3000 women Run the Night at Nike’s first Australian event
Nike held its first She Runs the Night female-only running event in Australia last night in Sydney’s Centennial Park.
Over 3000 women took part in the event, which is part of an ongoing initiative intended to give women a supportive community and safe ways of running after dark with branded running clubs and events.
The event cost $80 to attend and participants received a Nike running shirt as part of the entry package.
hadn’t seen anything around this until just now – great concept
Go Us Sydney. This event added another half hour to the drive home in Cent Park but I didn’t care it looked awesome.
Was there a sale at the end?
I would have liked to participate as I think it is a great concept however heard nothing of it until now.
An amazing event – professional, inspiring and very cool! Great to be part of and very impressive to see as a marketing professional.
It was a brilliantly organised and executed event. An absolute credit to the event managers and well worth the entry fee. Hopefully we will see more of this type of event in Sydney.
The outdoor ads were all over Sydney for months …
An awesome campaign, and an even more awesome event.
Great concept. And I hear, wonderfully executed.
But as a consumer, a monster brand like NIKE should be donating proceeds to charity. The $80 per participant going into the deep pockets of NIKE doesn’t sit right with me. Would have been an even better PR story if some of the proceeds went towards a charity around women’s safety. Leaves a sour taste for me.
It was a great event, so much more than a running race. And hilarious for it not to be a ‘corporatised event’ – it was one massive branding campaign (which I’d normally be weary of) but it was class so well done Nike.
Fantastic work Nike and Us Sydney! Have heard many positive comments around the office today.
Why do Nike have to give the money to charity for the sake of PR? Surely that defeats the purpose of giving money to charity…Then you’d have the cynics saying it’s just for PR
It was a great event. Very well organised and advertised quite widely on bus shelters, posters all around town etc. I only paid $65 so not sure what the $80 was for. It was a positive event and I really enjoyed getting to run at night – which I never do in my area because it’s not safe.
My PR comment was that it would still be would be worthwhile for Nike. They make so much money. $65 or $80pp, whatever – the event is about keeping women safe. There are many global charities about exactly that. A charity alignment could have made a Nike buyer out of me.
I ran the night… and loved it! This was one of the best organised, professional and most enjoyable running events I’ve done. From the small touches of free hairbands, lipbalms and glo-sticks, to the outdoor djs and fire and light shows it made an otherwise gruelling chore into a thoroughly enjoyable jog! Well done Nike!
@Bec, yes, I agree. I’m sure it was a great event, but it would be nice to know how exactly how that $80 (or $65 – I was quoted $80 when I tried to enter, at which point I pulled out) was spent. I’m sure there were costs involved in staging the run, it would be interesting to find out exactly how much went into Nike’s pockets.
Did Nike get a exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Board or does it just discriminate based on gender by barring males from running in the event?
I find it hard to believe women would not be safe if they were in a fun run including men, but ultimately, the law is the law and surely Nike has broken it?
I look forward to the men only run Nike is no doubt planning..
Who is that slamming hottie in the photo at the bottom of the page? Sure hope Nike is giving her some coin
I ran the event and it was indeed a fantastic night, very well organised and different to any other run i’ve ever done. I paid $80 (the lower price was for early birds), and thought $80 was quite a lot but in the end well worth it for an amazing night, nike running shirt, great music, and a few freebies, and an atmosphere that motivated me to run my fastest ever. You get what you pay for i suppose – and thankfully, here you paid more and you went home feeling you got more. I havent heard a single complaint from anyone who ran the race, everyone is still buzzing from how great the night was. In terms of what Nike does with that money – yeah it’d definitely be nice to donate to charity, but i don’t think there’s any reason to get antsy about it not being done. And re: discrimination for women’s only, i’m sorry but i think complaining about that is a bit over the top – i think half the fun of the night for the 3000 chicks there was the fact that it was a women’s event where we could celebrate being chicks all having fun together…there’s something in that feeling that just can’t be explained.
Great work, now thats what I call experiential marketing, 3000 engaged participants with ‘no product flog’ and they pay to attend. Makes the product events at Martin Place seem lame and a total waste of a budget.
Why did they use a bloke to MC… if this was an event celebrating women??? SURELY someone else could have done it??? I don’t see any correlation between Darren McMullen, running…or women????
Obviously I was chosen because women love me
Equality what are you talking about??? Keep it men only! If you want one for men organise it! Women are NOT safe running at night, so personally I don’t want a mixed event.
Groooan Equality, 4 May 12 6:02 pm, way to miss the point.