I don’t know how many folks have been following the story of Arien O’Connell who ran in the Nike Women’s Marathon here in San Francisco. She was a school teacher who ran the race but didn’t run in the “elite” group because she thought of herself as an average runner. Turns out that she ran her best time that day. A time that beat the average time of the elite group. Actually it beat the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place finishers of the elite group. And it wasn’t by chance, everyone was equiped with digital timers that registered their times automatically so it wasn’t as if she hopped the bus and showed up at the finish.
So, great story for Nike you would think. Woman says just do and and does it. Not so fast, it took them DAYS and a bit of bad press to even give her a trophy although they made it clear that she still didn’t win.
Along comes Reebok and gives her a trophy for the race and $2,500 for her school. Pretty good move Reebok…oh, and getting a press mention and building your brand as “for everyone” is definitely worth a couple of grand.
thedistillery 