With the COVID-19 crisis affecting all crowd-based activities, youth mental-health charity batyr has devised the first-ever Run for the Herd Virtual Festival partnering with media business UM to bring the virtual event to life.
With the City2Surf event in Sydney, normally a big fund-raising opportunity for batyr, postponed this year, batyr has created a virtual event and with the support of UM are encouraging people to lace up their runners and raise money for youth mental health by running/walking anywhere in Australia. UM assists batyr with its skill sets and resources on a pro bono basis.
The Run for the Herd Virtual Festival will take place on August 7, 8 and 9 and is also supported by social purpose organisation UnLtd.
“batyr raised over $50,000 in the 2019 City2surf last year, which is a massive achievement and we’re hoping to do the same this time through this virtual festival,” said batyr CEO Nic Brown. “We are keeping the same targets, but relying on some media ingenuity to keep us high profile so people will participate in our virtual event.
Prominent media owners have donated about $1.2 million in advertising space and UM team members have already raised $1,500 through their individual efforts. Funds raised will support the delivery of batyr’s educational mental health programs for young people, empowering them to take charge of their mental health and to start a life-changing conversation with others.
Media partners donating inventory across Radio, TV, OOH and Digital include: JC Decaux, Motio Val Morgan Outdoor, CROCMEDIA, ARN, Nova, Bauer Media Group, Mediai, Athletes Voice, News Corp Australia, Nine and DAZN+. Meanwhile, FitBit (UM Client) has donated fitness products to the value of $2,000 to the event.
