Now That’s one Tough Mudder…
A look into the company that redefined mud-runs.
Tough Mudder is an extreme obstacle-course event designed to test the physical and mental limits of each individual in a team oriented environment. Held at various worldwide locations throughout the year, each event attracts thousands of participants. In this post, I will examine how they were able to align their business and operating models to produce an event that continues to grow in popularity.
Tough Mudder was founded in 2009 with just $20,000 in seed funding. Demand for the first event greatly exceeded the 500 participants that were anticipated in the first three months, signing up over 4,500 participants in just one month. With margins estimated at 48% and yearly revenues reaching $100M, in just five years they have set themselves apart in the arena of outdoor adventure challenges.
The firm generates revenue primarily through recruiting individuals, teams, and organizations to participate in its events. Through the use of tiered pricing, participants are encouraged to sign up months in advance, allowing Tough Mudder to more accurately forecast demand for each event. With an average advanced payment time of six months, this creates a huge amount of working capital for the company to use in the buildup to each event.
Tough Mudder’s operations align perfectly with its business model. Of the initial $8,200 that Tough Mudder invested for marketing its initial event, 100% went into Facebook advertising. This was seen as a brilliant move that took advantage of network effects. As they open each new event, moving from city to city, social networks provided the perfect platform to spread word about Tough Mudder. With a large number of participants signed up well in advance, this gives them the perfect opportunity to post information about the event and encourage other friends to join in on this painful yet fun experience. Obstacles such as vertical walls, greased monkey bars, rope climbs, and even electrically charged wires are located throughout the course in order to challenge, frustrate and inspire each raucous group of adventurers. After successfully completing the event, participants are given a free beer and a Tough Mudder headband to signify their achievement and almost simultaneously are encouraged to post photos of their experience to their Facebook page, creating yet another form of free advertising for Tough Mudder. Some participants are so inspired after the event that they even get Tough Mudder tattoos.
Building upon its earlier success, Tough Mudder has more recently expanded its event offerings to take advantage of a wider range of demographics while still attempting to maintain its trademark toughness. The Fruit Shoot Mini Mudder – along with its own unique charity partner – was recently introduced as an attempt to include children in the mayhem of Tough Mudder. Tough Mudder Half – a scaled down version of the main event—was also introduced in order to attract groups of people who may find 10 miles in the mud to be a bit ridiculous.
Like the individuals who come together to conquer each obstacle presented at its events, Tough Mudder’s operating model works hand-in-hand with its business model to help continue to redefine adventure challenges.
Sources:
http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/tough-mudder-mud-sweat-no-tears-20121030
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tough-mudder-growth-show
http://smartceo.com/tough-mudder-finding-stride-no-plans-slow/
Images:
http://www.crossfitsoto.com/2015/09/17/4233/
Nice job, Cameron! I enjoyed reading about Tough Mudder – I have heard a lot about the event and I would really love to participate in one someday! Justin did one in Orange County and his dirty sweaty Tough Mudder headband is still on his desk (ew)
I like how your discussion of the Operating Model/inherent Facebook advertising that goes along with participants posting photos ties into all the discussions we had in our Facebook case. Overall a really great read! Thank you!
Thanks Sara. Yeah, I thought that it was pretty interesting to see how they had tied in social networking into their marketing strategy. It was a near perfect play considering the burgeoning number of people who were already posting incessantly about what their workouts!
We should definitely try to setup an opportunity to get the entire Section to do one of these before we graduate!
As a Mudder myself, I really enjoyed the read. They have done incredibly well for themselves, indeed – a couple of HBS grads actually, I believe.
I wonder, though, with this type of business model, what they will do when the market becomes fully saturated. As the company maxes out on the initial target market which, I assume, was initially focused on relatively young professionals who are athletically inclined and have disposable income, where do they go next? Are they able to expand their market to other demographics? Are they otherwise able to upsell their existing customer base to squeeze out more dollars?
Finally, I do wonder from a personal perspective whether they have a massive retention issue. I tried it once, and it was awesome, but once was enough for me!
Thanks for posting.
Andrew, I agree that at some point the market will become saturated, as people are somewhat less likely to be repeat customers for a 12 mile obstacle course than they would for events like marathons. However, I think there’s still a huge market for the types of participants that Tough Mudder wants to attract. I believe they are beginning to key in on this fact by offering courses of varying lengths and compositions that could attract different levels of participants. In that way, they can take advantage of the structure used by standard race events (e.g. kids mile, 10K, 1/2 Marathon, and Full Marathon’s offered over one race event weekend) to bring out the entire family.
Love it, Cam!
My question is largely around international expansion– seems like this could be strongly embraced in several foreign markets. It seems like their operating model would require high fixed costs for expansion, however, but those costs could be easily absorbed if they’re able to drive up the number of participants in the new markets as successfully as they have done in existing markets.
Also agree with Andrew’s point above. It seems like they spend quite a bit to acquire new “users”, but lose those “users” primarily after one experience. Would be very curious to see their trend of marketing expenditures over time. Great post!!
Prak
Hey Prak! I totally agree that there is a huge opportunity for international expansion, and it appears that they are just beginning to take advantage of it. According to their website, there are only 16 events being held outside of the U.S. in just 5 different countries! I would not be surprised to see that number grow dramatically in the next few years.
Excellent post, Cam! I’ve always found it interesting that even though Tough Mudder is hardly a “tech” company (in the most traditional sense), they recruit at startup fairs and lean heavily into their online-to-offline identity.
My question is similar to Prak’s and Andrew’s– how easily can the company scale, especially if few participants are repeat customers? Can they successfully expand Tough Mudder into a lifestyle brand so that they’re less reliant on event revenues?
Interesting thought. I wonder what other adjustments they could make to the model in order to encourage people to adopt these events as periodic family traditions or maybe some sort of group rite of passage. I think their best bet is to build official partnerships with other entities that already have “cult-like” followings (i.e. extreme fitness centers).
Great read, Cameron! As I was reading, I had similar concerns to Andrew – I wonder what their retention rate actually is and how they can improve if people have a “I’ve done it once” attitude. Perhaps the physical location or new obstacles can help bring in participants who want a new challenge. Also, I had never thought about how much media/free advertising they get through social media. Great point in the importance to their business model – I wonder how they will continue to leverage the free advertising vs. other media outlets and what the appropriate balance is to continue to grow as the market becomes more saturated.
Thanks for reading! The social media importance was significant to me because that’s actually how I first found out about Tough Mudder (I participated in one 4 years ago!). I think they have established a fantastic marketing system by relying on both the paid and free forms of advertising that social media websites present. As I just mentioned to Andrew, I think they can begin to offer different race set-ups and locations in order to reach a wider range of demographics, but doing so could require a shift in their current marketing strategy to actively seek out those people.
Love that you did Tough Mudder Cam. While I’ve never done one, several friends have and it has always been on my bucket list. The founders did a great job of capturing the competitive spirit of those amongst us who miss team competition and pushing ourselves. This takes the drive that many of us have to run a marathon, and channels it into a team environment and makes it more fun and less monotonous. I had never considered the revenue predictability this business model provides them. While Tough Mudder was the first mover in this industry, other competitors like Spartan are emerging. Will Tough Mudder attempt to compete against others to win the hearts of the young professional competitors out there, or will they try and expand the entire market by reaching into other demographics and offering less competitive / extreme races?
Great post, Cam! It’s hard to believe that Tough Mudder grew into a $100 million business out of $20,000. While I have never done Tough Mudder myself, everyone I know who has done it has absolutely loved it. I am always extremely fascinated by companies that achieve a cult-following, such as Tough Mudder.
I have a few questions around retention of customers and further monetization of the offering. How many courses does an average Tough Mudder contestant complete in a year? Can the company start offering studio or group exercise classes to further the brand name, capture customers for a longer period of time, or maybe even reduce injury risk by making sure contestants are fit enough to complete the course? Has the company partnered with sponsors for advertising revenue? What other ways can the company generate revenue, engage customers and become sustainable over the long term? With the cult following the business currently has, I think the company has a lot to leverage in its next phase of growth.
While I don’t know the exact statistics, I can tell you that everyone I know who’s participated in the event typically doesn’t come back for quite some time. Tough Mudder does offer discounts in order to attract previous participants, but I’d also like to see the data if it was available.
The exercise class offering is an interesting concept. Maybe they can best achieve this through strategic partnerships with target city gyms in the buildup to the event date?
Great article! Love it Cam! 🙂
I am curious. How is the market segmented? And if it is segmented, who are the major competitors?
I attended an event called Spartan Race, which seems to have similar elements. Wondering if the Spartan Race could be one of the competitors.
Also as the event gains more popularity across the globe, how do you think the event will evolve?
Cam, this is a great post. It’s exciting to learn more about a really successful business with HBS founders! While others have hit upon my main concerns- customer retention and trends in courses/ races per user – I’d love to understand more about competition and the “fad” nature of this business and profitability. Given that the company is relatively new and has experienced fantastic growth, what does the company view as its barriers to entry, and why does it think it will continue to grow going forward, especially in the face of new workout trends. Additionally, I’d be interested to learn more about the company’s economics and profitability – how much capex is required to set up a course? What number of racers need to sign up for a race to be profitable?
You bring up a great point about barriers to entry. Right now, I can only figure that the biggest barrier is the brand names of Tough Mudder and Spartan Race in this space. Any new entrants would have to fight a huge uphill battle in terms of marketing spend in order to gain a foothold against those two titans. I don’t really see a way to do it from the cost cutting angle.
Thanks for the fun read Cam! It is tough to believe that a company can grow to a revenue of 100 million $ annually by offering one product that mainly consists of challenging people. I fully agree that using social media mainly to promote this event is a very smart move given that the vast majority of Facebook users fall under the target market of Tough Mudder. My concern is however whether the product they are offering is sustainable or is it just a trend that would soon die? Are they doing something about this, maybe try to market this as a team building activity for corporate events?
Interestingly enough, they actually do market these events to corporations. Whether that marketing is active or passive is anyone’s guess. But, they do have a section for corporate group signups on their website for what it’s worth.
Love tough mudders! Let’s do one…
Onto your post. Well done piece. As many have mentioned above, I question the viability of the business model, but they have somehow stayed on top of the market despite competitors like Spartan Races (as Peter mentioned). Do you think the first mover advantage was that large in this space? Does it have something to do with the fact that CrossFit also became big around the same time, championing the masochistic athlete? If CrossFit dies out, will ToughMudder & co. go with it?
First off, let’s do it.
Second, I agree that the business model seems to be one that could be easily duplicated financially, but right now there is only one major competitor in this category. I think the branding behind the company is huge at this point. Also, I think their timing has been critical in that it was one of the first to take advantage of what could be considered the “Crossfit fad”.