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Developer Runs Boston Marathon Dressed as an iPhone

by Terrence O'Brien on April 21, 2009 at 07:08 PM


So, what is a fairly successful iPhone app developer to do when his app needs just a little boost in popularity to really rake in the dough? Why, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt purpose-built to blaze across the viral Internet, of course!

Jason Jacobs, creator of 'Run Keeper' (an iPhone app for runners to track distance, speed, and other data), and sole employee of his company FitnessKeeper, got some help from a social media marketing class he took at Emerson College in Boston. With what he learned, Jacobs developed a stunt that had him clad in a foam and spandex iPhone costume, running in the 113th Boston Marathon. The design and construction of the costume, which featured a silkscreen print of his 'Run Keeper' application, was documented in videos posted on YouTube and on the Run Keeper Web site.


Jacobs successfully completed the marathon in just about four hours, snapping photos with his iPhone and tweeting the whole way. Of course, there had to be a follow-up video (above), in which you can watch the iPhone with legs sashay along the famous 26-mile route.

In the end, the stunt worked. Jacobs isn't on easy street, probably, but 'Run Keeper' has seen an up-tick in sales, thanks to this creative, and shameless, stunt. [From: New York Times and PR Week]

Tags: boston marathon, BostonMarathon, funny, nerds, run keeper, RunKeeper, running, sports, top, viral, viral marketing, ViralMarketing

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