Tough Mudder Senior VP/Content & Creative Jesse Bull (@ToughMudder) has been with the company nearly six years, but came aboard when the obstacle racing series had only five employees. Bull, whose previous jobs included work on documentary films and investment banking with Barclays, said said he “realized that my soul was getting sucked from me.” He switching careers to an upstart like Tough Mudder, “Figured I had nothing to lose joining this crazy small team.” The company has since seen incredible growth, and one of the areas he is most proud of is its expanding digital presence. Bull: “It’s been awesome. One of the biggest things for me is how we’ve evolved in the types of content and the way we’ve been able to tailor that content, chop it up and re-purpose it by channel.”
How Tough Mudder applies its slogan on social media:
SOCIAL SNAPSHOT Must-follow: WWE. I was a fan as a kid, but I have gotten re-enthused the last couple of years. They do an amazing job at building drama and storytelling -- and the volume of content they put out is immense. Favorite App: I use Evernote a lot for personal organization. Average time per day on social media: Personally, I spend 30 minutes; professionally an hour.
The brand statement "Escape The Ordinary" is grounded in what we do with the actual events -- getting people outside of their comfort zone so that they’ll try things they’ve never done before. Our content on social media reflects that. Strategically, what we’re trying to speak to is the broader lifestyle that the brand stands for. A lot of our focus on the content side is building up the community that was a couple of thousand people and is now a few million people.
Social platforms seeing the most success:
We’re pretty active across all the big social platforms, but Facebook has our largest audience, the most engagement and the most reach. We’ve really continued to evolve with the platform and doubled down on live stream content in the last year. There are also niche sub-communities within the Tough Mudder community on Facebook. Toughest Mudder is one that is extremely active.
Choosing imagery for its content:
It can be overwhelming at times. There’s so much content, we’re building an in-house video production team. We've barely scratched the surface of what we’re able to use. It comes down to storytelling.
Brands within Tough Mudder's space that also do things well on social:
I don’t think there’s anyone in the competitive racing space that we’re that focused on. Our focus is on how we extend into the lifestyle space. We're looking at what fitness brands like Equinox and Daily Burn are doing, as well as lifestyle brands like GoPro and Red Bull.
Are those types of fitness/lifestyle brands seen as complimentary or competition?
A little bit of both. As we extend our business into new areas, they can become competitors. But right now, they are more inspirational and potential partners.
Use of VR and 360-degree video:
It’s definitely something we’re super excited about testing more this year. We dipped our toe in it in 2016. At the end of last year, CBS Sports worked with us to produce a really cool 360-VR video that is complimentary to the TV program they are producing. We actually got to activate that at Venice Beach a few weeks ago. Having an experiential product can be kind of intimidating at first, but the visceral excitement you can get from VR is even more powerful than live streaming.
If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to us at jperez@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
