Blowing the Speakers at UTMB
Blowing the Speakers at UTMB
A misplaced ambush marketing crackdown, 35% growth and how to market the champions.
I watched UTMB from afar this year, and, to be honest, the only FOMO I had was for seeing friends and taking in all the brand activities. I love searching for that elusive aha! moment that a clever, creative brand activation brings. While I really enjoyed the livestream coverage, I’m hearing it was more of the same in Chamonix but with the volume dial turned up yet another notch. So. Much. Noise. We collectively seem to be trying to blow the speakers. Why would we trust our ears? The speakers must be BLOWN! From what I can tell there seemed to be little that was new/interesting at the 2024 edition save for a few notable updates. The dust is still settling but nevertheless here we go.
The Ambush Marketing Crackdown
Both Matt Walsh and Simon Freeman pointed out an escalation in the crackdown on “ambush” marketing. What an unproductive way for the race org to continue their bad guy reputation. Simon pointed out that “the organisers have definitely increased their efforts to suppress marketing activations by any brands not paying to be official sponsors.” Matt cites that “UTMB have trained staff to be able to spot it, formed a dedicated hit squad”. Yikes.
I agree that the shear quantity of brand activations around UTMB is certainly out of control. I don’t often see much creative effort put into most of them so simply making more noise is a way to claim it was “better” than last year. (“I know, we’ll add another shakeout run! How about more little logo cowbells!”) Matt cites the UTMB press kit which seems to lay blame for the crackdown on the quantity or perhaps disruptive nature of these activations that harm “the integrity of the event” and don’t “ensure a harmonious experience.”
I strongly disagree with the approach of spinning ambush marketing as the problem because 1) it won’t work and 2) that’s where we see the most creative activities. It’s a misdirected and a not so clever money grab. Instead I’d call on brands, both sponsors and non-sponsors, to do better. Give us quality not quantity so we don’t blow the speakers and ruin this whole activation experience. Make it count by being more creative and diving a bit deeper vs. simply inundating us with MORE. We want value not meaningless noise. Here are three relevant examples - one from surfing, one from track and a third from road running.
In other sports we consider analogous to trail running (surfing or skateboarding), brands have a history of being insatiably louder to appeal to the masses for more profits and growth. This ironically results in a profit nosedive because they end up losing authenticity and the trust of the core consumer.
A recent article by Sean Doherty in Surfing World Magazine outlines the surfing example.
“Big Surf was already dying. Chasing billion-dollar turnovers, it had flown too close to the sun, and despite being staffed by surfers who wanted a core surf offering, they were owned by shareholders and private equity firms that wanted core profits.”
It is a brilliant article.
Sean goes on to describe that in the aftermath surfing has recalibrated back to the core of the sport.
“Things are done more quietly these days, but with more meaning. Whatever the surf industry is today, it feels like there’s a better balance. It’s not as top-heavy, and there’s a cornucopia of smaller ventures out there, all paying respect to some corner of the surfing subculture, all of them with a different take on surfing, none of those takes dominant. A sustainable business is great – economically and environmentally – but it also needs to be culturally sustainable as well. It needs to give something back to surfing, in some small way. Surfers won’t let you sell it out.”
I found myself debating how trail running compares. Are we top heavy? From a brand standpoint I don’t think so but I also wouldn’t say most brands have a unique take on running. The lesson here is to remain culturally sustainable by giving something back to the sport - provide value not meaningless noise. Regardless of where we stand, however, Sean’s take on new surfing is something certainly worth aspiring to.
It’s almost cliché to cite at this point but what Tim Rossi and Bandit do every year with the Unsponsored Project at the US Olympic Track & Field Trials is another example. It is a simple yet creative ambush marketing effort that provides VALUE for these athletes, the brand and the sport. There is alignment. This is the type of creativity and meaning that our activations need to aspire to. It integrates right into the sport and the competition. It’s clever ambush marketing at its finest and it came from a small brand that doesn’t have the budget of the big boys.
In another example of going to the extreme to push out non-sponsor brands, the Boston Marathon recently restricted its expo to only brands officially associated with the race. As a race sponsor this gave Adidas a monopoly on running gear inside the expo. Outside of Adidas it seems many new gutter systems may have been sold. Lame. As a result, a coalition of brands, led by local run shop Marathon Sports, organized an offsite expo that was far more fun and interesting than the official expo. Several people have told me they think this has become the best part of Boston weekend. Runners see value there, not with the gutter salesmen. If UTMB is upset about ambush marketing they would lose their minds over an entire unofficial expo. It actually makes me chuckle to picture how upset they’d be.
Again, I stress that both sponsor and non-sponsor brands at UTMB need to do better. In a world where we interact digitally more than ever there is a huge appetite for the human experience at an event like UTMB. So a brand must ask themselves, who is your activation actually providing value for? Do you have a cultural sustainability angle? Are you giving to or merely taking from the event? What is an insight about the sport that your brand can uniquely speak to? That’s the aha! moment I am always looking for.
35% Growth
According to Doug Mayer, we saw UTMB World Series registrations rise 35 percent in 2024 with “even greater growth in interest for OCC, CCC and UTMB”. Some elites skipped (Courtney, Kilian, Zach) but most were there either racing, crewing, spectating or kissing babies. This despite all of the controversy UTMB faced in the past year (Whistler, Corrine, Dacia). I’ve been waiting to see how this year would play out and now we know - 35% growth just does not signal to UTMB that the consumer is concerned. This AdAge article from last year (paywall, sorry) talks about how, despite being noble, the purpose-driven approach from brands just isn’t resonating with consumers. That unfortunately echoes what we’ve seen since last year’s race. To UTMBs credit I feel we’ve seen a bit of improvement lately but 35% growth sure doesn’t give them a strong reason to drastically change course. Is UTMB’s brand culturally sustainable? Remember, “surfers won’t let you sell out”. But will trail runners?
Marketing the Champions
Allow me to quickly comment on some incredible performances we all witnessed over the weekend. The top 10 women finished 1 hours 45 minutes faster than last year - a profound jump. Bravo. Katie Schide smashed what had been a stout course record set by Courtney Dauwalter in 2021. Simply amazing for the female side of the sport. I found myself speculating about what could come of the Courtney vs. Katie matchup. Rivalries like this are so great for sports (even if they are friendly). We’ve seen Salomon marketing run with Courtney but how will TNF elevate Katie Schide going forward? How do they support her rise to superstardom? This could be a fun one for a separate post.
Vincent Bouillard is a fantastic story. He is a Hoka shoe engineer, who literally formulated the foam in his shoes, and came from complete obscurity to win UTMB in the 3rd fastest time ever (behind Jim and Kilian but ahead of Francois). He certainly had the rare magical day. His newfound fame and deep integration with Hoka’s product got me thinking about recent strategies that position employees as influencers. Vincent isn’t a social media guy (zero posts on IG) but if he, as the UTMB champion, posted reels from a lab about his efforts to develop new shoe technologies (as opposed to yet more training videos) it would absolutely have my attention and be a totally different tactic. What a captivating way to tell a product innovation story without it seeming overtly self-promotional by the brand. No other brand could do this right now. Instead, that sort of innovation access is kept a secret (ssshhh!) as if most of these designers don’t bounce around between the same shoe brands anyway.