Hoka has launched a New York campaign that uses running activity recorded on Strava as part of its digital out-of-home advertising.
The month-long Hoka Run Your City Challenge asks runners across New York’s five boroughs to log miles for their home borough through Strava. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island compete based on the total mileage recorded throughout September.
Data from the challenge is being incorporated into ticker-style creative displayed on digital screens across New York. The screens show weekly updates including miles logged, running pace, and other statistics generated by participating runners.
The campaign announcement does not disclose the technical process used to transfer Strava results into the outdoor creative or indicate that updates occur in real time. The digital out-of-home placements are running in Times Square, Tribeca, SoHo, and Williamsburg.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau lists dynamic content and data integration among the core features of digital out-of-home advertising. The campaign materials do not describe the Strava activity as Hoka first-party data; Strava hosts the challenge and records participants’ activities.
Strava activity shapes the campaign
The campaign builds on an existing global partnership between Hoka and Strava. The running platform hosts the challenge and records activity for the borough competition, while the resulting statistics appear in Hoka’s outdoor creative.
Hoka already maintains a sizeable community on Strava. Its official Strava club has more than 247,000 members and has been used for product and membership-related challenges before the New York campaign.
Previous campaigns include a Speedgoat 7 challenge that asked participants to record 7,000 feet of elevation gain over 30 days and a Mach 7 challenge built around completing 26.2 miles.
Hoka has also connected Strava participation with its own membership programme. One 2026 Hoka Membership challenge asks members to connect their Strava and Hoka accounts before tracking eligible activities toward apparel discounts. The Run Your City campaign materials do not describe an equivalent Hoka Membership integration.
Strava said in July that its platform had more than 200 million users across more than 185 countries. Its sponsored challenge tools allow brands to organise activity around measures such as distance, duration, elevation, and collective participation. Strava says sponsored challenges can also appear in users’ feeds, the challenge gallery, email, and other placements.
Hoka extends the campaign across channels
Jellyfish developed the Hoka campaign concept and is handling creative and media planning. The agency is part of The Brandtech Group.
Paid social activity on TikTok and Meta is running during September to promote participation among running and fitness audiences in New York.
A creator programme managed by Collectively, another Brandtech Group company, involves six creators representing the five boroughs. They will document their participation and encourage other runners to take part, with the resulting content also being used in paid social activity.
Hoka will conclude the challenge with an event at McCarren Parkhouse in Brooklyn on October 3. Content from the event is scheduled to appear in a separate social media campaign in October, extending the activity to running and fitness audiences outside New York. Hoka is also working with fashion and media publisher Highsnobiety on a campaign recap following the event.
Deckers Brands, Hoka’s parent company, said in its fiscal 2026 annual report that Hoka’s marketing priorities include building a connected consumer ecosystem across social media, ecommerce, and retail.
Deckers also launched a US Hoka loyalty programme during fiscal 2026 and said it expects to continue investing in loyalty programmes for Hoka and UGG. In a January earnings call, Deckers said Hoka members generated higher revenue per consumer, purchased more units per transaction, and made more multi-category purchases than its average consumer, although the company did not provide figures for those differences.
The Run Your City campaign announcement does not disclose participation targets or explain how performance will be measured across Strava, digital outdoor, social, and creator activity. It also does not provide impression targets, conversion targets, or a sales attribution methodology.
(Photo by Roshan Chakkeeri)
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