Chicago Marathon: Sponsorship Event Branding and Management

When the LaSalle Bank decided to improve its Chicago area name recognition among clients and prospects, it chose to sponsor the fledgling Chicago Marathon that had less than 10,000 runners and 250,000 spectators. Over the next dozen years, The Kineo Group’s lead principal increased the scope, scale and success of the event through careful planning, research and analysis.

Major new branding and identity was developed to align with small-business initiatives, bank products and services and the event. The addition of a large-scale charitable fundraising program and a 150,000 person multi-day exposition at McCormick Place helped grow the marathon to attract 45,000 runners, 1.5 million spectators and 10,000 volunteers, all of which resulted in large scale, live, local and international television coverage.

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