Discussion: What is working to grow AR?

Would anyone be interested in sharing effective ways to recruit participants to adventure races? We're desperate in Michigan as our last 24 hour race was just canceled. For 8-hour+ races, we are down to two in the state: our own new 8-hour Epic Edition race on Aug. 2 (110 racers so we're happy about that) and 12 hour Spring Fury from Infiterra Sports and that's it. Oh, we have The Color Run and Warrior Dash and the Prance through Bubbles since those are "adventure races."

I'll go first. In our experience in Michigan with 4-6 hour races, Facebook ads are extremely effective. For a recent 6-hour race along Lake Michigan/Grand Haven, MI, I set my budget at $350, picked surrounding cities, targeted it to anyone who likes obstacle course racing, Tough Mudders, AR, triathlons, etc., added a fun picture from last year's race and pulled in 90 racers out of 400 participants (37,000 impressions and 1,700 clicks to our website). I measured this by asking during online registration if the ad is how they heard about the event (granted some may hear about a race in multiple ways). My ROI from the ad was astronomical. Our race included some Amazing Race challenges which appeal to obstacle course racers and other newbies but it's worth trying for any sprint race, even $50 as a test.

Some other questions rattling around in my brain:
Do we really know the common barriers to AR? Have they changed over the past few years? Lack of promotion and education? Fear of the unknown? Navigation skills? Multiple disciplines? Time commitment? Too far away? In Michigan during the recession, $ was a big barrier (plus everyone moved out of the state!) but now it's less so I believe.

What are the best audiences to target and cross-promote with? E.g., OCR, triathletes, local IMBA bike chapters, trail running groups, cross-fit gyms. How best to reach them? Online event calendars, offer to cross-promote with them, etc.

Where are the success stories and why? Do we have the right balance of sprint and longer races? How well does a sprint race near a major city do vs. a sprint race in the wilds? Are our expedition races grouped too close together? (Untamed, Wilderness Traverse, Cowboy Tough).

Should we gather/vet best practices and share with all race directors? Or has that been done (in one place)? Is the USARA the best conduit for this? AttackPoint? Others?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Mark VanTongeren
Owner/Race Director
Michigan Adventure Racing

Maybe doing a better job of matching up newbies with experienced racers for their first sprint race? I think there may be some fear of trying AR the first time "not having a clue" of how it goes or what to expect. Try promoting the fact that if someone would like to try it that the event director would do their best to find a mentor. I think there are a lot of veteran racers that would be more than willing to be a mentor :)

That makes sense. I should add that to our website. Get Your Bearings is a 4-hour race in SE Michigan that actually requires one person on the team to be a newbie. Cooper and Michelle Green drew 150 for that with 75 newbies - great numbers. Worth checking out if you're a race director: http://www.infiterrasports.com/events/2014/get-bea... or find them on Facebook.

Another thing I hear about is cost, and I'm not sure it's a barrier. Also, I think this can be anybody's sport. I think many (including myself!) are surprised with how much they accomplish in their first few races. When we raced SCAR, they used the Rec Authority to promote and hold the race, and they hired 2 race directors. It was billed as an 8 hour race and there were 250 registrants for the first time. Amazing!

We've also found Facebook to be a great way to attract people to the Wilderness Traverse website and get Likes for our Facebook page. We don't have data on how well this translates to participation but we did have our highest-ever number of 24-hr AR rookies this year. Many of them had done a shorter adventure race though. In our area, that usually means one of the well organized and highly popular STORM events.

We also do lots of cross promotion with other quality AR and orienteering events. This is free so the ROI is excellent! Aside from the promotion, we are lucky to have huge overlap in our AR and O communities and very friendly relationships. We also have the Dontgetlost Raids - team adventure runs on foot where adventure racers and strong orienteers find middle ground and get to know one another.

Also, we have the Ontario AR Points Series (OARPS) where teams doing multiple races can compete throughout the year for glory and small prizes.

The best promotion seems to be friends recruiting friends though. It's not large scale but it works.

It can't hurt to have them listen to the TA1 podcast (full discloser, I don't make any money on this). I have been told it is a good way to get an idea what AR is all about.
http://adventureraceworld.podomatic.com/?try=1

Now that OCR is bigger than triathlons, marathoning (!) etc. combined, you can leverage Facebook Ads targeted to that crowd.

They tend to be younger and willing to try new things. You're on the right track with FB ads and FB events. When one person signs up, they invite their friends, who humble brag their entry for social proof within their clique or community. OCR is way more popular than triathlon now, but younger "one and done" triathletes disillusioned by the douchebaggieness and great financial/opportunity COST of triathlon are looking for something fun, more social. Right now OCR has that market, 2+ million last year, but most of those folks would give AR a look if the races were very short and newby-friendly.

The paradigm for success will always be the HiTec series of the late 90s, early 2000s that REGULARLY had 200, up to 300 teams. These were shorter races, 2-3 hrs for the podium teams.

If you look back, these were a hybrid of AR and OCR. This formula has ALWAYS worked! This is what newbies AND fast people want. A race course that is fun and interesting.

These race combined sprint AR with OCR. There were mud pits, 10' climbing walls, etc. COPY THIS FORMAT. Advertise using FB targeting OCR, triathletes (beginners) , mtbers (who can all hike)

The 1998 race:

http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/adventure-raci...

"Nearly 1,000 racers…"special tests"…

http://articles.courant.com/2002-09-08/news/020908...

"1,000 racers…demographic…"
http://articles.courant.com/2002-09-08/news/020908...

A FB ad would need to depict a team of 3 Riding mtb; paddling their inflatable ( cost ) and running with map and compass. You have to show all 3 in your ad to differentiate, since Competitor Magazine, Outside Magazine, Runners World, etc. all decided to call color runs, mud runs and OCR "Adventure Racing" which infuriates me.

A one second glimpse at the ad should give the audience an idea of what the event entails: team, paddle/run/bike, navigation. A look at the race website should show that the team (they'll perceive it as a multisport "amazing race") will have "to use their wits to decide whether to swim across the lake or run around" type navigation.

This month's Mud & Obstacle Magazine has a several page long article on Adventure Racing, and how it's different than OCR. Thank you, Kristin Horowitz! Kristin and Yishai put on a 12hr event in Central/Southern California that is well-attended. They also put on OCRs and also mud runs I believe. Reach out to them on FB or their website http://all-outevents.com/about-us-all-out-events/

You're never going to get a large number of newbies into 8-12-24hr+ AR at once, especially now when there isn't any significant prize money to attract fast OCR/XTERRA types.

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE…no optional CP bullshit. That destroys the whole reason they're doing it in the first place…to share their STORY, their experience of traversing the course, making decisions, etc. Optional CP/rogaine syle ARs have contributed to killing AR and are for lazy RDs. Save the lame excuses about putting on an AR in a small state park. Call it something else, like "multisport rogaine" but not AR.

The market for the longer stuff will always be 95% smaller. I competed in 24-48-100hr events in the 90s and early 2000s on teams of 3 to 5, and even then it was an "older" crowd for the most part.

My 2 cents.

Thanks Bash. Yes on the recruiting friends. Maybe we'll offer a discount for racing with a newbie. That does seem to be the best way to overcome the awareness and intimidation barriers all at once.

Thanks Randy. Enjoyed your podcast with Bob Miller. We have fun doing his (with Bash) Wilderness Traverse. Hard to believe we were the only U.S. team there for such an incredible race/area. Our races in Michigan can't offer all the route choices of a WT, but it's influenced me to build as many route options between checkpoints as possible into our upcoming 8-hour race.

This is all good to read! We've begun planning a 5-8hr sprint in Southern Ontario for 2015. Course, Host and many logistics already set.

I've also started to host Sprint AR events at my University (Trent) and the turnout is increasing. A driving factor seems to be the photo's. We're in the age of the 'Selfie' and people love seeing images of themselves smashing through something like OCR or AR. OCR benefits from having a shorter course where multiple action shots can be taken. People love the "look what I did" shot.

Cut cost for a photographer? Get a young aspiring one to cover the event on a volunteer basis or low cost. They will still take awesome photos for you and often offer the images to racers for free, a BIG plus for many. Video also works very well and is often a decisive factor for numerous racers (GOT Survey's) and provides valuable insight into what they can expect. Seeing is believing right?

Word of mouth is the old go to as well. My AR team is comprised of 1/2-1/4 newbies, so while it can be frustrating on course sometime, it's a great learning experience for them. They may even get hooked (hopefully)!

Photos are huge. We're now budgeting for a photographer who is shooting races at a reasonable cost. Once you get a batch of photos, all kinds of marketing opportunities are possible. The facebook ad campaign I'm working on is "Adventure Racing: The Ultimate Obstacle Course Race." We're looking for great photos of racers climbing over natural obstacles and then we'll share the ads/photos to other race directors at no cost. They can just add their website to the ad. Send me an email at mark@miadventureracing.com if you want to see the ad when we're done.

El Chup - Thanks for sharing your experiences and the links. Can you elaborate on how optional CPs are destroying the sport? In my experience they have been a great way to get teams of different speeds to complete the race in a similar period of time while adding another dimension of strategic decision-making.

I agree that optional CPs are not the problem. ALL of our CPs are optional in our 3-5 hour races. We have teams going in dozens of different directions and this allows us to have 6-8 challenges (like Amazing Race or Survivor) without long lines. With no mandatory points, we don't have scads of teams DQ'ing. We have averaged 400 participants per race over our 11 races since 2011 so I would argue optional CPs, at least for sprint races, can be quite advantageous. For longer races, it may be a different story.

Here's a link to a previous discussion where El Chub explains his position. http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp...

Edit: Nevermind, the comments section on the Gearjunkie website are no longer active.

El Chupacabra (or anyone else): Do you think there is resistance to obstacles because of maintaining the purity of AR or is it more about the cost, time and liability of building things?

We decided to balance things by maintaining the core elements of AR - teams, multi-sport, navigation based, time-limit - but throwing in some simpler challenges - launching eggs at targets, memorizing images along a trail, etc.

Is it what I want to do during a race? No. Is it what practically everyone else wants to do? Seems to be.

AR is a niche sport that requires significant amounts of time, money, and energy spent to become adequate at racing long, hard distances in multiple sports. And don't forget you will get lost often too. I think that race organizers, and future race organizers, should create whatever courses fuel their fancy. Because you just won't get enough money back out of it, and so if you don't enjoy the courses you organize then you probably won't be doing it for long.

Do you think there is resistance to obstacles because of maintaining the purity of AR or is it more about the cost, time and liability of building things?

Although this question was directed at someone else, I question the question so I'm interrupting. ;) I wouldn't say that I "resist" obstacles, however, obstacle racing is a completely different sport from AR that holds little interest for me. I don't resist soccer either but it's not my thing, and it would feel bizarre to play a match in the middle of an expedition race.

Some obstacle race organizers call their events "adventure races" but it doesn't mean the sports are related or need to be brought together - even if their sport is more popular than ours.

So the concern is that optional checkpoints are degrading the purity of AR and driving the potential AR participants into...participation events?

I'm going to what works on the west coast here.

Attractive, fit, single people and a venue to allow them to get together (proper party afterwards).

Recently, I've learned a great deal about the so called ' Millennial' generation. In short, events have an opportunity to capture them IF they create an indelible memory, showcase the fun/challenge aspect, give them an easy way to share, stay authentic, and above all else, focus on the experience the event creates. Some of this sounds really obvious, now that I've written it out, but there are so many examples of how this type of focus separates the successful from not so successful events, brands, products, etc. And it is more than just the onsite experience. What is a given event doing during the lead up to get people excited and prepared and what do they do afterward to extend the life of the event experience?

AR has many barriers to participation (cost, complexity of just getting to the start line, navigation, gear, need for teammates) but no other sport I've come across creates life experience at remotely the same level. If we can bottle that and use that as the draw and reason to participate again, then I think events will be successful - eg. Like Wilderness Traverse!

Not trying to highjack the thread, but along these lines I have a friend who has done a ton of fantastic pro-level xc ski race photography, and due to an employment change might be interested in doing summer race photos as a side job. Would this be something helpful to RDs?

Full disclosure on this post. I am trying to make money documenting the sport.
I agree that everyone wants pics/video at the races. But they want it during the race. Videos like I shot at Cowboy Tough get the views, pictures have to be posted by the time the race ends. The racers want to see them and change their profile picture on the way home.

I have to disagree with finding some young beginning/student photographer/video producer. You need to find some one with experience shooting endurance events. They need to be able to get in the woods with the racers, otherwise you end up with a bunch of pictures in the TA.

I have 30 years of ultra racing behind me and 5 years shooting AR. I am pretty sure I know what and where things are happening during the race. The media has change in the 5 years I have been shooting. In PQ in '09 i produced a 90+minute film/DVD, today if a video is more than 3 minutes no one will watch.
Media is like everything else today, the good stuff costs more but it is worth it. But sometimes it isn't that expensive if you ask (hint)

If you haven't seen them these are the videos I did last week for Cowboy Tough. Most were posted with in 6 hours of shooting them.
https://vimeo.com/channels/cowboytough2014

Good on you for trying to grow the sport!

I can only speak for myself and 5 others, but I would love to see a longer race make its way back to Missouri. I came to the sport just as the Berryman 24 & 36 were phasing out and I've always wanted to try the 36.

It's depressing how many of the longer races have phased out (I love the LBL down your way; the only race we have been ahead of Tecnu in... they dropped their passport near the start). Grateful for all those that are still going strong. If anyone has or wants to do a sprint race and would like to get ideas about how we're adding Amazing Race challenges to our traditional ARs (over 75 of our participants each race are experiencing AR for the first time), email me at mark@miadventureracing.com. You can see photos of challenges at our Lake Michigan race at https://www.flickr.com/photos/65067832@N02/sets/72....

Agreed on the issue of getting photography on-course. Randy has some excellent examples, as did Boundless in the AR world champs.
The fellow I know has been getting amazing shots of xc ski races from on-course for years; his daughter is a racer, and the RDs were thrilled to have a great photographer out there. XC ski courses are different than AR, of course, as you can position yourself strategically and the racers all come by.

How unwieldy is having 300-400 participants? I have some dismay when only three dozen people show up to one of my events, but 100 then feels like a lot...at least without roping in more helpers.

We have a 40-team limit for Wilderness Traverse, which is a maximum of 160 racers. It depends where you are and what type of event it is. In areas where environmental impact is a concern for landowners, it's easier to get permission for a moderate number of participants.

Similarly, Dontgetlost Raid The Hammer is limited to 300 racers (100 teams) in the Dundas Valley. That comes from the Conservation Authority.

Landowners seem happier with larger numbers of participants if they will be staying on trails or roads, or if they'll be on a marked course or on a sports field. There's sometimes discomfort with the idea of teams going all over the place off-trail.

I personally hate "special challenges" in what should be a traditional format AR - especially if it's a 24-hour or longer race. We call them "stupid people tricks" on our team. Puzzles, building rafts out of noodles, and any element where chance is the main element are not the core of AR, not what we train for, and should be left out of pure AR events. There's plenty of adventure involved in the core disciplines. However, I do think that those things are fine for a "transitional" type sprint event where you're trying to get people to try AR for the first time. Especially if you're targeting people from an obstacle racing background.

This is a great thread.

I'm curious about why you guys dislike the optional rogaines so much. If you're paying for a 24 hour race, don't you want to race for 24 hours? I'm not trying to stir the pot, I'm genuinely curious. I think I'd be disappointed if we cleared a 24hr course with hours and hours to spare. (Super proud, too)

Full disclosue: We're slow enough we typically only get about 1/2 of the cp's before retuning to the "real" course. We don't mind it and feel like it adds to the experience.