What it had to solve
Diadora, the Italian sportswear brand, wanted a launch for its N9000 that showed the pure joy of sport rather than the performance, pressure and profit typical of the industry.
The idea
Skip the courier: the first customer's pre-order travels nearly 1,500 km from the Italian factory to their Barcelona doorstep on foot, in a nine-day relay
How it works
When an unknowing customer placed the first pre-order, his doorstep became the delivery destination. Runners from around the world carried the N9000 pair in relay from Diadora's HQ in Caerano di San Marco, Italy to Barcelona, Spain across nine days and nearly 1,500 km. A microsite tracked the package with daily footage, Periscope broadcasts and live statistics — what SMFB creative director Thomas Askim called likely the most detailed online delivery overview to ever exist.
What it did
The run became an online documentary and campaign site, plus a TVC for Italian markets; no sales or reach figures are reported.
Background
In May 2016 Diadora launched 'Make it Bright', a campaign devised by creative agency SMFB and creative production company MediaMonks that reimagined package delivery: a pair of Italian-made N9000 sneakers travelled from the brand's HQ in Caerano di San Marco, Italy to Barcelona, Spain — carried entirely on foot.
The relay covered nine days and nearly 1,500 km, run by runners from around the world. It began with an unknowing customer's first pre-order, which made his doorstep the final destination. A microsite offered daily footage, Periscope broadcasts and live statistics as the package progressed through Europe.
Diadora's head of marketing and communication Romina Zanchetta framed the campaign as shining a light on the pure joy of sports rather than performance, pressure and profit — 'making the ordinary, extraordinary'. The run now lives on as an online documentary and campaign site, with a TVC for Italian markets.
Why it lands
The product's provenance becomes literal: the Made-in-Italy shoes walk the distance to their wearer.
Live tracking turns a stunt into an appointment — followers check daily on a package that runs.
One real customer's order supplies the whole narrative, so the story ends at a real doorstep.
What you can take
Turn logistics into the story: a delivery you can follow live converts a product drop into a nine-day sporting event.
Since then
The campaign closed with an online documentary and website so visitors could re-live the run, plus a TVC for Italian markets. No sales or reach figures appear in the source.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE