Proof of Life Paid Media Campaign

I concepted and wrote Strava’s most successful paid media campaign: “Proof of Life.” It reframed Strava for everyday movers and drove an 85% increase in app downloads, a 2.56x increase in click-through rate, and a 15% lift in ad recall among Gen Z and Millennials. TikTok even featured it as a case study on its website.

Year: 2026

Role: Concept and copy

With: Jane Koo (brand design), Matt Lucier (film lead), Lauren Fox (video editor), Adrianne Offril (social media lead)

The concept

Proof of Life was built around the change from winter to spring. The idea was that Strava is for all kinds of sports, everything counts, and all you have to do is move. It also positioned Strava as an antidote to social media: something real that gets you out, not something that pulls you in. The hero line in a few of the ad variants was "It's not content. It's proof."

The hook

The hardest thing in paid social is getting people to stay past the first second, so I built the campaign around a 3-2-1 countdown idea. When the countdown complete, the scene switched from winter to spring: a treadmill run became a run outside, a video game became a soccer match, and so on. The countdown gave viewers a reason to keep watching, and paired with the Strava logo, it built the brand’s awareness. It also became the go-to format Strava’s partner agencies used in future campaigns.

The results

This campaign was Strava's largest brand awareness driver of the year.