The Fiesta 5K Race and Fun Run was hot, hot, hot.
Taking place on Cinco de Mayo, the race was sponsored by the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is the progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease also called Loou Gehrig?s Disease.
Kathryn Davis, the Center?s administrative director, said they decided to do the race because the center had never really held a big fundraising event.
“We want to let people know we are here in Baltimore, and a lot of people don?t know,” she said. “So we came up with the idea of the Fiesta 5K Race and Fun Run.”
Davis first had to reach her intended audience to alert them to the event.
“We have two different markets here, we are marketing to competitive runners, who may not know much about ALS,” she said. “We are also marketing to people who want to be part of the cure and advocate for ALS research.”
Enter Carlson Bull, a principal at Bully! Entertainment, a Baltimore-based animation and game design company.
“We started thinking about how they could brand themselves and the event,” Bull said. “What was interesting about it was that they wanted to take a different approach to the whole process. They wanted to focus on the fun factor of the race and encourage participation at the event.”
Bully! created a race mascot named Pepper Pete, a 3-D digital character who wears a red pepper suit.
“Because the race is on Cinco de Mayo and has that flavor to it, we came up with a themed character that we thought skewed towards the target audience but still retained that fun aspect,” Bull said. “So we came up with this character dressed in a hot tamale suit.”
Pepper Pete runs his way through a 30-second PSA running on Comcast, My 24 and other local channels. The mascot also was incorporated into T-shirts, posters, and other various promotional media.
“Watching Carlson develop this animation has been just phenomenal,” Davis said. “When I saw the animation happen and the personality and message come together, I was so impressed. It was eye-catching and engaging, exactly what we needed.”
Bully! Entertainment
1200 Light St., Suite B, Baltimore
www.bullyentertainment.com; 410-685-2855
