How wellness & food brands can tap into Marathon Season in 2026

The role of influencer marketing in marathon activations

Influencer marketing runs on authenticity. Runners share their experiences, challenges and successes during the build-up, engaging other participants and the wider running community.

According to Statista, 6.5M people in the UK run regularly. Brands can reach that large audience with the heightened credibility of one of the biggest sporting events of the year.

Here are the types of content formats that perform best:

• Short-form video: Training snippets, race-day moments and "train with me" formats that capture the energy of marathon preparation in short, shareable form.
• Stories: Daily routines, nutrition check-ins, polls and Q&As that keep followers engaged throughout the weeks of build-up.
• Long-form: Deeper race preparation content, such as weekly progress updates, kit breakdowns and post-race reflections, develops deeper stories. 

These authentic moments connect with audiences. Runners trust creators who document real preparation, including the highs and lows, rather than polished brand messaging. But not all creators are the same. The London Marathon attracts enormous variety, from everyday runners who could be your neighbour to elite professionals competing on the world stage. This gives you an opportunity to tell stories that connect and reach audiences beyond typical wellness and fitness influencers. 

Here are the types of influencers and where they fit in campaigns:

• Micro (5K–100K followers): These creators have niche, highly engaged audiences and share authentic content. While there’s lower reach, there are stronger trust signals, which are ideal for driving consideration and conversion. 
  
  • Example: David Zakwan (@davidzakwan_, 25K followers, Instagram) has generated €173K in EMV from London Marathon content in 2026. A standout Reel, created as a paid partnership with personal care brand Radox, features British athlete Katerina Johnston-Thompson. Zakwan asks her for training advice, resulting in content that feels genuinely useful rather than promotional. The Reel generated 8K likes at a 29% engagement rate.

• Macro-influencers (100K–1M followers): Macros offer a balance of reach and engagement. Audiences are still targeted but campaigns scale further. 
  
  • Example: Sylvain Guintoli (@sylvainguintoli, 116K followers, Instagram) is a motorcycle racer and pundit running the London Marathon for charity. His content follows him training on the motorcycle track and sharing his reasons for competing. This personal, purpose-driven content has resonated strongly with his audience. He has generated €412K in EMV from his London Marathon content, achieving a 95% engagement rate.

• Mega-influencers (1M+ followers): These creators offer reach and broad awareness. Their engagement rates are typically lower, but content can generate significant impressions. 
  
  • Example: Iain Liam Ward (@thekingofchemo, 9.5M followers, Instagram) is walking the London Marathon as part of a five marathons in one month challenge—one of many he has taken on to raise money for charity since being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. His content documents his training routine, his concerns and how he is competing despite an injury that has prevented him from running. Since January 2026, his content tagging @londonmarathon has generated €229.69K in EMV and 5M views.

• Athlete influencer: Credibility through lived experience. A marathon runner posting about race-day nutrition or recovery carries a level of authenticity no brand-produced content can replicate. 
  
  • Example: Emile Cairess (@emilecairess, 21K followers, Instagram) is an Adidas athlete and elite UK marathon runner expected to challenge Mo Farah's British record this year. His content is polished and performance-focused, covering his training targets, race aspirations and previous times. It speaks directly to serious runners and endurance sports fans.

The most effective marathon marketing strategies combine tiers deliberately. Micro-influencers build trust and drive conversions within niche running communities, while macro influencers extend reach and lend credibility at scale.

Regardless of the type of influencer, brands should give creators a level of creative control. According to Kolsquare's State of Influencer Marketing in Europe 2025, 64% of marketers now prioritise co-creation formats that give creators the freedom to tell the story in their own voices. 

Brands can also amplify campaigns using paid ads. Kolsquare data also found that 46% of brands amplify creator content via paid media to extend their reach beyond organic audiences. In a moment-driven event like the London Marathon, that combination is particularly powerful. You develop authentic content and have the ability to boost it at the right moment for the right audience.

Winning content strategies and ideas for marathon season

The most effective marathon activations don't start on race day. They build across a defined content arc that mirrors the runner's own journey. 

Here’s how to create a long-term influencer marketing strategy that builds credibility, earns trust and drives sales.

8–12 weeks before the event, marketers should focus on the following content types:

• Training series: Creators document their weekly mileage, long runs and personal bests, giving brands a recurring presence in content that audiences return to week after week.
• "What I eat in a day": Nutrition content performs in the running community, creating a natural integration point for food, supplement and hydration brands.

In the 8 weeks before the London Marathon, content should become more focused to include:

• Race countdown content: Creators share the reality of taper week, injury management and mental preparation. These are high-authenticity moments that drive strong engagement.
• Kit and gear reveals: Unboxing and "race day kit" formats perform well in this window as excitement builds across the running community.
• Community engagement: Polls, Q&As and follower challenges build audience participation ahead of race week.

During race week, the following content formats connect with audiences:

• Event coverage: On-the-ground content from the event, the start line and the course itself. 
• Creator takeovers: Handing over brand channels to a participating KOL for race week drives authenticity and audience connection.
• Real-time content via Stories and Lives: These formats capture the raw emotion of race day. It should be raw, unpredictable and unpolished for maximum authenticity. 

Post-race, promotional content should still make the most of the story with the following content types:

• Recovery content: What happens after the finish line is as compelling as the race itself. Ice baths, physio sessions and rest-day routines all perform well and extend the campaign window.
• Performance reflections: Creators sharing their time, what worked and what didn't generate high engagement and mirrors conversations already happening in running communities.
• Transformation storytelling: The 12-week arc from first training run to finish line is powerful long-form content and carousel posts. Creators can also tap into trending before-and-after formats. 

How food & wellness companies can activate creators

The marathon calendar gives food and wellness brands a clear, recurring need state that maps directly onto the product journey. Every runner, from elite athlete to first-time participant, needs to fuel, hydrate and recover. There is an opportunity to show up at each stage with the right product, the right creator and the right message.

Here’s how to develop your product positioning:

• Energy (before the run): Pre-run nutrition content, such as morning routines, carb-loading meals, energy snacks and pre-workout supplements, can be integrated naturally into training day content in the weeks leading up to race day.
• Hydration (during): On-course and long-run hydration content performs particularly well in Stories and Reels, where creators can show usage in real conditions.
• Recovery (after): Post-run recovery content, such as protein intake, sleep, ice baths and supplements, extends the campaign beyond race day and into a high-engagement period when audiences are still invested in the story.

The following campaign ideas perform throughout marathon season:

• Creator-led challenges (#RoadToLondonMarathon): A hashtag challenge centred on the training journey encourages participation beyond the creator's audience. This generates UGC at scale and builds a community around the brand ahead of race day.
• Ambassador programmes with runners: Long-term partnerships with participating KOLs across all tiers, activated from the ballot announcement through to post-race recovery. Consistency of creator and message builds a far stronger brand association than one-off placements.
• Community activations (run clubs and events): Partnering with run clubs and hosting brand-led training events creates offline moments that generate organic online content and positions the brand as genuinely embedded in the running community.

Food and wellness brands can partner with the following complementary brands to boost reach:

• Fitness apps: Integration with training and nutrition tracking apps places the brand directly into the daily routine of runners.
• Gyms and studios: Co-branded activations with gyms and running studios extend reach into communities that are actively training and already engaged with health and wellness brands.
• Sports communities: Run clubs, Parkrun partnerships and online running communities offer access to highly targeted, high-intent audiences.

The strategic shift is from product placement to lifestyle integration. A creator who uses your product throughout 12 weeks of training will show audiences that they genuinely value it. That kind of endorsement carries far more weight than a single sponsored post.

Measuring performance (going beyond reach to track the KPIs that matter)

Reach and follower counts are no longer enough. According to Kolsquare's State of Influencer Marketing in Europe 2025, engagement rate is now the most widely used KPI across Europe, tracked by 70% of marketers, with reach (57%) and impressions (48%) close behind. 

For marathon campaigns, measurement needs to be equally layered. You should look at how the content affected the audience, drove conversions and impacted business perception long-term. 

Brands need to go beyond reach to track the following metrics:

• Engagement rate: This leading performance signal is particularly valuable for marathon content where trust and community connection drive results. High engagement rates indicate audiences that are genuinely invested, not just scrolling past. 
• Saves and shares: These signals that show content is useful enough to keep or pass on, particularly strong for nutrition, training plan and recovery content where runners actively look for information they can act on.
• Watch time: A reliable indicator of content quality in Reels and long-form formats. In a training series running over a few weeks, sustained watch time across multiple posts signals that an audience is following the creator's journey.

The following metrics are useful for assessing direct business impact:

• Earned media value (EMV): A single social media metric that captures the full commercial value of organic creator content. The London Marathon generated €23M in EMV across April 2025. For brands activated within that conversation, EMV provides a direct comparison point against equivalent paid media spend. 
• Traffic and conversions: Bottom-funnel measurement is growing fast. According to the report, conversions and lead generation are now tracked by 32% of European marketers, with ROI/ROAS at 31%. For food and wellness brands running discount codes or affiliate links alongside marathon content, these metrics close the loop between creator activity and commercial results.

Here’s how to measure a campaign’s long-term results:

• Brand affinity: Content co-creation builds associations that outlast the campaign window. A creator who documents their marathon preparation alongside your product for 12 weeks creates a brand memory that a single sponsored post cannot replicate.
• Community growth: Marathon season offers a natural window to identify and onboard new creators. Track follower growth and UGC during and after the campaign as an indicator of wider audience reach.

Marathon campaigns are rare in that they allow brands to measure content performance and brand impact simultaneously. The training arc generates engagement data week by week, while race day produces reach and impressions at scale. Tracked together, using EMV, engagement rate and conversion data, brands can develop a clear picture of campaign performance and return on investment.

Common mistakes to avoid: how budget, branding and plans affect your marathon campaign

Marathon season rewards brands that plan ahead and stay authentic. These are the pitfalls that undermine campaigns most often:

• Treating it as a one-day activation: The race is the moment, not the campaign. Brands that show up only on race day miss weeks of high-intent opportunities during the build-up and leave the post-race recovery window untapped.
• Overly branded content: Runners trust creators who document real experiences. Over-scripted, heavily branded content breaks that trust. Avoid overproduction by allowing creators to develop content that fits their style. 
• Ignoring micro-creators: Chasing reach over relevance is one of the most common and costly errors. Micro-influencers drive some of the highest engagement, which creates strong audience connections. 
• No storytelling continuity: The most effective activations follow a creator's journey from sign-up to the finish line. These stories give audiences reasons to keep coming back. 
• No post-event strategy: Race day ends, but audience interest doesn't. Recovery content, performance reflections and transformation storytelling extend the campaign window and often generate some of the strongest engagement of the entire cycle.
• Overlooking ASA compliance on health claims: Food and supplement brands need to ensure creator content avoids unsubstantiated health claims. Brief creators clearly on what can and cannot be said about your product. This is particularly important for supplements, functional foods and hydration products.

The brands that win marathon season are not necessarily those with the biggest budgets. It’s the brands that start early, brief creators well and treat the event as a content arc rather than a one-off.

What is the 3-3-3 rule in marketing?

The 3-3-3 rule is a content framework suggesting you split your content into three equal parts: one-third brand storytelling, one-third audience engagement and one-third promotional content. It keeps feeds balanced and prevents overselling.

What is the 40-40-20 rule in marketing?

The 40-40-20 rule comes from direct marketing and suggests that campaign success is determined 40% by your audience or targeting, 40% by your offer and 20% by your creativity. In other words, who you reach and what you offer matters far more than how it looks. 

Market effectively with data-driven marathon events

Marathon season is one of the few moments where performance, emotion and community meet. For wellness and food brands, it offers a powerful opportunity to build creator-driven campaigns that feel native, useful and credible.

Kolsquare gives you everything you need to activate it effectively. Discover creators with the right audience demographics, verified engagement rates and genuine credibility in the running and wellness space. Once your campaign is live, track performance in real time: EMV, engagement, reach and conversions, so you always know what's working and where to optimise.

Book a demo to get started.