Classic City Marathon
Type: Brand Identity, Website, Marketing Plan
Timeframe: January 2023 - Present
Description: The Classic City Marathon Association was formed in early 2023 with the mission to bring a marathon race to Athens, GA. The Classic City Marathon (CCM) is the inaugural race, debuting in January 2024. As the Director of Marketing, I was responsible for the initial creation of our brand and web presence.
Key Outcomes
Here are some digital wins from the first-ever Classic City Marathon website:
Over 1,230 registered runners (surpassing the 1,200 goal)
+20,000 unique visitors
Sponsored by lululemon
Raised over $114,000 through registrations
Learning Opportunities
Site Architecture
As the first-ever Classic City Marathon, the website was built entirely new. Referencing several aspirational marathons, I drafted the website’s structure. One of the challenges of the initial build was creating broad navigations that could be expanded on later. For example, the “Race Info” tab needed to contain core race information, but also, one day, it will have individual race experience pages. By creating broad categories, like “Involvement Opportunities,” we built up sponsorship, volunteer, and donor pages as these initiatives took effect.
By creating an overview page of involvement opportunities, links and forms could be added throughout the year, as new opportunities opened up.
Storytelling
How do you highlight something that hasn’t happened yet? One of the biggest challenges of building this race website was the lack of assets and stories to draw on. The Classic City Marathon is a nonprofit under the umbrella of the Athens Road Runners. So, in the spring of 2023, I attended various ARR races to capture content. By using close-up images and focusing on universal aspects of a race, like getting water, I created a portfolio of images that highlight a general race experience.
Without a historical set of images for the event, creating a compelling story required creativity and strategic content capturing. This image of a runner getting water looks like it could be from the marathon, but was actually from a 10K race!
