After a few years establishing the Wadi Rum Ultra – one of the planets toughest foot races – the founders had an ambition to evolve and expand the event into something much larger.
With a vision of becoming the world’s leading ultramarathon series, Ultra X was born to make multi-day racing accessible to all – becoming as synonymous to ultramarathon as IronMan is to triathlon.
We Launch were tasked with creating a new brand to help the event grow in line with its aspirations. An intensive phase of research and strategic planning enabled us to define and communicate what makes the Ultra X series unique and special within the ultra marathon world.
The brand personality and proposition have been centred around the core values of responsible, professional, customer-centric, quality and persistence.
Stuart Lang, Creative Director We Launch, said: “The new logo, visual identity and colour palette were devised to be confident, distinctive and bold – acting as a point of difference to the colours of red and black that typically dominate the world of endurance sport.
“Inspired by the stories, thoughts and responses of all level of marathon runners that we spoke with, as well as the epic landscapes that the Ultra X events will be running through, we created an overarching proposition – ‘Explore Your Limits’.”
The brand proposition is supported by a series of emotive headline messages, written to appeal to the three core audience segment groups identified during research: The Rookie (competitors new to multi-day events), The Allegiant (those that have tackled multi-day events before), and The Pro (the true experts in the field.
With an ambition to hold a series Ultra X events in stunning locations all around the globe, a simple structure was designed enabling the creation of a sub-brand for each location but which allowed the Ultra X identity to lead.
A use of the outline of the X shape gives Ultra X an ownership of the imagery whilst not detracting from the dramatic impact of the event and location photography.
Sam Heward, Co-Founder Ultra X, said: “We Launch worked hard to hit every deadline we set them, filtering a smorgasbord of ideas and visions into a clear identity. They are welcome at any one of our events.”
We Launch are activating a multi-channel brand launch this month, and following this up with social content, merchandise, digital, event collateral, guidelines, print literature, advertising and a brand film.
