For years, Pocari Sweat has been there at the start and finish line, hydrating runners chasing their personal best. But in 2025, we decided to test ourselves in a different way. Not by running a marathon. By putting a new event on Dubai’s running calendar .
Introducing THE RUN 2025 DUBAI, BY POCARI SWEAT. Our target was clear - 3,000 registrations across 5 km, 10 km and 21 km distances.
Earning alarm time
Dubai’s fitness culture is growing fast. But signing up for a marathon isn’t a casual decision. It’s a commitment.
It means weeks of training. 5 am alarms. A promise you make to yourself long before race day. Our challenge wasn’t awareness. It was motivation - strong enough to beat the snooze buttons.
Runner-speak
Runners train alone. But participate as a community. They don’t sign up for an event because brands tell them to. They do so because other runners inspire them to. Motivation travels faster inside communities than it does through advertising.
We started inside the running community itself. We partnered with eight running influencers, reaching a combined audience of 7,000 followers across the region.Instead of just announcing a race, we let runners hear about it from people already living the lifestyle.
Eyeballs and footfall
Our GCC-wide social media campaign was just support for the heavy lifting we were doing through running influencers. The gamble paid off: Our event earned • 36,720,514 impressions • 1,454,348 video views • 68,672 website visits. Instagram led with 7,115,196 impressions, followed by TikTok with 5,734,199 impressions.
Our goal of 3,000 registrations? We had crossed it before race day. 3,000+ runners signed up - a critical number we needed to put our event on the city’s Marathon calendar.
The learning
Want a great VO to launch your campaign? Tap voices from within the community. They hit harder.