Update: lululemon founder Chip Wilson and Cowie and Fox heated up the pavement once again with the fun and engaging Chip’s Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile. The event last weekend showcased C&F’s playful creative amongst numerous superheros, rockstars, scantly clad runners, street performers and a bustling beer garden. Approximately $100,000 was raised for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and Chip is going to match that. It was a great success and one heck of a party!

Not that there is anything wrong with statues, monuments, buildings or roads that are built to commemorate somebody’s life, but the one unfortunate feature of this kind of commemoration is that they almost always depend on that somebody being dead. It’s nice to be remembered, but certainly nicer while you’re still alive. That’s why Lululemon founder, Chip Wilson, decided to forge his own legacy instead of waiting to die and have someone name a cul-de-sac in his memory.

Chip decided that part of this legacy would be a yearly charity run. Unlike most charity runs, Chip’s run is pretty short, just one mile to be exact. The brevity of the run was specifically set so that anyone could join in. The soul purpose of the event is to get as many people together to do something good, and to have fun while doing it. In order to find a way of capturing and sharing this spirit, Chip enlisted his long time agency, Cowie and Fox, to see what it could do about making this the largest and ‘funnest’ one mile race in the world.

Cowie and Fox started things off by coming up with a simple, yet eloquent brand for race: Chip’s Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile. Not only is the name a humorous acknowledgement of Chip’s love of life, but it is also an effective device for piquing the curiosity of the masses. The success of the brand and project was immediately evident as the race attracted more than 2,500 entrants making it the largest one mile race in the world! This blew the initial goal of 1,000 participants right out of the water. In addition to the great turnout, the charity raised a whopping net-amount of $150,000 that went directly to the BC Children’s Hospital. Undeniably, Chip’s Not Dead is an effective example of how the strength of a brand concept can create unprecedented success.

This year Chip’s Not Dead Memorial Mile is just around the corner, and registrations are tipping it off to be another record breaking event. Everyone’s excited and Chip especially seems pretty stoked with how the brand has worked out:

“I’ve kept coming back to Cowie and Fox over the last 13 years because great creative is hard to find. Their work on the Chip’s Not Dead Yet branding is no exception with everything, including the website being very well received. Thanks for being an integral part of what is going to be the funnest and most successful charity event this city has ever seen!
Chip Wilson :: lululemon and Chip’s Not Dead Yet, Founder