North face

2014 OFFICIAL PARTNER

200 APPLICANTS 8 LUCKY RUNNERS 4 TOUGH-AS-NAILS RACES 6,336 FEET OF GRUELLING VERTICAL ASCENT 54 PAGES OF EDITORIAL 322 TWEETS 32 BLOG PIECES REACHED OVER 500,000 RUNNERS ON ALL PLATFORMS 17 BLISTERS 1 RACE WINNER

What is it?

Trail running is increasingly popular for its many benefits, including amazing scenery, less impact on knees and joints due to the softer surfaces underfoot, and the ability to feel like you’re at one with nature. no nasty concrete, just the gorgeous wildlife and nature trails around you is what makes trail running so special and why so many of us enjoy it.

Project Trail is designed to take our readers’ trail running to the next level.

Men’s and Women’s Running teamed up with The North Face to offer four lucky readers the chance to take part in a trail race of their choice – with race distances ranging from 7.5k, half marathon, marathon and ultra. Each individual received kit and shoes courtesy of The North Face.

THE RACES The Screes 18 October, five miles The Lake District in all its glory. The Screes is a very steep race but –mercifully – it is over relatively quickly. This will test your abilities to go up hills and down! if you’re looking for a unique challenge in a spectacular setting, this is the race for you.

www.fellrunner.org.uk/races EnduranceLife Suffolk 25 October, half marathon A magnificent and beautiful landscape that is a real privilege to run in. You can enjoy the fact that it is a quick flat and fast course by EnduranceLife standards.

www.endurancelife.com

Beachy Head Marathon Eastbourne, 25 October The Eastbourne Beachy Head Marathon is one the biggest off-road marathons in the UK – and also one of the toughest. Popular for its scenic and challenging route over the South Downs. it’s great for runners looking for a tough challenge.

www.visiteastbourne.com/events Dusk Til Dawn Ultra Derbyshire, 25 October, 50 miles One for the night owls. Start at 17:49 (sunset), and run all night, but you must finish the course by 06:52 (sunrise). The course rises and falls through the Peak District. Of course, you’re navigating by torchlight too. You’ll be supplied with a custom Ordnance Survey map – but you’ll need to bring your own compass and be confident to navigate at night.

www.beyondmarathon.com/dusk-til-dawn

54 PAGES OF EDITORIAL

OBJECTIVES What we wanted to do was take a very successful model – Project 26.2, our spring marathon reader training initiative – which started with a test year and has subsequently turned into the most successful editorial initiative we’ve done.

We wanted to replicate the success of Project 26.2 within the trail sector. For us, The North Face was the perfect choice of partner because its brand is so strong in the sector, with an excellent range of runningspecific trail products. However, one of the challenges for The North Face is also to raise awareness of its products in the trail running sector.

By communicating through both successful print brands like Men’s and Women’s Running, and through the design and creation of a standalone Trail Zone site and dedicated Project Trail area, we have successfully been able to communicate both The North Face’s brand values and the quality of its products to a significantly wider audience.

LEARNINGS As we did with Project 26.2, we created a standalone website for Project Trail, that was linked through from the main MR and WR sites and held within a new site, called TrailZone.

The plan was to make The North Face’s presence on this website very visible (see below).

However, given our experience on Project 26.2, we have subsequently realised that including both TrailZone and Project Trail within the main sites significantly enhances user reach and return usage (see below).

Since the completion of Project Trail, we have made significant investment in our digital business, recruiting two fulltime digital writers which has had an instant success on our website traffic. The MR and WR websites now have combined users of more than 150,000 and our digital footprint has grown to more than 500,000 per month.

Our plan for Project Trail will be to replicate the success of Project 26.2 in 2015, with a significant increase in user engagement and content, including video and mutually reciprocal social media plans.

womensrunninguk.co.uk

mensrunninguk.co.uk

Wild Bunch Media Ltd Gable House, 1st Floor, 18-24 Turnham Green Terrace, Chiswick, London W4 1QP