Liquid I.V. x City2Sheaf

Liquid I.V. wanted to show up at City2Surf, but the hydration category was already locked up by another brand. No official presence, no clear space on the course, and no obvious way to get product into the hands of new customers on one of Sydney's biggest days of the year. The brief came down to one thing: get Liquid I.V. sticks in hand.

If we couldn't own the race, we'd own the recovery. The Golden Sheaf sits roughly 4.5km into the course with guaranteed footfall and a socially active crowd that matches the Liquid I.V. demographic, so we made it the hero venue and turned its post-race moment into City2Sheaf x Liquid I.V.: a full venue takeover with POOLCLVB behind a bespoke branded DJ booth, a sampling station on the water station, a mascot appearance and branding across signage, coasters, cups and the toilets. It became the venue's biggest afterparty yet, with 2,500 through the door.

Sampling went mobile. Teams in branded Liquid I.V. backpacks followed the crowd from the course into Salty's Bondi and the Clovelly Hotel, catching runners at the moment they were most receptive, straight off the finish. 15,000 sticks were allocated across four venues, and the teams moved to wherever the footfall was.

Bondi Lines drove the whole thing. Two weeks of OOH posters around high-footfall Sydney, then a content takeover on the day: live event reels, a Best City2Surf Afters guide, stories, in-app placements, Linktree and push notifications that pointed the LINES audience to the sampling locations and the kick-ons. Digital awareness, turned into feet through the door.

• 1.28M total impressions across Bondi Lines, from a single weekend
• Real-time reels drove over half of all reach: two live event reels alone reached 650K
• 47K web, app, Linktree and push notification impressions directing people to sampling
• An estimated 12,000 sticks went out on the day, capped at two per person so every sample was a genuine one
• 2,500 attendees at the biggest afterparty The Golden Sheaf has hosted
• Liquid I.V. present at City2Surf without a category sponsorship