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Dirty business: Tough Mudder finds success with corporate crowd

Endurance obstacle series Tough Mudder wants the corporate crowd to get dirty.

The Brooklyn-based company now sells corporate entertainment packages to companies that are looking to boost employee camaraderie, emphasize health and wellness, or just entertain employees and clients. The corporate clients participate in the muddy obstacle races together and receive instruction, hospitality space and other perks.

Tough Mudder rolled out its corporate sales business in 2013, and now the business generates seven figures of revenue each year.

“It’s an event built around team building and working together,” said Nick Horbaczewski, senior vice president of analytics and acquisition at Tough Mudder. “We can put together something that is very compelling for these companies.”

The business puts Tough Mudder, which in 2014 has 37 North American events and 60 worldwide, in competition with other endurance groups offering premium products for corporate clients. Ironman’s Executive Challenge program offers VIP passes, on-site perks and guaranteed entry at its events. The Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon series also features corporate races at its events.

The corporate model comes from the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge series of 5K running races, which was started in 1977 by the New York Road Runners. Barbara Paddock, senior vice president at JPMorgan Chase, said the original event featured 200 people from 50 companies running in Central Park. Today, the New York event gets 15,000 participants.

“You want to target the business community,” Paddock said in a 2013 interview. “It allows you to play in their space.”

Unlike marathons or triathlons, Tough Mudder events do not feature a competitive format or a finishing time. Instead, participants must help each other overcome various obstacles, such as mud pits and river crossings.

“You have to work together,” Horbaczewski said.

Horbaczewski said the corporate events business sprouted organically from Tough Mudder’s participants. Founded in 2010, the series regularly attracted large groups of co-workers during its early years, Horbaczewski said. The groups of employees were self-organized. Eventually, Tough Mudder saw potential for targeting the groups.

Tough Mudder’s corporate sales team now sells three different packages, which are priced at $114.75, $145 and $235 per person, respectively. The premium package includes lunch, beer, VIP parking, a company call-out by the start-line announcer and a hospitality/VIP tent.

The average size of a corporate group in 2014 has been 68 people, with the largest group — T-Mobile — having 350 people.

Social media company LinkedIn this year has attended Tough Mudder events in Northern California, New York, Chicago, London, Dublin and Sydney. Approximately 240 employees participated in the events, which were tied to the company’s wellness program.

Michael Susi, global wellness manager for LinkedIn, said the company has previously participated in other corporate wellness events, including the Corporate Challenge 5K. Tough Mudder, he said, allowed employees across multiple campuses to have a “shared event.”

Susi said the Tough Mudder format was more conducive to team building than traditional running races.

“We all want to run together and have a meeting point, and we got that at the [Tough Mudder] events,” Susi said. “It was a success all the way around.”

Fred Dreier is a writer in Colorado.

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