How to Win the Boston Marathon: Bank of America Takes Grand Prize in OAAA Local Media Plan Awards

May 7, 2025

What does it take to break a record at the Boston Marathon?

The right shoes? Rigorous training? Carbohydrates?

For Bank of America, the answer was out of home advertising – a high-profile campaign that was so successful that it took the grand prize at the 2025 OAAA Local Case Study Awards.


In its first year as the race’s presenting sponsor, the brand set a lofty goal: to help its charity runners raise the most money in Boston Marathon history. Of the 30,000 who run in “The World’s Most Prestigious Road Race” each year, 3,000 are running not just for glory but to raise funds for causes they are passionate about. Each charity runner commits to raising up to $5,000 for the non-profit of their choice. That’s sometimes proven challenging, as these everyday heroes have limited personal networks and can be overshadowed by the elite athletes bound for the front of the pack. Whenever a charity runner’s fundraising doesn’t hit the goal, they would have to kick in their own money to make up the shortfall. Bank of America wanted to lighten that load – after all, running 26.2 miles is hard enough as it is.

So, the finance brand decided to support marathon fundraisers by giving them the mass-scale visibility that only the BofAs of the world can attain, through what it called “The Human Sponsorship.”


Over the course of delivering 35 million impressions, Bank of America’s campaign used OOH to tell the stories of the marathoners who ran for a cause, boosting their fundraising via amplification across more than 600 ad displays across the city. It also included digital elements, on-premises ads at branch locations, TV spots, and even a Boston Globe takeover.

By telling those stories, by celebrating the charity runners as the heroes of the Boston Marathon, Bank of America eschewed the usual sponsorship tactics and instead transformed the fundraising efforts of those individuals into a citywide movement. When everything was said and done, there were 268,000 individual donations to 168 charitable organizations, each averaging $148. The total raised, $71.9 million, represented a 77% year-over-year increase – and an all-time record (SOURCE: Bank of America). “I would say it doubled, probably, my fundraising efforts,” said Philip A., who ran to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.


“None of us would have raised a fraction of what we have,” said Therese H., who ran for Every Mother Counts.

Even better for Bank of America, the Boston Marathon campaign didn’t just drive fundraising to record heights – it did the same for the brand’s favorability, which enjoyed a +5.7% lift as a result (SOURCE: Bank of America).

How exactly did they do it? Let’s run it down.


The creative included images of the actual charity runners, impactful messaging about their chosen causes, and QR codes leading directly to donation pages. It ran in key locations across the marathon route and other high-traffic locations around the city across a variety of formats, each of which served a different purpose:

• Station Dominations: Bank of America brought out the big guns with Station Dominations at Park Street Station, a system hub adjacent to The Common, and Kenmore Station, one block away from Fenway Park. By blanketing the MBTA’s two busiest Marathon Monday subway stations with digital and traditional static media, the campaign maximized reach and frequency before the event and on race day.


• Specialty Media Formats: Aboveground, the Kenmore Tower and Kenmore Elevator – two of the most distinctive locations for out of home advertising in Boston, located at mile 25 of the course – offered the chance to generate mass awareness and high impact at street level. So did our Beacon Hill Windows, at the entrance to the Charles/MHG Red Line station, and Arlington Windows, just steps away from the finish line.


• Train Wraps & Trolleys: Exterior subway wraps on two trains and media on 25 trolleys on the Green Line – the third-busiest light rail system in the nation – reached consumers all throughout the region along the 20 or so miles where the line operates aboveground (SOURCE: APTA). These trains served the stations most used on Marathon Monday and created an unmissable brand presence directly along the racecourse.


• Targeted Billboards: Two billboards played an oversized role alongside Boston’s most critical highways, the Mass Pike (I-90) and I-93 North, reaching drivers headed towards downtown.


• OUTFRONT Boston DOOH Network: Last but not least, our expansive digital out of home network provided full coverage across Boston on nearly 300 canvases including Liveboards on MTBA platforms and mezzanines, roadside Digital Bulletins, and street-level Video Urban Panels, which Bank of America used to feature charity runners in full-motion ads.

This marks the third consecutive year that an OUTFRONT campaign has taken the grand prize in the OAAA Media Plan Awards, following Icelandair last year (also in Boston) and Poppi the year before. Two of this year’s Media Plan Awards finalists were also OUTFRONT advertisers: Job Today and the Peabody Essex Museum. Congratulations to them and Bank of America for raising the out of home game!

Could your brand be next year’s winner? Contact us today to create a campaign that goes the distance!

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT

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