Discussion: Urban AR as way to increase awareness of orienteering/wilderness AR?

This post is geared a bit more to adventure racing but may apply to orienteering race directors looking for ways to increase participation in the sport. Five of us adventure racers in West Michigan were sick of 15-24 hour adventure races getting cancelled and seeing people flock to warrior dash "adventure races." So we put on two 4-hour races in Grand Rapids this summer, promoted almost entirely through word of mouth, Facebook and free online calendars. Mostly urban nav on foot and by bike, some basic orienteering/map reading in forested areas near the city, a little single track, and to really get racers' and the media's attention some Amazing Race-type challenges (egg launch, mental puzzles, stair climbs, CP spotting from top of building, etc.). We really didn't want to do this, but the ends justified the means when you see your sport dying at the expedition level.

The result was 400 newbies at orienteering/AR clinics before the races, 1,500 racers (85% newbs), and over 1 million people exposed to orienteering and adventure racing through media coverage by all the major TV networks, all the major papers, and several top radio stations. They ate it up like it was this incredible new sport we invented. And it was to them!

We found in post-race surveys that racers had not done a wilderness race because #1, they didn't know these races existed and #2, using a compass freaked them out. So we really eliminated both barriers for these newbies and are now set to promote the heck out of the wilderness races next spring (we have a winter adventure race at a local ski area so we're focused on that right now). Over a dozen have asked for our help to train for the Infiterra Sports 30-hour Rage next year.

Not anything brilliant we did - it was simply filling an unmet need here - but wanted others to be aware of this strategy in case it may be a way of increasing awareness of orienteering and adventure racing. Urban races are nothing new but the concept of using a sequence of clinics, urban races (heavy on the Amazing Race feel) and then funneling people into wilderness adventure races or orienteering meets is not something I'm seeing. Wanted to share. Happy to answer questions. www.grUrbanAdventureRace.com

Good for raising $$$$ too I bet.

Thanks Mark. California ARA is embarking exactly on this strategy for 2012 using Get Lost!!'s Street Scramble events, terraloco's Urban Wild Roundup, and one of the ten or so national-reach Amazing Race knockoffs as its vehicles for recruitment. You guys are blessed (or not) in that none of the ten are in your backyard, therefore an unmet need; results in larger metro areas will certainly not be as dramatic. Hope here as in your case is that urban races will be a gateway drug to wilderness experiences, and that by getting the races down to one or two disciplines at locations within an easy drive or ride by transit, while maintaining the essential component of navigation, thresholds to entry and recruitment will be lowered.

Thanks for bringing this up, Mark!

I've mentioned all of this stuff elsewhere on AP, but given another platform, I'll talk about it here, too.

Trend #1: The age of the average orienteer in the United States is increasing. We're generally keeping existing orienteers, but we're having trouble recruiting new orienteers.

Trend #2: The interest of orienteering is the United States is decreasing.

Trend #3: The interest of similar-ish events (too many to list) in the United States is increasing.

Trend #4: The amount of marketing/publicity/media coverage about orienteering in the United States is almost zero. (We found in post-race surveys that racers had not done a wilderness race because #1, they didn't know these races existed.). This is directly related to Trend #2.

Trend #5: The amount of marketing/publicity/media coverage about similar-ish events in the United States is definitely not zero. This is directly related to Trend #3.

So we've got an aging, intimidating sport with waning interest, yet essentially we're very similar to a whole bunch of mega-popular events. Both the City Chase-style events and orienteering require finding specific locations in the fastest time possible. Both the mud/obstacle course-style events and orienteering require running through whatever terrain gets in your way. The big differences are that these more popular events amp up the physical challenge and remove the maps.

In order to bridge this gap between orienteering and the other events, we need to have 'tweener races. Mark's got a perfect example of one in Grand Rapids. Sure, it's selling out a bit (We really didn't want to do this, but the ends justified the means when you see your sport dying at the expedition level.), but it's getting people in the door. In Seattle, we feel that getting involved with the Road Runner Adventure Runs is selling out a bit, too, but we're seeing increased interest. The common element in these 'tweener races is that we're giving participants a chance to navigate with maps. In Grand Rapids alone, they got over 1200 people using maps in a race who hadn't done so before.

If Orienteering USA wants to generate more starts, I think we need to look more closely at how we can create more of these 'tweener races. The A-Meet Coupons are nice, but that's only around 20 new participants per event. Grand Rapids had 60x the number of new participants! 60! (Granted, Grand Rapids is in a market without any of the existing City Chase-style events coming through, so they aren't competing with anything).

We're never going to get 1200 new people to an A-Meet, but as the Grand Rapids event proves, I think there's potential for our own national series of adventure runs or urban adventure runs. Or maybe we can partner with an existing series and provide maps, since that's our expertise.

I think we just need a bunch of people in the door. Sure, many of them won't make it through to the wilderness events, but I think we'll get some. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds in Grand Rapids.

Hi Vlad. Fancy seeing you in this thread!

So we've got an aging, intimidating sport with waning interest, yet essentially we're very similar to a whole bunch of mega-popular events.

As I said many times before, the difference isn't in the product, it is in the way the organization is structured. If you have to get people to your events in order to eat, you will be less likely to do silly and inefficient things, and more likely to do things that expand your base—such as investing in promotion, kick-ass web/print design, and making sure your product is user-friendly. Although a lot of the AR companies are non-club for-profits and they still seem to be having problems, the nature of private enterprise is such that those who don't adapt will perish and new ideas will rise from the ashes, hopefully ones that are more likely to create a sustainable community. Folks who run these AR companies are far from stupid, and I bet three years from now almost all will be following Mark's lead.

I am a rookie to this forum so hopefully my post didn't come across as presenting some totally new strategy. I hadn't reviewed a lot of passed emails went I sent this. Just eager to grow AR and orienteering.

Regarding the money and organizational structure Tundra/Desert points out, I was able to quit my boring job and commit about 30 hours a week to four races a year. We set up an LLC with profits distributed as "guaranteed payments" based on weekly estimates of hours worked. The other four guys put in 5-10 hours a week, with most hours the week before the race. The five of us are a good team. One guy is a CPA, another is a computer wiz, the other is prez of the state MMBA and the other is great at creating Amazing Race challenges.

My wife works full time and the profits from the race add up to half of my past salary but I fill open time with freelance communications work where I can and cut back back on some discretionary expenses (like golf, which saves a lot!). So a professional product can be produced with a small organization. And the local flavor and first to market means that if a national group comes in, we think we have enough brand loyalty to sustain the organization.

You guys are right though - it was the right market at the right time with the right product. But there are lots of mid-size cities like GR that are especially ripe for this.

If I were to pick two things that got the race viral, it was adding some Amazing Race challenges (just borrow from the show, Expedition Impossible or Survivor if you don't know what to create) and promoting it hard on Facebook (main and Event).

Thanks again Mark! Half the old salary is indeed the goal here, the number of races and the number of work hours being a factor of several higher. Again what works in GR will most likely not work in major metro areas unless you have a core of dedicated people who are willing to work for free for the first year or two for 20–30 hours a week to get things off the ground.

We at Get Lost!! and terraloco happen to be quite well set against the Amazing-Race challenges. Why? there are about 10 outfits that average 2.5 races/year in our area that do that better than us, and have been for 2 or 3 years. If we have any hope of creating a sustainable following, we should offer a different product. The idea that we hope sticks is that a map takes you places where you wouldn't ever go otherwise (and that you'll be happy you went). It worked for geocaching (replace map with GPS). It wouldn't have been a good strategy before the smartphone, when paper maps were alien and intimidating to most people, but now the hope is that the world is not-so-slowly changing. Note that most of these 10 outfits either don't have maps at all, or deemphasize them to the point of irrelevancy.

It also has to be a lot more than just promoting hard on Facebook. You have to activate other promotional channels, and other chips have to fall just right for you as RRS is finding out with Thursday Adventure.