P3R

KEEP PITTSBURGH RUNNING

W|W designed the integrated rebranding and website for P3R, the engine behind Pittsburgh’s greatest races like the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, the Fleet Feet Liberty Mile and the EQT Pittsburgh 10 Miler. Founded as a non-profit organization in 2009 to take over leadership of the Marathon, P3R’s reach quickly expanded to run a variety of other high-quality races, events, and health and fitness programs throughout the Pittsburgh region. For over a decade, PR3’s efforts were primarily focused on the production and marketing of these marquee events and programs which have helped Pittsburgh to become one of the best cities for running. While the organization’s operational focus is unwavering, the rebranding has helped P3R build awareness and strengthen its equity as it continues to bring the love of running to all Pittsburgh through its programming.

MOVEMENT

The revitalized brand identity created by W|W includes an overhaul of the visual identity system (logo, brand style guide) and voice, concentrating on action, effort and love of movement. The new tagline, "Keep Pittsburgh Running", a key component of the rebranding becomes a rallying cry that begins with P3R but is also intended to be picked up and carried like a banner by all stakeholders, runners and supporters. It’s a powerful declaration that fully reflects P3R’s mission and passion and invites others to join the movement to spread the love of running throughout the City of Pittsburgh and beyond.

DIGITAL

To assist P3R in building equity for the parent brand and its programming, W|W designed and developed the new website, www.P3R.org,  a primary communication platform. The responsively designed website is powered by BlokBlok CMS, a Ruby on Rails + Javascript content management system, includes a robust event calendar and houses P3R’s smaller races. The website redesign process helped streamline content management for the organization's marketing team by consolidating several websites into one, including Kids of Steel (youth programming) and GAP Relay (race).  The CMS was engineered with a microsite template that supports the P3R team's management of all this important information within one website while allowing that content to remain heroic. 

MARKETING

With a year-round slate of events and programming to promote, P3R operates a robust marketing machine that recruits runners, enlists support and keeps its ambassadors educated and engaged. The brand system was designed to let a designated event or program maintain the top billing while always connecting the parent organization in a smart way via Run with P3R or #RunwithP3R.  This attribution convention helps increase P3R awareness while giving the organization credit for the races, events and charity programs it produces. W|W also addressed on-site displays and co-branding opportunities for sponsor activations. 

2023 MARATHON

For the 2023 Pittsburgh Marathon, W|W continued to evolve and extend the MOVE theme with the P3R team. In this year’s campaign, Pittsburgh’s signature “gold” color is taken to a new level, gilding the Marathon weekend participants to celebrate them as champions.

2022 MARATHON

After a 2-year hiatus because of the global pandemic, the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon triumphantly returned to the streets in May of 2022. The branding campaign designed by W|W for 2022 was infused with energy and a bit of grit to celebrate running, and movement, throughout the City. The P3R in-house team leveraged the campaign style guide created by W|W to produce branded touchpoints across the communications ecosystem, from digital to in-person activations. 

2021 MARATHON

Celebrating the universal and accessible concept of movement, the 2021 campaign continued to leverage the theme of Move. The W|W design system for the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon added radiating lines inside the "move" typography, along with a move pattern, a move border, and a secondary red color to the palette. For 2021, W|W also created custom race badges to identify the individual races that make up Race Weekend, neighborhood badges to provide a local flavor and uniquely convent the Pittsburgh aspect of the event and a tri-tone pixel stretching style was to give photography a new dimension. Finally, three-dimensional versions of iconic marathon objects were created along with emoji runners to add some movement fun.

2020 MARATHON

The W|W campaign design for the 2020 DICK'S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon continued to build on the theme of movement,  celebrating the access of participation to everyone. The integrated campaign's toolkit and narrative is filled with positive energy and encouragement. The campaign design was also easily adapted by P3R to run a successful virtual marathon. 

2019 MARATHON

For the 2019 DICK'S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon campaign branding, W|W evolved the 2018 design (X theme for 10th anniversary) to create the human figure in motion. This concept embraced the idea that the Marathon helps move Pittsburgh and that movement is good for the health of the region. 

2018 MARATHON

W|W's collaboration with P3R began with the design of the integrated campaign branding for the 2018 DICK'S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon. The 2018 Marathon marked the 10-year anniversary of the return of the marquee event to Pittsburgh after its hiatus following the recession. The successful design was a departure from what is typically seen in marathon branding and was embraced by runners, partners and the Pittsburgh community. The campaign included a provocative teaser ad that juxtaposed Pittsburgh's steel bridge with a runner's shoelaces, an interactive installation where participants shared why they run and a graphic toolkit loaded with different versions of X for the 10-year anniversary. View the Pittsburgh Marathon campaign case study.

4RUN2 VARSITY

W|W helped design and develop the name, narrative and integrated branding for 4RUN2 Varsity, the official P3R running club for youth and teens. 4RUN2 Varsity expands the emphasis on movement for all while providing an opportunity for young runners to grow with P3R after completing  Kids of Steel. The program’s tagline, “All City. No Limits.” speaks to its celebratory, accessible, fun and non-competitive personality. The  brand toolkit contains a set of secondary graphic marks that includes an arrow pattern created from the letter V in Varsity to signal movement and momentum.