Data to most is something benign, bland and grey. However to others it can be a thing of beauty.

The creative folks at Nike in the UK have taken the latter view point and illustrated just what is achievable through the simplest demographic splits of data (in this case of runners).

Nike has divided London into 48 post codes, and nominated four traditional phone boxes in each postal area. Runners have to make a call from one of the phones by entering a unique identifier, and then follow instructions as to the location of another phone box in the postal area or city.

The event has been illustrated by plotting the data of calls made on a map of London, with each day showing a different data split.

The splits include males v females, day v night runners, N, S, E v W, universities and also data on rain runners.

The two week competition called the GRID in London has done two things.

1. Revealed just how popular running is.
2. Shown that the city’s iconic red phone boxes are not obsolete in a world of mobile phones.

A similar initiative was held earlier in the year, back in April, close to when the London Marathon was run.

The game was created in a bid to get young people engaged in running (and to sell the associated equipment) but Nike wanted to move beyond merely sending a message to one of actual participation.