Run Your City: Phone booths next step in check-in culture?

London – To promote running culture for autumn/winter 2010, sportswear brand Nike has turned London into a giant game board with its Nike Grid: Run Your City campaign. While Check-in Culture is already popular, Nike has added a new twist. Participants check in at payphones in 48 of the city’s postcodes.

‘No walking. No getting the bus. Cheat and you’ll lose points,’ the rules explain. Players dial 08000 141312 in a Grid phone box and enter their unique gamecode to start their run, which finishes at another Grid phone box where players dial in again. Each run scores 10 points and players can also earn badges for various goals. Whoever scores the most points in a postcode ‘owns’ it. The game also links with Facebook, updating the player’s profile page if they win a badge or break a record. Nike has found a way to engage all consumers, smartphone owners or not, in a truly live way.