Weiden+Kennedy launched a campaign for Nike that was based on using London’s iconic red phone booths as starting and end points in a race around the City. Competitors called in from the starting booth to a special number, and called in again from the finishing booth. The data from these races was collected at the end of each day, and we wrote software to turn them into movies that were shown around London, in places like Oxford Circus. We made 18 movies in all, and you can view them on YouTube.

“What’s particularly cool about the competition is the GRID website, where Nike not only tallies scores but is also serving up visualizations of the race. Since it’s collecting data all the time—every time a competitor makes a call from one of the phone boxes, it logs who they are, where the box is, and what time it is—Nike is turning that information into visualizations (powered by San Francisco’s Stamen Design) that illustrate various aspects of the race. In one of those visualizations…the GRID pits men against women, plotting the competitors’ individual runs over time on a stylized map of London (in pink for women and blue for men), while tallying up their points on a scoreboard on the side. And, in the good-natured competitive spirit of the game, the video declares at the end: ‘Boys lead!’ and urges their counterparts: ‘Get running girls!'” —Fast Company