Published 07 August 2025

Authors
Marta Mąkolska
8 min read

Marathon running and its attendant culture and communities are big business: participant numbers worldwide are surging (see Key Stats) driven by the desire, especially among women, to achieve beyond traditional milestones. We spotlight winning strategies including localised race-week retail, women-focused training experiences, recovery retail, ‘hard yards marketing’, and ‘cheer commerce’ centring celebration and commemoration.

Race Week Retail: Tapping Running’s Local Tentpole Moments

Empowering Women Runners

Pain Gains: Marketing Harnessing a Hard-Yards Sentiment

Retail Prep & Recovery Services

Cheer Commerce: Celebrate & Commemorate

The evolution of marathon races into tentpole moments (evidenced by the groundswell of holidays being arranged around them; see The New Culture of Running Update) presents major opportunities for zeitgeisty race day/week activations. From calming urbane retreats, to expert counsel and hubs for psyching up, these localised community-bonding touchpoints signal collaborative possibilities for fashion, food and beverage, fit-tech, and beauty.

The evolution of marathon races into tentpole moments (evidenced by the groundswell of holidays being arranged around them; see The New Culture of Running Update) presents major opportunities for zeitgeisty race day/week activations. From calming urbane retreats, to expert counsel and hubs for psyching up, these localised community-bonding touchpoints signal collaborative possibilities for fashion, food and beverage, fit-tech, and beauty.

Summary

Race Week Retail: Tapping Running’s Local Tentpole Moments

The evolution of marathon races into tentpole moments (evidenced by the groundswell of holidays being arranged around them; see The New Culture of Running Update) presents major opportunities for zeitgeisty race day/week activations. From calming urbane retreats, to expert counsel and hubs for psyching up, these localised community-bonding touchpoints signal collaborative possibilities for fashion, food and beverage, fit-tech, and beauty.

Empowering Women Runners

Recognising that women – especially Gen Z – are driving the marathon running boom, smart brands are building supportive ecosystems, from publicly advancing research into athletic performance to clubs addressing nighttime safety. For younger women, mental wellbeing and community is the key motivation; for older women it’s achievement and purpose beyond traditional life milestones (see Key Stats for all).

Pain Gains: Marketing Harnessing a Hard-Yards Sentiment

Resonant advertising campaigns are channelling the gruelling emotional and physical realities of marathon running with ‘badge of honour brand messaging’. Conceived to acknowledge running audiences’ ‘hard yards’, they foreground effort, perseverance and worthwhile sacrifice including the IYKYK adverse side effects (think lost toenails) alongside or instead of pure aspiration or performance.

Retail Prep & Recovery Services

With recovery increasingly prized (the global sports recovery tech market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 23.1% to hit $6.94bn by 2032, Future Data Stats) shrewd brands and retailers are devising recovery services, often in partnership with fitness/consumer tech device brands. Prep, from training to sleep, remains important, too, with app-powered coaching taking centre stage.

Cheer Commerce: Celebrate & Commemorate

From medal engraving and post-race portraits to personalised apparel, there’s considerable mileage in celebratory commemorative activations. Customisation – catering to the diversification of style emerging in marathon fashion – has the most appeal, while involving friends and family and commemorating the legacy of amateur achievement are key routes, too.

Monetising Marathon Culture

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Topics

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Offering access to over 350 consumer and cross-industry reports annually, Stylus Membership is your window to tomorrow’s most exciting opportunities.

We already arm more than 500 of the world’s most forward-thinking brands and agencies with the creative insights they need to make transformative business decisions.

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Monetising Marathon Culture

Monetising Marathon Culture

Monetising Marathon Culture

Monetising Marathon Culture

Monetising Marathon Culture

Marathon running and its attendant culture and communities are big business: participant numbers worldwide are surging (see Key Stats) driven by the desire, especially among women, to achieve beyond traditional milestones. We spotlight winning strategies including localised race-week retail,...

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