Marketing Tara Dower's Appalachian Trail Record
Can beating the men on the AT transcend trail running in 2024?
I had another post queued up but Tara’s accomplishment had me thinking and really excited.
Let’s set the scene.
2,197 miles with 464,500 of elevation change
Over the weekend, Tara Dower set the overall record on the Appalachian Trail in 40d 18h 5m. It had been held by Karel Sabbe since 2018. She beat him by 13.5 hours.
This is actually the second time a woman has done this 💪. When Jennifer Pharr Davis set the overall record in 2011 she was voted the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
Then when Scott Jurek broke Pharr Davis’ overall record in 2015 he got the book deal for “NORTH”.
Karl Meltzer beat Jurek’s record the next year and Red Bull made a film about it. (side note: Karl is Tara’s coach she’s now coached by Megan Roche)
Historically, beating this record has been a career defining achievement.
BUT this is not the same world as when Pharr Davis broke the record in 2011. Where can it go in 2024?
We now see women in sport begin to get the more of the recognition they deserve from pop culture.
Caitlin Clark set the NCAA overall points record earlier this year we saw her marketing explode. Gatorade’s “You Can Too” campaign starring Clark became its most viewed social content across platforms.
Nike chimed in saying that “It takes a once-in-a-generation player to break a record that’s stood for generations.” It’s a short film with Nike’s classic voice/tone/message that really frames her accomplishments to be digested by the public.
In fact, Clark’s marketing success this year has been named the “Caitlin Clark effect” and has its own Wikipedia page. Her WNBA games get 3x the audience of any other games.
Many examples have transcended into to mainstream culture.
Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Key West in 2013 at the age of 64. The film “Nyad” got a Netflix deal starring both Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.
Back fifty years ago Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” and 90 million people (!!) around the world watched on TV.
These moments transcend basketball, swimming and tennis.
We have seen massive growth in trail running since Davis’ overall AT record in 2011. One article found trail has grown 231% in the past 10 years. Another found that the trail shoe market was valued at $7.3 billion in 2022. By comparison the basketball shoe market was $11.5 billion in 2022.
We aren’t as small or insignificant as we think we are.
So can Dower’s record follow Nyad, King or even Clark and transcend trail running? If we don’t believe it can, we don’t give it the opportunity. Why not Tara and why not now?
Her Sponsors
Tara has very standard trial running sponsors - Altra, Ultraspire, FirstEndurance, Injinji.
Altra is her main sponsor. As of Sunday evening the image below is all we’ve seen so far. A nice graphic dropped on IG stories but a standard response nonetheless. It doesn’t meet the enormity of the moment for me. This one is on a platter for these brands and I’d love to see more but I don’t expect it from Altra or her other sponsors.
The winning strategy for these brands is to put Tara’s achievement on a pedestal for the wider culture not just trail running. They must help her create perspective to the accomplishment and frame it for the wider culture - not just for us ultra runners. Tara has created a massive branding moment to grow your audience, your TAM and your funnel (to talk the jargon). These are rare.
So first and foremost lock her up in a new contract that reflects the opportunity she has created going forward. Then elevate her and her accomplishment like Nike did for Caitlin. Use your internal resources and external contacts to help her to maximize the moment. Then don’t start your own messaging with “she did it in our shoes”. Stop at “she did it” and you will both win. That is a partnership. Nike didn’t need to tell us what Caitlin wore in that short film. They framed all of her accomplishments and her place on top of the sport.
Her Personal Brand.
Tara has her own YouTube channel supported by a membership strategy ranging from $3.99 to $19.99. She announced her FKT intention there (above). She has 30k subscribers which is fantastic. One video even has 3M views - sheesh! I love to see athletes doing this but now is a great time to really double down on that strategy and find someone to lead consistent content creation. Her search traffic is about to be on fire and she needs to capture and retain the audience for her own brand.
I hear she was logging video during the entire AT trip to have footage for future videos - or a film. That could be gold. I’d hold off on using more than small snippets of that footage for now. Read on.
What’s Next?
Jennifer Pharr Davis was on the CBS Early Show and written up in the New York Times and ESPN. She has published 9 books and works as a keynote speaker with clients like GE, Google and Volvo. She holds retreats and started a hiking guide company in her home of Asheville. That was in 2011 - a lifetime ago from a media standpoint.
We all talk about Courtney Dauwalter and Katie Schide in this sport. They are incredible and I take nothing away from them but in the US, a course record at UTMB doesn’t get you on the morning shows or discussed in the mainstream conversation. An outright win? Maybe! Courtney really blew up after she outright won the Moab 240 race and was invited on Joe Rogan (the top podcast in the US).
I’d argue that the AT has more mainstream awareness than the top trail races. The AT gets 3 million visitors per year. For perspective the Grand Canyon gets 5M and the Statue of Liberty 4M. Chamonix bursts at the seams with 100k visitors during UTMB every year. These aren’t an exact measure of world-wide awareness but they could be indicative. From a viewer UTMB had 2M livestream views - the Super Bowl had 123.7M. So the answer is somewhere in there.
The point is that Tara has created a massive opportunity for herself that I think has the opportunity to make the leap outside of our niche.
So I’d brainstorm around a lot of “what if” questions. Be bold! Where can this go? How big can it be?
Start by finding an amazing PR person (one area where current sponsors can help) that will help her maximize the moment. I mean if Hawk Tuah girl can do it then Tara can do this. Hailey has 2.5M IG followers and she has merch. What a world we live in.
Hmmm could Dower start her own brand? Merch? 🤔
The goal is to help the story make the jump to mainstream culture and let her personality take it from there.
Can she get on the major podcasts like Joe Rogan? A Rich Roll appearance seems very possible. Can she get onto major talk shows? Fallon, Kimmel, Kelly Clarkson, Oprah?
Leverage all of the media shot during the run to provide a press kit that is pushed to major outlets (New York Times, etc). Curate a small gallery of the top images and pull together a short reel of clips that can be used. Put a document together that describes the facts, how to pronounce your name, etc so they all get things correct. So far I’ve only been able to find articles from Outside, IRunFar and Sports Illustrated. There is now a Reddit thread also.
I would even think about wardobe during these appearances. Prada dressed Caitlin Clark for the NBA Draft. It sounds silly in ultrarunning but it shouldn’t. It matters. Think BIG. As a VF brand what else can Altra/VF do to support? TNF and Vans are there.
All of this needs to be happening literally right now.
Success here means creating leverage beyond our trail running world. Get into the mainstream conversation and the cliche says that “the world is your oyster”. You have transcended.
Now with all of that video footage still in her back pocket and the film version of her story not yet told there is yet more opportunity once the mainstream demand has been created. A producer can help create a pitch deck that can be shopped to various outlets. Is there a contact at Netflix? Amazon? Again, think big and take a swing! She can always fall back on creating her own YouTube film.
Now back to that brand idea. 🤔
What a journey Tara has the opportunity to embark on. I have never met her but couldn’t be more excited. I have no idea if she has an agent nor do I know her contract situation but with the right people in her corner she is sitting on a huge opportunity for herself and for our sport.
Why not Tara? Why not trail running?
Thanks Sharkey, you are the first official comment, ever! 🥳
Altra's donation is a really great gesture to support Tara and Girls on the Run. If I'm Altra I take this opportunity to speak to an audience that otherwise isn't paying attention to trail and brainstorm around that. I wouldn't talk to all of us hardcore trailheads right now. I'd hit a hard PR campaign and drop a social campaign that all frames up her accomplishment and links it to other massive accomplishments by women (or anyone for that matter) outside of running. Make her part of everyday conversation, part of culture. The awareness that creates for the brand would be massive and it fills their funnel for a long time to come.
What do you suggest?
Love this one Matt. While I know you're talking about how to leverage it above and beyond the trail community, I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding Altra's matching her fundraise total for Girls on the Run. For the small but mighty Altra (VF), do you think its enough? If you were making the calls for the brand, what would you suggest?