Tips for accessing a global audience of 600m+ runners 🌎

The global endurance market of 600m+ runners represents a huge opportunity for races

2022 has seen the mass-participation market return after a disrupted 2020 & 2021, with thousands of races taking place across the globe. At the same time the global travel industry has seen a significant return, with a 130% increase on international travel in January 22 vs January 2021. Despite the widespread return of races and reduction in travel restrictions, 2022 has seen mixed fortunes for races across the globe, with thousands of races still yet to see numbers on a par with those seen in 2019. Inflation across global markets, the rising cost of living and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have all served to disrupt what many saw as potentially a boom year for the mass-participation market after the “lockdown” running boom observed during the pandemic. In this article we'll look at how races can look outside of their local audience to tap into the huge global population of runners to help grow and diversify their entries.

A huge untapped audience

Unless your race happens to be a World Marathon Major or one of a few which has managed to capture the attention and imagination of the global endurance community, it’s unlikely you’ll be getting more than 1-5% of your participants from overseas. This presents a huge opportunity for races to grow. With the global population expected to hit eight billion this year and with an estimated 600m+ runners globally, an almost infinite market of potential entries awaits.

Race directors and marketing managers often focus on the local, regional and national audience when promoting their event and putting together a marketing plan. Whilst it makes sense to focus on those closest to your race, diversifying your message and building a strategy to reach an international audience can be a great way of expanding the pool of potential runners, and with a huge market available, you’ll never run out of potential participants. Benefits of growing your overseas participation include;

- Diversify your entries; By reaching international runners, races are able to access a much larger potential audience. Whilst everyone in the local area, state/region or country might be aware of your race - there’s still millions of runners globally that aren’t.

- Add to the atmosphere / occasion; There’s nothing quite like sharing the experience of a mass-participation event with a mix of runners from all over the world. Seeing participants from different countries and backgrounds share the unique experience of your race is something to be celebrated and can help to keep runners returning year after year.

- Engage local authorities and sponsors; Mass-participation events can be a huge boost to the local economy and in some cases the national economy (Airbnb hosts in London earned over £2.7m during the 2021 London Marathon weekend). Similarly sponsors are increasingly looking for a return on their investment and reaching a wider audience can contribute to this.

- Marketing and content; Growing your international participation can be a source of high-value marketing material. Celebrating the variety of countries represented as well as the number of entries can be a great source of content for your website, social and email campaigns e.g. This year over 5,000 runners from 40+ countries took part in our event…

Getting your race on the global stage

Some races will naturally appeal more than others to an international audience. Whether through status/accreditation (as a major, or through renowned and trusted authorities like AIMS or World Athletics), reputation/notoriety (the Marathon Des Sables has achieved global popularity due to its extreme nature) or as a result of taking place in a popular city or destination for tourism. Outside of the obvious success stories and for those that are looking to grow their international reach, there are a number of measures you can take to increase your international footprint, we’ve highlighted some below;

- Tailor your marketing campaigns for an international audience; Identify key target countries and factor this into your marketing strategy. Google ads or paid social campaigns (on Instagram, Facebook or Tiktok) can be tailored to focus on certain geographies. If your race is in a city which receives a lot of tourism from certain countries - these could be a great place to start.

- Use multiple languages/translation options on your website; Whilst many browsers offer automatic translation of webpages, these aren’t always reliable or consistent. Offering translation of your website and registration pages in multiple languages serves to make those visiting your website more comfortable and this can improve conversion. Whilst you don’t need to cover all languages, having alternatives can go a long way to making participants feel comfortable enough to sign-up. The Lisbon Marathon for example offers translation in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Polish.

- Leverage Ahotu and international calendars as a source of international visibility; Of course we are biased here, but Ahotu & World’s Marathons are a great source of international runners. With over 800,000 runners visiting the sites each month, by simply having your race visible in the calendar, there is a greater chance of growing your international entries. Basic race visibility is free on Ahotu and it’s a great place to start. You can create an Ahotu account here to be featured amongst 70,000+ races from across the globe.

- Ensure your FAQ’s/website content caters for international participants; Offering travel advice for overseas participants (nearest airport, public transport advice for example) is a great way to make your race more accessible to international participants. Hotel recommendations, advice on points of interest and local activities on offer are also great things to cover and could be the reason a participant chooses your event over another for their next overseas race.

- Offer checkout in multiple currencies; If your race is only available to enter in your domestic currency, it’s likely you are missing out on entries. Cross-border e-commerce is expected to be worth $2.9 trillion USD in 2022 and if participants are limited to transacting in one currency, you might be loosing participants. World’s Marathons offers checkout in 17 major currencies including USD, Euro, GBP, SEK, CAD and more, all of which are instantly converted to your native currency at the point of entry.

- Invite influencers from different countries; Influencer marketing can be a great way of reaching an audience in a given country. Whilst there are influencers with a multinational audience, many have a bigger influence in a given country. You can learn more about geo-targeted influencer marketing here.

- Showcase reviews/testimonials from overseas runners; 73% of race participants say that reviews influence which races they enter (source Racecheck). Let your international participants do the talking by showcasing their review or testimonial of your race on your website.

- Get your race accredited; Whether its through the likes of AIMS, World Athletics or a national body or authority, acquiring accreditation is a stamp of approval which offers international recognition and in some cases increased visibility directly on the accreditors site like the AIMS World Running Calendar.

- Tell the world your event is open to international runners; If you are already getting runners from overseas, highlight the fact and share it with your audience! Knowing there is already strong international participation in a race can breed confidence in runners that may be on the fence or hesitant to sign-up.

In an increasingly saturated mass-participation market, getting noticed both domestically and overseas is a challenge. Runners will always seek out new events to take part in both locally and further afield, we hope the above provides an insight into what race organisers can do to reach more participants globally and if there is anything we’ve missed, please let us know!

World’s Sports Group exists to grow participation in events globally and we support races of all sizes. If you have any questions about getting more international reach for your race, you can contact us on partners@worldssportsgroup.com.