How do you attract and engage the talent you need to grow your business, when your brand awareness is low and brand image weak? This was the question Ramboll in Sweden, a 2100-man strong sustainable society adviser and technical consultancy firm, asked ourselves in 2017.
We decided to launch a new sponsorship as the heart of our brand marketing strategy and became the title sponsor of Stockholm half marathon. Leveraging the insight that running is the most popular sport in Sweden, we chose running to impact as many Swedes as possible.
Our firm belief is that building a brand must start from within. Therefore, we let our employees (engineers) activate the sponsorship by developing a whole new way for Swedes all over the country to practice running.
The result was ShapeRunner, the world’s first and only app for figure running! The tracks in the app have been designed by our employees, making them the core and the stars of our sponsorship activation.
The results from the first three years of Ramboll Stockholm half marathon are amazing!
More than 70.000 people have now downloaded ShapeRunner and the numbers keep on rising. Ramboll Sweden’s brand awareness has risen 27%, that means +927.000 people more know about our brand today compared to 2017. Spontaneous applications to Ramboll has risen by 532%! Churn rate, meaning employees leaving Ramboll, has decreased by 17,6%.
Through the sponsorship and its activation ShapeRunner we brought our brand promise to life:Sustainable societies begin with sustainable people!
