How do you
evolve an anthem without losing
its memory?
2025 | OOH
TATA MUMBAI MARATHON
THE LOCAL MOTIVE
The Tata Mumbai Marathon does not run through a neutral city.
It moves along the Arabian Sea. It cuts across historic facades. It begins before sunrise, when the air is heavy and the skyline is still soft. The runner’s experience is shaped as much by the environment as by the effort itself.
Many global marathon campaigns focus on performance and spectacle. We chose to focus on context.
Mumbai has a distinct rhythm: resilient, fast, layered. That rhythm mirrors the mindset of the runner who shows up before the city fully wakes. Focused. Disciplined. Self-driven.
The 2026 evolution of Run Like Mumbai was grounded in this relationship between athlete and place. The city would not be treated as backdrop, but as an active force shaping the visual language.
By rooting the work in Mumbai’s physical and emotional texture, the identity could feel globally contemporary while remaining unmistakably local.
DESIGN:
Creative Direction, Visual Language and Photography
ACTIVATION:
OOH, Advertising and Social Media
IMPACT
The 2026 campaign marked a strategic shift.
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Rather than reinventing the marathon’s voice, it strengthened it. Rather than layering more emotion, it refined expression.
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With 50+ OOH placements across Mumbai and a unified presence across channels, Run Like Mumbai evolved from an annual theme into a more enduring brand language.
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The result was a visual identity that felt mature, confident and built to last.
DESIGN PROBLEM
For three years, Run Like Mumbai had been the defining thought of the Tata Mumbai Marathon. Each edition interpreted it through a distinct emotional lens: grit, empathy, endurance; building both recall and equity.
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By 2026, the question was not how to change the idea, but how to mature it.
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The opportunity was to elevate the property from campaign to identity. To move from annual reinterpretation to a refined, enduring visual language that feels contemporary, global and collectible.
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The brief was clear: evolve without losing recognition.
The Strategy & Research Journey
We began by looking outward.
Global marathon campaigns often rely on spectacle: cheering crowds, finish-line emotion, dramatic overlays. While powerful, that territory is crowded. It also didn’t reflect the emotional truth of Mumbai’s early-morning runner.
The Tata Mumbai Marathon begins before the city is fully awake. The mindset at that hour is not performative. It is focused. Disciplined. Personal.
We studied international sports communication: Nike, the Olympics, World Marathon Majors; to understand how modern sporting properties build longevity. The strongest systems share three traits:
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A disciplined visual language
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Typography that carries energy, not decoration
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Imagery that feels intentional rather than illustrative
The insight was simple:
The evolution of Run Like Mumbai would come from restraint and precision, not amplification.
CREATIVE DIRECTION
The 2026 direction centred on movement expressed through design craft. The silhouette remained. The words remained. What changed was how they were constructed, framed and experienced.
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The idea was to express the rhythm of running through typography, framing and light.
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Typography was treated as a structural element within the layout. Letterforms were stretched, compressed and arranged to create forward momentum. The line Run Like Mumbai carried pace through its construction: sometimes extended across the frame, sometimes stacked vertically to echo steps, sometimes tightly composed to heighten intensity.
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The colour palette was restrained. High contrast and negative space gave the work a sense of confidence and permanence. The design aimed to feel like something you would archive, not discard.
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Light played a defining role. The runner was shaped by early-morning illumination, allowing shadow and highlight to add dimensionality. The silhouette became less graphic and more sculptural, embedded within the city’s atmosphere.
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Together, these choices positioned the marathon as both globally contemporary and unmistakably Mumbai.
Activation
The visual system was built for scale from the outset.
OOH
Across 50+ sites in Mumbai, the work held presence through clarity. Large-format OOH used disciplined composition and typographic energy to command attention without clutter. Along sea-facing roads and arterial routes, the imagery felt anchored in place: recognisably local yet globally styled.
Race-Day Installation
On race day, the identity moved from media space into participant space.
A large-format printed creative was installed at the venue, allowing runners and supporters to physically step into the visual world of Run Like Mumbai. The backdrop carried the same typographic energy and sculpted silhouette seen across the city.
Participants began using it organically as a post-run marker of achievement. Photographs taken at the installation were widely shared across personal social platforms, extending the campaign’s reach without paid amplification.
