The Challenge

The Marsden March is one of Royal Marsden Cancer Charity's most loved fundraising events and that success had become its own constraint. The event was at capacity, and with a growing trend towards ultra and mega challenges, there was a clear opportunity to offer something bigger and more demanding to supporters who wanted more. But they had a tight deadline to get a concept to their events agency, limited internal capacity to run a full innovation process, and a maze of third party event guidelines that made moving quickly feel almost impossible.

Solution

Rather than starting from scratch, we built on what Royal Marsden already knew. They understood their audience, they had the learnings from years of running the Marsden March, and they had a clear sense of direction, they just needed to get there faster than a traditional process would allow. In three weeks, working at pace, we developed two to three bigger concepts and used AI tools (including synthetic users and Outset testing) alongside targeted research with existing supporters to rapidly develop and validate ideas.

A smokescreen page was built to test real interest before anything was committed to. The result was a fully developed, validated concept handed straight to their creative agency, ready to launch. Without AI, the timeline simply wouldn't have been possible, the third party requirements alone would have made it impossible to turn around in the time available. But as with all projects, we use AI to amplify human value, not replace it.

Impact

A new trek-based event is already live alongside the Marsden March, opening up the challenge to a wider audience who wanted something more demanding. Concept to launch in three weeks. A fraction of the time and cost of a conventional innovation process. And critically it's live and delivering.