UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA Team Presents “What If Everybody Ran?”

UNC Kenan-Flagler students conducted a statistical analysis for Mizuno USA and McKinney to explore running’s impact on individuals, communities and, ultimately, the United States.

If everybody ran, there would be 20 million more great grandmothers in the United States.

There also would be 5 million fewer hospital visits – and 63 million happier dogs.

Those are just some of the findings of an MBA student team at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School after they investigated the potential impact of a national running movement for Mizuno Running.

More of their surprising results will be presented Wednesday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m. at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

The event will include presentations by:

·         MBA students Ellen Kane, Jessica Newfield, Chris Campbell and Deepak Gopalakrishna

·         Mizuno USA vice president of brand marketing and management Ahmet Abaci

·         McKinney senior vice president and head of account planning Walt Barron

Work from the acclaimed brand campaign “What if Everybody Ran?” also will be presented. The analysis by the UNC Kenan-Flagler student team is the foundation of the “What If Everybody Ran?” brand campaign, which Mizuno USA launched March 3 and includes a microsite that provides a running journey to see the potential of a world of runners.

Mizuno USA commissioned the statistical analysis by UNC Kenan-Flagler to understand the positive, cumulative impact that running could have on the United States. The MBA students were selected from a pool of more than 20 applicants to work on a month-long consulting engagement organized by Michael Schinelli, UNC Kenan-Flagler chief marketing officer, and a team from McKinney, the top advertising agency based in Durham, N.C.

The opportunity to apply what they’ve learned at UNC Kenan-Flagler and contribute to a new national marketing campaign appealed to the student team. They combed through statistical, socio-economic and U.S. Census data to project the potential cumulative impact on key areas of U.S. society – health, relationships and the economy, among other subjects – if all Americans were runners. They wrote a white paper to correlate the statistical analysis to both serious and fun findings that served as the basis for their answer to the brand campaign’s question.

The 5:30 p.m. presentation in Koury Auditorium will be followed by a 6:30 p.m. reception. Free parking will be available in the business school parking deck.