An Adjustable Token of Strength and Resilience

Every spring in Boston, MA, 550 vibrant banners are perched on the city’s lamp posts all around Copley square and heading downtown. For years the Boston marathon banners have been an authentic and prominent decoration of the world renowned Boston Marathon. But what happens to the hundreds of colorful, flexible posters after Patriots Day comes and goes each year? That is exactly the question executives at John Hancock, the Boston Marathon’s leading sponsor, posed back in 2007. The company, being a green activist, came up with the idea of recycling the banners and turning them into a marketable memento of the race. John Hancock connected with MCM productions, a small promotional production company, and started producing up-cycled messenger and tote bags that were sold at the Boston Marathon in the years 2008 and 2013. But in 2014 John Hancock wanted to do something a little different with the 2013 banners. “After the travesty that occurred in Boston last year we wanted to provide people with an authentic piece of the race that would connect them back to the marathon in a positive and commemorative way,” said Ellie Malloy, John Hancock’s Director of Sponsorship and project manager of the Boston Marathon. Malloy sat down with her boss, Rob Friedman, assistant vice president of sponsorship and event marketing for John Hancock, and began brainstorming ideas. The two considered producing everything from key chains to iPad covers. “We wanted to stray away from making bags for a few reasons, first we needed something that was unisex and would apply to the masses. But more importantly it took a single banner to produce 1-2 bags, and since there are only 550 banners, that wasn’t going to work for what we were trying to do,” said Malloy. After hours of brainstorming Malloy and Friedman came up with the idea of making honor bracelets—a small but widely accepted trinket—that would make their way onto the wrists of 70,000 people across the nation. “We received the bracelet order at the end of November and started producing immediately. It took roughly 2 months and we had them shipped at the end of January so that John Hancock had time to put them all in packages so they’d be ready to go for April,” said Chris Hartley, owner and founder of MCM productions. Once John Hancock received the order of bracelets, they split the 70,000 into five different “packages,” but their first goal was to provide each of the 36,000 Boston Marathon participants with a #WeRunTogether package. “John Hancock did a fantastic job. The bracelets made from the 2013 banners were part of the "goodie bag" we all received when picking up our race number bibs at the race expo. The bag also included an event program, t-shirt and some other miscellaneous items such as stickers, coupons, a bumper sticker, and things of that nature,” said Todd Kolchinsky, a third time Boston marathon participant. After it was decided the runners would all receive a bracelet, John Hancock then gave out bracelets at the Boston Marathon Athlete (BAA) registration brunch, to internal employees, key business partners, as well as to the One Fund. The Boston Red Sox got their hands on an assortment of banner bracelets over John Hancock weekend—a few days prior to the marathon—for being a long time partner of John Hancock. Fenway employees each received a pamphlet that read “We Run Together” containing both the bracelet and a gold heart shaped pin engraved with “Boston”—the same iconic graphic that appeared on the 2014 race banners. The pamphlets also paid tribute to the “lives lost and forever changed by the events of April 15th, 2013” before disclosing the bracelets were made from last year’s street banners. On Banner day, John Hancock then announced that the remaining 6,000 bracelets would be available to the public for purchase on the website crowdrise.com where interested buyers were asked to make a $5 minimum donation to the One Fund in exchange for a bracelet. John Hancock also announced the sale of the bracelets through their Facebook and Twitter account, in addition to word of mouth. “My roommates and I happened to be watching the news a few weekends before the marathon and saw that they were selling marathon bracelets online that were made out of the banners from last year,” explained Chelsea Kehr, a second year senior on the Boston University softball team. “We thought it was a great idea that all of our money would be going towards helping the people most affected last year. Originally we were just going to donate, but the more we thought about last year and the tragedy, the more we realized how much it impacted our whole team so we got everyone one,” said Kehr. Customers who order a bracelet then had to pick them up at the John Hancock Sports and Fitness Expo located in Hynes Convention Center over Marathon weekend to ensure that 100% of the proceeds would be benefiting the One Fund—not shipping and handling. John Hancock covered all of the administrative costs for bracelet production and ended up raising $38,000 to donate to the One Fund in bracelet sales alone. “Earlier in April, John Hancock donated 26.2K to One Fund when we launched our #WeRunTogether digital Mosaic with the byline that we would donate another dollar for every person who uploads their own clip to the mosaic,” said Malloy. The digital mosaic prompts people to share their love for Boston and stories of strength through a video montage collected on the website http://jhextramile.com/weruntogether/. The mosaic was established as a celebration in the spirit of reliance and strength of Boston. Those who uploaded their videos or pictures to the mosaic prior to marathon Monday appeared on screens around Boston during the race. Another neat attribute of the banner bracelets is they resemble the banner that spread across the finish line that Meb Keflezighi ran through on April 21, 2014 to secure the title as first American winner of the marathon since 1983. Each bracelet is unique in color and design. The banners that were collected from last year’s race were washed and then screen printed with the same logo that appeared on the banner at the finish line. The logo reads “Boston Marathon 2014 and sports both the marathon and John Hancock logos. After the logos were printed onto the banners, they were then cut by machine into their 1x9 inch dimension and then hole punched so that the adjustable snaps could be added on by hand. And voilà, just like that the creative forces of John Hancock and MCM productions turned the 2013 banners that endured disaster and tragedy into an adjustable token of strength and resilience, and while raising money for those most affected. Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas M. Menino established One Fund Boston on April 16, 2013, in order to help those most affected by the Boston Marathon bombings. To date, the One Fund has collected over $60,000 and distributed the donations to over 230 victims and survivors and will announce further donations during the summer months to come.