The Wipro Chennai Marathon, commonly known as TWCM is organized by the Chennai Runners, a large voluntary group that has been in place since 2006. It is considered South India's largest city marathon, in which over 1,000 athletes and more than 20,000 amateurs participate. The event has four categories: full Marathon, Twenty Miler, Half marathon, and the most popular, the 10 km race.
December in Chennai is a vibe. It’s when the city comes alive with music, monsoons—and of course, the marathon. Chennai’s running culture is legendary—stretching from Adyar to Anna Nagar—powered by grit, passion, and a touch of glorious madness. So for our campaign, we knew we needed more than a message. We needed a war cry.
A tribute. A celebration. A full-throttle shoutout to a city that refuses to be messed with. We collaborated with Illustrator Vinod Rajagopalan to create iconic Chennai-specific characters and visual cues that bring the city to life through colour, sound and feeling.
We also worked with Chennai-based artist Nanmaran to create iconic landmark charcoal sketches to add depth to create a unified voice that captured the city's bold, unstoppable spirit, to bring together a campaign designed to ignite pride in every runner and every resident. It’s a salute to the city that turns challenges into fuel and turns its people into warriors.
This was the year cyclone Vardah hit and the race had to be pushed to January, the shift sparked something electric. The setback only fired up the city even more. Because if there’s one thing every Chennaite knows, it’s this: we don’t back down.
Get ready. The streets are calling. The buzz is building. This is Chennai—stronger, louder, and faster than ever.
‘The Wipro Chennai Marathon 2016, which was held on January 8th 2017, was a resounding success which saw a record number of almost 20,000 runners take part. The sight of men and women, girls and boys all clothed in neon green t-shirts was indeed one to behold.’ – The Hindu
The Chennai Runners mascot, provided by the client gave us a lot of inspiration in terms of mood and colour
We created 500+ collaterals across every medium for the race—from June 2015 through race day in January 2016. Online, offline, on-ground, expo days, and special events like the Freedom Run, Girls’ Run, and Phoenix Mall Run—we handled it all. It was a milestone project that shaped us in the earliest days of our company.
Creative Director- Soundarya Srinivasan, Music Director- Ramprasad Sundar
Cinematography-Hariharan Anandaraja, Editor- Karthik Sivaraman
Finishers of the Wipro Chennai Marathon 2016, received a medal designed by Roshni KR, a Class 9 student of SBOA School and Junior College. Roshni’s design was chosen in a city-wide contest conducted by the Chennai Runners and The Hindu.
Client: Chennai Runners
