How to Promote Running During the Pandemic

Kamila Palka
Kamila Palka
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the world of sports to stop and then transform. In the case of running, many races were canceled or postponed, forcing race organizers like La Bolsa del Corredor and its running club to come up with innovative and virtual solutions in order to continue motivating their communities. La Bolsa del Corredor organized Rainbow Virtual Series, a multi-race campaign with online registration and results, with the help of Easypromos. In this case study, we go through all the applications used for the campaign and how the organizers promoted their virtual events. The outcome speaks for itself: the organizers are already working on the 2021 edition of the virtual race.

The organizers of the Rainbow Virtual Series races

la bolsa del corredor logo

La Bolsa del Corredor is a website specialized in running and healthy living. Their content is centered around nutrition, health, well-being, running equipment, cycling, new trends among others.

bcteam.club logo

BCTEAM.club is the running club of La Bolsa del Corredor, with more than 200 members in Spain actively participating in group training in Barcelona, Alcala de Henares and online. 

The original alternative to running races

We all had to adapt to the situation caused by the pandemic. In the case of running, the organizers of the Rainbow Virtual Series organized seven virtual running races; it was a successful attempt to keep their running community motivated and connected. The running series attracted more than 8,000 participants of 44 nationalities, with a total of 13,800 participations. The Rainbow Virtual Series immediately became the number one virtual race nationwide. 

rainbow virtual series

The main objective of the campaign was to offer alternative solutions to the individuals interested in running races. Thanks to a series of online running competitions, users could continue training and working towards their set objectives, while complying with protective measures established by the local authorities. 

Once the organizers defined the schedule of their virtual races they realized the Easypromos tools could help them launch a global campaign, instead of staying focused just on Spain. 

Apart from engaging their audience, the organizers wanted to position their project. They needed tools that offered flexibility and that, at the same time, were robust enough to fulfill all their needs within a short timeline. The Easypromos integration with WordPress turned out to be the perfect combination.

The solution used to manage the virtual races

La Bolsa del Corredor and BCTEAM.com activated a total of 28 White Label promotions for their Rainbow Virtual Series project. The White Label version allowed them to launch multi-language promotions that could be fully personalized. Furthermore, it was easy to activate different types of promotions depending on the campaign they had running at the time, which offered them the flexibility needed.

“We first opted for the coupon distribution solution, as we needed to find a way to give out registration code to all signed-up users. To further promote the action, at the same time, we were running Multi-Network Giveaways with running gadgets as prizes”, explains Joan Teran, CEO and commercial manager at La Bolsa del Corredor. 

rainbow virtual series registration form

“The giveaways turned out to be a fantastic way and easy way of promoting the project. Being able to import all the comments with just one click highly facilitates the whole management process of the giveaway. The same applies to the “Claim my prize” button. We had great feedback regarding the Certificate of Validity, the participants were happy to see the whole process was transparent” adds Joan Teran. 

In order to collect the results, the organizers used the Survey application. The users had to introduce the code received at registration and add their time.

rainbow virtual series upload results

With the aim of building the community and obtaining user-generated content, the organizers activated two Mention + Hashtag photo contests. The participants could view their pictures on the official Rainbow Virtual Series website, where users could also vote for their favorite shots. The obtained UGC pictures were also used to organize Memory games that received great feedback from the online community. 

Applications integrated on the Rainbow Virtual Series website

One of the most important aspects for the organizers was to be able to display the promotions on their website. This was done via the Easypromos API that automates and synchronizes the users registered in the Easypromos promotions with the organizer’s database. 

Thanks to the Easypromos Webhooks, each time a participant shared their virtual race time, the score was immediately displayed in the classifications section on the Rainbow Virtual series website.

The Rainbow Virtual Series visibility online

The main means of dissemination was the La Bolsa del Corredor website, getting more than 1,500,000 monthly users. The project was also promoted with newsletters, specialized social media networks, and Facebook Ads. 

How Rainbow Virtual Series rate their project

“The project has been a total success with thousands of participants. We are already working on the 2021 edition of the Rainbow Virtual Series races. One thing that has impressed and surprised us is the positive feedback from the runners; they thanked us for giving them the opportunity to continue competing. They appreciated the extra motivation to stay active and healthy in the midst of the pandemic.”

“Although we already knew the Easypromos platform, we were stunned by the simplicity of activating different promotions depending on the campaigns we had active. Apart from discovering games like the Memory and Spin the Wheel applications, we have learned and experienced the advantages of code validation with Easypromos.”

“And as always, the technical support team always solved all our doubts immediately. Thank you!”

-Joan Teran-

CEO and commercial manager at Rainbow Virtual Series