Mob events, such as the , are hyper-social, experiential events, which have gained momentum throughout 2013. Active surveyed more than 1,200 endurance athletes from its Active.com community to find out what interested them.
The survey found 86% of those surveyed planned to participate in mob events during 2014. Fun was cited as the main motivation to participate in mob events by 82% of those surveyed. Events such as paint runs grew 300% year-on-year, gaining in popularity next to mud runs and obstacle races.
Social media is an important factor in driving awareness of these events, up 17%, and the importance of keeping events fresh was underscored by a 15% decrease in participants planning to participate in the same event.
There was a 25% growth in team participation which Active has looked to service with a new team functionality feature. This allows event directors to enable team captains to pre-pay and manage a set number of spots for an event.
Eric McCue, general manager of sports, Active Network, said: "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."
The Electric Run series kicks off on 26 April 2014 at Wembley Park and aims to attract 17,000 participants.
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