Growing Popularity of Gamified, Hyper Social Events Presents New Opportunity for Race Directors to Engage a New Breed of Adventure-Seekers
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – June 20, 2012 – Consumers are flocking to an explosive, new trend in mass participatory sporting events—where individuals and teams compete and socialize by jumping over fire, crawling through mud, outrunning zombies and getting splashed with paint. Recognizing this emerging trend, Active Network (NYSE: ACTV), the leader in cloud-based activity and participant management™ solutions, today launched a brand new Mob™ experience on its flagship media property, Active.com® to reflect and celebrate the mob mentality of this new breed of adventure-seeking participants.
The Active.com Mob portal taps into the hyper social nature of the latest craze in adventure races, zombie chases as well as mud, obstacle and paint runs, and helps consumers from all demographics find, prepare for and share their Mob experience. The site provides targeted resources and rich content including how to train for an upcoming race, how to develop a costume, profiles on Mob race directors, as well as user-generated content, social components, featured events and more.
“Mob events represent a new genre of social sporting events that illustrates perfectly the gamified culture we live in today. Moving well beyond traditional racing competitions like running, cycling, triathlons and even 5Ks, they appeal to a much wider audience comprised of both competitive, thrill-seeking athletes as well as participants just looking to do something fun with their friends,” said Eric McCue, general manager for sports at Active Network. “Recognizing this surge in participation and the opportunity it represents our customers, we have created a unique Mob experience for our Active.com consumers and provided proprietary technology to our race organizers to help them capitalize on this growing market.”
Many race organizers have been quick to adopt Active Network’s activity and participant management software to manage various aspects of Mob events, from online registration and secure payment processing, to social media integration, volunteer recruitment and management to targeted marketing services. The ActiveWorks® Endurance technology platform includes tools that are well suited to managing Mob events such as the group management feature which allows friends to register for events in teams, social media plug-ins which allow race directors to push deals and discounts to participants via Facebook, and an integrated ActiveGiving® fundraising tool to help Mob teams drive digital donations to their favorite charities.
Spartan Race, Color Run and Walking Dead are among the many pioneers in this emerging race category who work with Active Network to help them deliver successful events from start to finish. According to Spartan Race founder, Joe DeSena, “We are creating the sport of obstacle racing and manage dozens of races across North America every year. At our rate of growth, we needed Active Network’s expertise to help us effectively manage all of our events and promote them to a broad audience. And because the company’s software is cloud-based, it has the ability to scale with us as we grow, and evolve with us as our needs change.”
Join the Mob experience at Active.com/mob and put on your own Mob event with technology from ActiveEndurance.com.
About Active Network
Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) is on a mission to make the world a more active place. With deep expertise in activity and participant management™, our ActiveWorks® cloud technology helps organizers transform and grow their businesses. We do this through technology solutions that power the world’s activities and through online destinations such as Active.com® that connect people with the things they love to do. Serving over 50,000 global business customers and driving over 80 million transactions annually, we help organizers get participants, manage their events and build communities. Active Network is headquartered in San Diego, California and has over 30 offices worldwide. Learn more at ActiveNetwork.com or Active.com and engage with us on Twitter @ActiveNetwork, @Active and on Facebook.
About Forward-Looking Statements
The Active Network, Inc. cautions you that the statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Any such statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. More detailed information about The Active Network, Inc. and the risks and uncertainties that may affect the realization of these forward-looking statements is set forth in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).These filings may be read free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and The Active Network, Inc. undertakes no obligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
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© 2012 The Active Network, Inc. All rights reserved. Active.com and ActiveWorks are registered trademarks of The Active Network, Inc. Active Network and Mob are trademarks of The Active Network, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact:
Mona Klausing, Active Network
Mona.Klausing@ActiveNetwork.com
1-858-964-3813