Great marketing: Competitor Group's "five year runner" campaign

The 2013 Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon is in ten days. I ran the first one back in 2009, and have run every one since. I like to think of it as my summer race.

Way back in February I received an email about the "Five Years Running" campaign they were putting together that included this sentence: "You ran, rocked and conquered Rock 'n' Roll Seattle a whopping 4 times! As you prepare for another encore performance, why not stand in the spotlight?"

I wondered if I had been segmented out as someone who had, indeed, run for four years -- or if it was just a generic way to say the race was going to have its fifth running. So I forwarded the note to my contact at the Competitor Group who confirmed that other runners got a different email -- that, yes, this one was special for ME. 

When I ran Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio last year -- in the race's 5th year -- I noticed some runners with special bibs and I thought how cool that was. I mean, I love it when a race organizer recognizes their repeat runners! Disney is awesome about this -- the "Perfectly Goofy" runners, the "Sweet Sixteen Marathoners", etc. 

Even the Park to Park Half Marathon, in Waynesboro, Virginia, did a great job of this -- their 5 year runners got a special yellow shirt with a great big 5 on it -- and it was pretty awesome to see the handful of them in the race. 

So, yeah, I was thrilled to get this email the other day:

Wow -- one of 648 runners "about to rock for the fifth straight year" ?!?! That's awesome. They developed a special email campaign for 648 runners.  Even better? In addition to a special bib, I'm going to get a bonus shirt:

Now, I know that this doesn't cost Competitor Group all that much, really. But I'm still absurdly thrilled by it. And you can bet that I'll stop by the 5 Year Runner banner to take a picture when I'm at the expo next week. 

You know what else? I'm pretty much committed to running this race every year now -- as long as I can keep moving. 

BTW, I forwarded the email to my pal at CGI again, semi-squealing as I typed. Yeah, I'm really impressed and touched by this. It has made me think of ways we can reward our repeat buyers on our site. 

I guess I should add that, despite working for Brooks, I've always paid my own way at Rock 'n' Roll Seattle. I did get free entries to Rock 'n' Roll Mardi Gras back in 2010 (as part of a prize I won at a company holiday party), plus a free entry to Rock 'n' Roll Denver in 2010 and Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio 2011 -- basically because I worked the event. But I sign up for the following year's race and the current year's expo -- a great way to save on the registration fees... AND to have something on your race calendar a year out. 

Now of course I'm curious -- who are the other 647 runners? I hope I'll spot at least a few of them on the course!