Marketing

Lifestyle brand Saucony debuts challenge-driven experience

Photo: Adobe Stock

January 24, 2024

Performance running lifestyle brand Saucony has launched the Marathumb Challenge, a branded experience to help users "outpace doom scrolling," with physical activity.

The brand partnered with market research company HarrisX to survey more than 1,000 Americans on how technology impacts their ability to enjoy the outdoors and learned average person scrolls on their phone the distance of three marathons a year, equating to seventy-eight miles.

That revelation led Saucony to create the challenge, according to a press release. The experience measures the distance users scroll and compares it against the number of steps taken each day and through the week.

For Android users, the platform uses a proprietary formula to pull metrics on screen time and actively compares scrolling distance to stepping distance for a real time view into how the user stacking up. For iOS users, the platform compares steps to the average national distance scrolled per day/week.

The first weekly challenge kicked off this week and will continue for six weeks.

If a user moves farther than they scroll, rewards in the form of Saucony-branded merchandise will be theirs for the taking. Within the platform, users can track their daily and weekly progress, check out past wins, and motivate others.

"With Americans scrolling the distance of three marathons a year on their smartphones, we've identified a fun and creative opportunity to challenge consumers to move their feet more than their feed," Rob Griffiths, Saucony brand president, said in the release. "The launch of the Marathumb Challenge underscores Saucony's belief in the transformational power of movement, and we look forward to continuing to encourage everyone to live a better life by shifting the balance between screen time and step time."