Bupa and lead creative agency 2045 have brought the Everything for Health platform to life across the Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival through an integrated campaign spanning storytelling, practical health support, family participation and healthier environments.
Now in the fifth year of the partnership, the program built on Bupa’s role as the Festival’s Official Healthcare Partner and its ambition to help Australians feel more confident across their entire health journeys.
While marathon culture often focuses on performance, Bupa focuses on the broader health journey surrounding the Festival – from preparation and prevention to treatment, recovery, mental wellbeing and community participation.
The integrated campaign included ‘Why Run?’, a content series celebrating the many reasons people run, led by Ned Buckell’s journey back to running after serious illness and a hip replacement.
There was also the ‘Inside the Marathon Mind of Eliud Kipchoge’, a Bupa-hosted event with Kipchoge and Australian running great Steve Moneghetti exploring discipline, mindset and purpose.
Bupa’s Healthy Cities initiative, including the new Melbourne Marathon Healthy Cities Nature Trail delivered in partnership with the Eliud Kipchoge Foundation, Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival and Landcare, which will see 5,000 native plants added across six restoration sites along the marathon route in 2027.
The Recovery Zone, bringing Everything for Health into the Festival through runner-specific stretching, mobility and recovery support, personal storytelling and interactive Healthy Cities experiences.
The program secured strong national earned-media coverage, extending Bupa’s presence and Healthy Cities message well beyond the Festival itself.
Bupa sponsorship manager Lucy Clark said the ambition was to support the entire Festival community, not only those crossing the start line.
“Being a meaningful Festival partner means thinking beyond the person wearing the race bib,” said Clark. “It includes the families supporting them, children discovering running through the Bupa Healthy Cities Mini Marathon, local communities and the environments in which people move every day.”
Naomi Driver, general manager of brand and marketing at Bupa, said the Festival offered a practical way to bring the breadth of Bupa’s health and care services to life.
“Bupa is uniquely placed to help close the gap between something not feeling right and getting back to whatever healthy means to you,” said Driver.
“That comes from the breadth of what we offer across health insurance and care. We can support more of a person’s health journey and help them feel more confident about taking the next step. It’s all part of our purpose: to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives and to make a better world.”
Tim Evans, founder of 2045, said the campaign was in the agency’s cultural sweetspot. “Using every talent tree at 2045 – especially our growing events and PR functions – we turned a major cultural event into a meaningful brand moment for Bupa,” said Evans. “We were able to shape the idea, bring it to life on the ground, and then extend its impact through national earned media. We really maramaxxed the partnership.”
