Design

• Advertising

• Race Materials

2021 NorthShore Inline Marathon

This is where we will put a description of the client and what we are doing. This can be about what we did or who they are.

Results

Captured over 5,000 stunning photos

Received up to $120,000 of grant money secured (yearly)

Grew social following by over 660%

Updated brand guidelines to fit 2021 standards

Oversaw the complete redesign of the website to capture a younger audience

Reaching the Youth!

The NorthShore Inline Marathon (NSIM) had seen a decrease in numbers over the past years as the inline skating community had dwindled. With lower numbers, marketing had started to decrease and the overall brand had taken a hit. Their consumer base was getting older and many stopped competing due to past injuries. Additionally, after having to cancel their race in 2020, the NorthShore was desperate for numbers. The NorthShore Inline Marathon is North America’s largest Inline Marathon and is called one of the most scenic races of its kind in the world.

Each year their event brings in thousands of racers from across the world to Duluth, Minnesota to take part in a weekend's worth of events including Olympians, NHL players, and inline skating enthusiasts. The NorthShore Inline Marathon’s biggest challenge was capturing a younger demographic. That’s where Finden came in.

Giving new life to the race!

The Finden Marketing team came in to help the NorthShore Inline Marathon get back to their numbers and once again receive the title of the world’s largest inline marathon. Our team worked alongside NSIM to conduct a marketing audit to figure out what was all needed of our services. After the audit, it was concluded that their event needed a complete marketing overhaul including branding, website redesign, graphic design, social media marketing, PR management, content creation, and advertising management. Our team took on the project and started by combining their three websites into one fluent site (northshoreinline.com) that would drive all traffic to one location. We then started working on graphics including posters, billboards, web icons, and more catered at their 25th anniversary.

Our advertising team worked with Google to secure NSIM a grant that allowed our team to spend up to $10,000 a month on Google ads. From there, our social media team brought it all home with fun graphics that popped off the screen and stopped the scroll. When race day came our team was ready with our content creation crew stationed along the race course. Their goal was to capture as much content as possible including both videography and photography of the event. Afterward, you could see the smiles on competitors’ faces as they donned Finden Marketing-designed medals and finisher shirts along with the special edition 25th anniversary race jersey given to those who have done the race every year.

The numbers were in and NSIM had over 50% new skaters in 2021 bringing in over a thousand new faces who came from across the country to participate in this one-of-a-kind event. Participants loved our designs and gave them a 4.8/5 in the post-race review. Our social media team knocked it out of the park growing reach by over 10,600% on Facebook and 1,700% on Instagram. Additionally our team grew profile visits to each account by a combined 1,900% and grew new page followers by over 660% from prior to us joining the team.

NorthShore Inline Marathon Executive Director Skeeter Moore had this to say about Finden Marketings' work. “The best thing about working with Finden is that they are always willing to assist and market our event with enthusiasm and energy!”

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