Survey: "Mob" Events Gaining Momentum

ACTIVE Network™, the leader in cloud-based Activity and Participant Management™ solutions, today released its 2nd annual survey results about the habits of those who participate in Mob™ events.  Mob events are characterized as hyper-social, experiential events, which continued to gain momentum through 2013.  The survey panel was made up of 1200+ members of the ACTIVE.com1 endurance community, representing a segment of endurance athletes who participate in a variety of events such as triathlons, marathons, and other traditional running distances, as well as Mob events.

Among the key findings in the 2013 Mob survey:

• Continued interest in Mob events, with 86% of those surveyed planning to participate in Mob events in 2014 – and more than half (64%) specify they plan to participate in 1 to 2 events in the next year
• 82% of those surveyed cite the “fun factor” of Mob events as motivation to participate
• Role of social media to drive awareness of events is up 17% year-over-year
• Unprecedented growth in emerging Mob events, with ‘paint runs’ up by 300% year-over-year (gaining in popularity next to ‘mud runs’ and ‘obstacle races’)

The importance of keeping events fresh is underscored by the 15% year-over-year decrease in participants planning to participate in the same event

Additionally, there is a strong response to team participation, with a 25% year-over-year increase.  As a result, ACTIVE has launched a new feature supporting this growing trend.  Within ACTIVE’s race management software, event directors can enable the Team Functionality and now allow team captains to pre-pay and manage a set number of spots for an event.

“ACTIVE’s Mob survey results support the shifts we’re seeing at the event level. We’ve seen demand from event directors for team functionality increase from 2012 to 2013, with more than twice as many events enabling the feature within our race management software, including some of the fastest growing ‘paint run’ events like The Color Run,” said Eric McCue, general manager of sports, ACTIVE Network.  “With the new pre-paid team feature, emerging events like the 5K Foam Fest and ROC Race 5K have even more tools to better capitalize on the highly social nature of these events and help drive significantly higher revenue.”

“The Color Run has seen extraordinary growth and is now the single largest event series in the US with more than 170 events in 30+ countries in 2013, and it’s exciting to see the results of ACTIVE’s survey validate the increasing popularity of ‘paint runs’ as a segment of Mob events,” said Travis Snyder, president, The Color Run. “The team functionality in ACTIVE’s race management software enables us to better forecast and continue to offer quality events as we expand.”

“ROC Race is all about giving people an obstacle racing experience unlike any other, and ACTIVE’s software has contributed to that goal by providing our participants with a highly rated registration process," said Bobby Petersen, marketing director of ROC Race. "Since 90% of ROC Race's runners sign up with friends, the Team Functionality will go a long way in streamlining participants' experience in addition to driving sales as we continue to grow.”

See more at this link.