The Challenge

The Banham Marsden March is one of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity's most loved fundraising events and that success had become its own constraint. The event was nearing 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, and limited internal capacity to run a full innovation process, which made moving quickly feel almost impossible.

The Solution

Rather than starting from scratch, we built on what The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity already knew. They understood their audience, they had the learnings from years of running The Banham 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 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 team , ready to launch. Without AI, the timeline simply wouldn't have been possible. But as with all projects, we use AI to amplify human value, not replace it.

The Impact

A new trek-based event is already live, opening up  a wider audience who wanted something more demanding. Concept to pilot approval in three weeks. A fraction of the time and cost of a conventional innovation process.

The Big Marsden Trek is live and delivering, hitting target numbers and on track to exceed their income target.