There is nothing like the feeling of your sneakers hitting the pavement to the beat of your favorite jams. Whether it’s used as a motivator, a distractor or a timekeeper — music and running go hand in hand. That’s why John Hancock and Spotify teamed up to help runners achieve their personal best playlist just in time for the Boston Marathon with the new Run Elite campaign.

John Hancock is the recurring premier sponsor of the Boston Marathon, and this year, they wanted to extend that sponsorship to reach a national audience. This is what prompted the financial services company to reach out to Spotify. Their goal was to bring that connection of music and running to a new level, using insights from our streaming intelligence, derived from our first-party listening data.

Seasoned marathon runners, regular joggers, or running newbies alike can create playlists personalized to their run speed and time. John Hancock and Spotify also worked with over 20 of the Boston Marathon’s runners from the John Hancock Elite Athlete Team to curate playlists featuring their favorite running songs.

Runners can get into the motivated mindset of Shalane Flanagan, American long-distance runner and 3000 meter, 5000 meter, and 15K road race record-breaker. They can run to her playlist’s beat full of hip hop, rock and pop. Or they can tap into the advice of Meb Keflezighi and “Keep your head down, and keep moving forward. Walk if you have to.” Listeners can also find tips to help their performance along the run.

To drive traffic to the site, and awareness of the sponsorship, John Hancock ran a multimedia campaign on Spotify including, custom elite-recorded audio, video and display on both desktop and mobile. They also used Spotify’s Sponsored Playlist to find runners in the moment of takeoff, and introduce the Run Elite opportunity for a personalized playlist.

The campaign runs through Boston Marathon week in April. Take a listen, lace up your running shoes, and get moving!