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Media guidelines

The London Marathon Events (LME) Communications Team manages all media, comms and PR for the TCS London Marathon.

The team works alongside sponsors and partners of the event in many capacities, including:

  • Maximising PR opportunities
  • Providing guidance on partner/sponsor content
  • Managing event day media accreditation and access
  • Supplying partners with assets including photographs and video content
  • Below is some key information regarding the TCS London Marathon Media Guidelines

Pre-event guidelines

  • Please always refer to the event using its full title: TCS London Marathon.

    When referencing the event year, the year should always appear before the event title: 2024 TCS London Marathon.

    Please ensure you refer to your partnership with the TCS London Marathon correctly.

    • TCS
    • New Balance
    • Abbott
    • Buxton
    • Coopah
    • iFit
    • Lucozade Sport
    • Tag Heuer
    • Enthuse
    • Nissan
    • London Pride
    • Sportograf
    • Running Imp
    • South Eastern
    • BBC Sport
    • Coopah

  • Please get in touch with the LME communications teams with any PR or media opportunities you have planned. The LME team can, where possible, include this in the overall TCS London Marathon comms plans and help amplify stories through engaged media.

Media accreditation

All partners and sponsors of the TCS London Marathon wishing to capture content (video or images) from the event, must ensure they have the correct permissions from the London Marathon Events’ (LME) Commercial and Communications teams in advance of Marathon Day.

The LME team will request the following before approving any content capture:

  • A purpose of content capture and where it will be used
  • Description of the personnel needed to capture content (photographer, videographer etc)
  • Requested locations for content capture

If partners or sponsors wish to employ an individual or agency to capture content for them, the same process applies, ensuring the details of the commissioning partner or sponsor is included in the application.

All approved photographers, videographers and other media must wear TCS London Marathon accreditation on Event Day. All accredited media will be provided with a lanyard pass and a supplementary bib if at the Start of Finish.

Bona fide media organisations and LME’s content teams will have priority access to all working positions on Event Day.

Sponsors and Partners will have full access to all content (photographs/video) captured by LME’s internal content teams.

Media accreditation will open online approximately 4 to 6 weeks prior to Marathon Day. Further details on applying for Media Accreditation will be available shortly.

Please note, media accreditation is not guaranteed, and all applications are reviewed by the LME Communications team.

Photography usage rights

The LME photography portal will be available to sponsors to download photos from the event in real-time. Your Account Manager will provide the link and download password in the week prior to the event.

LME own the copyright for these images therefore there is no fee for editorial use, but we do ask you credit London Marathon Events where possible.

If you would like to use any of the imagery for commercial purposes, please contact your Account Manager for approval.

If you have any image requests to be taken during the event, please make your Account Manager aware one month ahead of the event and they will endeavour to include in the photography brief.

Photography captured by sponsors must not imply any endorsement of the Sponsor by any event participant.

Event Day

  • TCS London Marathon event day is a particularly busy and popular media day in the UK. The following do’s and don’ts are to ensure a successful day for all participants, media, sponsors and partners. Please ensure all sponsor and partner representatives, photographers, videographers and other content capture personnel adhere to the following guidelines. If you have any questions, always check with a member of the LME Communications team.

    • Ensure you are wearing your TCS London Marathon accreditation pass, and media bib if required. The bibs must be worn on the outside of clothing and visible at all times.
    • Please refrain from carrying or wearing any commercial, political, promotional, advertorial slogans, trademarks, banners and logos on equipment within view of the host broadcaster cameras.
    • Reserved areas are assigned to sponsor and partner photographers and videographers – please remain in the areas directed by the LME Communications team, particularly at the Start and Finish
    • Be aware of the TV cameras – ensure all photographers and videographers remain behind TV cameras at all times.
    • Please also ensure photographers and videographers also operate behind advertising boards at all times.
    • It is important that photographers and videographers remain in the designated area for official presentations and medal ceremony, and they do not obstruct the TV cameras.
    • Accreditation for use of the Finish Gantry is subject to allocated time slots which must be adhered to strictly.
    • For reasons of privacy, photography, video footage and any other content capture must not be taken of any participants whilst they are:
      • receiving medical treatment; or
      • dressing or undressing
    • And finally, please remember that the London Marathon team are there to protect the safety of participants, media, sponsors, partners, spectators and many more. Please respect their requests on Event Day and follow the instructions of the Reserved Area Manager / Supervisor and any other LME official personnel.

  • BBC Sport is the official Rights Holder of the TCS London Marathon in the UK.

    No other organisation, including sponsors and partners, can broadcast the event in whole or in part in the UK, without written permission from LME.

    Official sponsors and partners of the TCS London Marathon can make a request in writing to the London Marathon Events Communications and Commercial teams for the use of any video clips or materials from the event broadcast. In order to consider each request, please provide the following information:

    • Type of content (video/audio etc)
    • Duration of content
    • Intended usage including date of use and channels/outputs

    Official sponsors and partners are not allowed to use the BBC broadcast either directly or indirectly at any time for the purpose of advertising or endorsing a commercial product or concern.

    Filming and photography by sponsors on the route (not including the Start or Finish) is allowed providing coverage does not include footage on the field of play, including the elite races.

    No additional access for sponsors or partners can be granted to on the event route.

Social media

This guide provides commercial partners an overview of key factors to be aware of when working with the London Marathon Events (LME) social media team on social media collaborations/partnership content.

Due to the ever-changing social media landscape in terms of content and trends across platforms and an increasing emphasis on creating a look and feel for channels, we are conscious that there needs to be more guidance about how partner content is presented on LME channels. We strongly believe that partnership content should be tailored to the channel it will appear on as opposed to adopting a one-size fits all approach.

This guide will inform prospective partners on best practice for briefing your creative teams when designing assets that will appear on LME channels and help manage expectations about what we can deliver on our channels, so we can subsequently maximise the impact of social media partnerships.

Content formats

    • 1:1 (square) - feed on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram
    • 9:16 (vertical) - Instagram Stories

    Additional points

    • Partnership assets must meet LME brand guidelines for that specific event
    • We avoid posting text-based animations across LME channels
    • We generally avoid posting graphics that have no imagery
    • 1:1 (square) - X (formerly Twitter)
    • 9:16 (vertical) - Facebook, Instagram, TikTok

    Additional points

    • Videos with spoken dialogue should ideally be provided with SRT files for captions rather than burned on subtitles.
    • If that is not possible, please provide us with a clean version of the video so we can generate the SRT caption file ourselves.

What we can deliver on channels

Key points for all channels

Each LME social media channel has a look and feel that we strive to maintain.

If content does not meet the look and feel for that channel, the LME social media team will push back on its publication or suggest alternative means of social media promotion as opposed to posting on the channel’s feed.

To avoid this situation happening, we strongly recommend getting in contact with the LME social media team a minimum of four weeks in advance of the time to let us know what content you are creating and your expectations on where it will be published so we can advise on what we can deliver.

Our channels

  • Main feed

    • For Instagram, our look and feel generally focuses on human-led imagery, graphics and vertical video content.
    • If partner content does not align with that look and feel, we will not be able to publish it as a post that appears on our main grid.
    • If content does not work for our grid, we are happy to re-share posts on Stories as a means of promotion.

    Stories

    • If appropriate, we can share tagged content on Stories to help drive traffic to your channels.

    Collaborative posts

    • A collaborative Instagram post is the best way to get maximum exposure to any specific bit of content, as the content will appear as one post that sits on more than one account.
    • This means that anyone who engages with the post will then be visible on the channels that are collaborating.
    • The collaborator(s) must be added when posting directly to the platform. A collaborator cannot be added once the content has been published.
    • You can have more than one collaborator(s) at a time on a collaboration post (maximum of 15 collaborators).
    • As collaborative posts will appear on LME event and partner channels, it is imperative that we are aware of the proposed content so we can advise whether it fits within the look and feel of our channels and meets our brand guidelines.
    • Any ideation for a potential collaborative post with an external partner MUST be led by the creative input from our LME social media team.
    • This means that we would want a minimum of four weeks to effectively plan how we want to position any collaborative content on our channels whilst also working with the brand who will be collaborating to ensure that both needs are met.

    Influencers

    • Instagram remains the primary platform for influencer activations across LME channels.
    • Partners will have their own allocation of influencer places that they can give to their chosen influencers.
    • If you are planning to use influencers as part of content partnerships that will appear on LME channels, our social media team must be made aware and have the opportunity to vet their suitability before you approach them.
    • If you have allocated a place to an influencer about appearing in an event (I.e. TCS London Marathon), please make us aware of when you are informing them and when they plan to announce this so we can offer guidance on how to communicate this on their channels in a way that will not antagonise wider mass participant audiences who have struggled to get a place.

  • Main feed

    • For Facebook, our look and feel generally focuses on human-led imagery, graphics and vertical video content.
    • As Facebook does not operate a grid news feed like Instagram, we are more flexible about posting more traditional graphics on this channel but it is not a content format that we would recommend.
    • If appropriate and depending on the event channel, we are happy to share posts from partners on main feed of channel.
    • Video content must be accessible (see additional points on video in “Content Formats” section).

  • Main feed

    • For X, our look and feel generally focuses on human-led imagery and graphics.
    • As X does not operate a grid news feed like Instagram, we are more flexible about posting more traditional graphics on this channel but it is not a content format that we would recommend.
    • Partner content can be made into a clickable Twitter Card that links to a website.
    • If appropriate, we are happy to amplify partner content via direct or quote retweets.

  • Main feed

    • TCS London Marathon is the only event for which we have an active TIkTok channel.

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Competitions

LME encourage sponsors to run competitions for entries. Please share your competition mechanic and T&Cs for approval with before going live.

Please ensure that any terms and conditions incorporate:

  • Entries are non-transferable
  • Participants must be over the designated age required to participate in the event
  • Participants must complete their registration within the entry console before it closes
  • Participants must agree to the General Conditions of Entry for the event

General conditions of entry.

All promotions must have closed before the entry console closes to allow the winner enough time to register for the event. We recommend closing competitions at least one month before the entry consoles close.