London Marathon - Advertising

I will now be looking at the marketing and communications of both events.

Although a large scale event I could not really find much in terms of advertising that the London marathon actually do. I believe this is because it is so nationally and internationally recognised so the event does not need to be heavily advertised/marketed.

Being such a well-known event of course has its perks.  Roughly 36,000 people actually take part and so have all of their friends and family help support them by watching and donating, of course via word of mouth it soon spreads by getting a friend of a friend to donate. Celebrities who have large followings take part too, this year Chris Evans, Dame Kelly Holmes and Game of thrones star Natalie Dormer all took part raising money for charity.

On the actual London Marathon twitter page it has 110K followers who they can advertise to keeping them updated with how things are going, for example if everything is running to time, and obviously promote the event. During the run The London Marathon twitter kept everyone up to date with how the races were going and the results.

On Facebook the London Marathon page has 150,256 likes where similarly they keep people updated with what is going on, with photos and statuses as well as sharing any there articles regarding the marathon. I feel on Facebook more people interact with the posts compared to twitter as twitter is seen as a cooler platform attracting younger audiences and I feel that the main audience of the London marathon are 18-60 and so is more affective.

 The London Marathon also have Instagram with 19k followers where they posted pictures of the progress of the route.  I wouldn’t say this platform was overly used as a form of advertising beforehand but after the event 31,901 people posted pictures using the #londonmarathon2016 obviously creating more recognition for the event.

Due to the London Marathon being so up to date with the social media platforms it creates a wider market and forms a little community as such where everyone can discuss their experiences and get involved with the event even if they are not actually there by commenting on posts on social media.

As well as social media the races are actually shown on the television on the BBC and British Euro Sport and is also aired on the radio. The media coverage is definitely done well overall creating more awareness/ marketing the event further.

I believe the London Marathon effectively markets and communicates its event by targeting the media/ social media, however I feel they could do more in terms of advertising the event prior to it taking place as I could not seem to find anything.