JeansMarines is a group of middle-aged women with fat bank accounts. Their goal? To become marathon-running machines.

To make it, this Toronto-based org, now 500 strong, needs running gear. Which means plenty of opportunities for marketers in related categories to target a lucrative demo. While GTA-centric now, the group plans to eventually branch out across Canada.

The good news is your brand can tag along. Prices range from $2,500 plus product, for basic sponsorship programs like signage and sampling opps, to $25,000 for sponsoring the upcoming DVD release of a documentary on the group. Payable over two years (2005/06), this offer includes a mention in the credits and a 30-second intro by sponsor execs.

Ironically, sponsorship hasn’t always been an easy sell for the group’s leader Jean Marmoreo and hubby Bob Ramsay, the group’s ‘propagandist-in-chief.’ They kept hearing their women were ‘too old.’ ‘So we say: These are the women with gold cards,’ Ramsay explains. That argument has been persuasive: Since the group formed in 2002 with 100 members, it’s recruited big-name sponsors like ScotiaBank, HBC, Sporting Life, PowerBar and the YMCA.