A great campaign is one that makes you say, “I wish I’d thought of that”, right? Get ready to say it. It comes from BETC, it’s for running store Distance and it’s this…If you can steal one item from Distance’s Parisian running store and avoid getting caught by elite sprinter, Mickael Zeze, working the door for one day, you can keep it.
Distance wanted to celebrate real runners and it made a selection of its most-coveted items only available to them. BETC and Distance’s Rob It To Get It operation took place on September 13 in Paris.
Apart from being the kind of campaign that people talk about – a lot, it also puts sport back in sportswear. Long waiting lines, fights between customers, items that sell out only to resurface on reselling platforms…sportswear has become a fashion craze that almost overshadowed its original destination. This campaign very clearly says that running shoes are for running.
Meba-Mickael Zeze is one of the best French 100m runners. Zeze is a member of the French track team and runs the 100 metre dash under 10 seconds. Many runners tried to rob the store but only a few of them actually managed to complete their heist. The final tally: 74 runners ended up being caught by Zeze and only 2 of them were fast enough.
Guillaume Pontier, founder of Distance, commented, “Distance is a concept running store inspired by art, fashion and design. But our priority, as runners’ advocates, has always been to share tips and provide the best gear to athletes looking to improve their performance. It was an honour to invite our community to test their own pace against one of the world’s fastest runners. We are also glad that Zeze was fast enough to prevent the operation turning into a financial nightmare. Thank you.”
To extend the operation and bring sports to the masses, Distance will organise a special event on October 18 at 6pm where all the items that were not stolen during the operation will be put back onto the shelves at a discount.
Credits:
Client: Distance
Brand Managers: Guillaume Pontier, Lionel Jagorel
Ad Agency: BETC Paris
President & Chief Creative Officer: Stephane Xiberras
Art Director: Jeremy Treccani
Copywriter: Corentin Salignat
Account Managers: Mathieu Laugier, Damien Clanet
Production Company: Soldats
Director: Victor Sellier
Cinematographer: Fyras Slaiman
Executive Producer: Pierre Cazenave
Producer: Thomas Duchene
Production Director: Laurianne Metais
Production Assistants: Lucas Lemens, Anastasia Makeieva
1st Camera Assistant: Louise Gholam
Steadicam: Katia Hamnane
Stylist: Pierre Passe-Galliano
Editing & Colour Grading: Gregoire Giral
Music: Romain Baronnet @ GUM
