French start-up Sport Heroes Group (formerly Running Heroes) has joined UNICEF in the launch of a global sports initiative to engage people in UNICEF’s work for children’s rights.
Sports enthusiasts worldwide can sign up for free to Team UNICEF – Get Active for Children, an initiative that aims at engaging people around the world to help guarantee children’s rights, by enabling participants to unlock a corporate donation upon completing 5km by foot or wheelchair.
Participants can also accumulate points by exercising and accomplishing other activities, including completing a quiz about children’s rights on the Team UNICEF platform. The participants with the highest number of points compete for a chance to win rewards, including a trip to see UNICEF’s work first-hand in Brazil (international travel is not included) for the top performer.
Sport Heroes Group uses the data generated by running apps and online technology to build sports communities encouraging mass and bespoke participation. Team UNICEF Get Active for Children is compatible with RunKeeper, Strava, Nike+, Runtastic and MapMyRun. Users need to connect their app to the platform by registering with an email address and password. This process is only necessary once, after that, runs will be automatically synchronized with the platform.
“We want everyone to get into the sporting spirit and Get Active for Children to help raise vital funds for UNICEF’s work for the world’s most vulnerable children,” said UNICEF’s Chief of Communication and Partnerships in Brazil Edith Asibey.
Team UNICEF Get Active for Children is supported by Ogilvy Brazil, the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and Save the Dream.
Sport Heroes Group is a French start-up founded in 2014 by Boris Pourreau and Jean-Charles Touzalin, under the name Running Heroes. It is aimed at ‘digitally enriching sport by creating, in parallel to sport practice, digital experiences that are fun, inspiring and social.’
With a community of close to 300,000 members, and 350 partners, Sport Heroes Group has three activities: the animation of communities on its websites runningheroes.com, cyclingheroes.com and skiingheroes.com; a digital agency, We Are Heroes, that helps brands engage their communities of fans; and a corporate solution, United Heroes, designed for companies and their employees.
Sport Heroes Group currently employs 40 people and in 2015, was awarded the ‘Cool Vendor 2015 in France’ label by Gartner.
www.runningheroes.com
www.unicef.org
