It's not a pleasant experience to climb out of the cold mud pool, but more than 2.5 million people scramble to jump into it every year. They are participating in a cross-country obstacle challenge called Tough Mudder, and the mud pool is just one of the many obstacles developed in this competition.
Will Dean is the founder of Tough Mudder. In an interview with The Curiosity Daily, Will Dean carefully corrected a small detail: “Tough Mudder is not a race, nor is it a competition. We call it an event. There is no reward for this event. There is no medal, and we hope that participants can experience Tough Mudder in different ways.â€
Diluting the competitive attributes of sports is probably a common denominator of these emerging sports in the world in recent years. For example, in The Color Run, the focus of this running event where participants spray a large amount of colored powder is not to run, but to revel in the colored powder or take a selfie.
Of course, Tough Mudder did not go to that extreme. After all, this game became the most difficult obstacle cross-country project on some websites, and it had certain requirements for participants' physical and psychological aspects. Will Dean is looking for a balance, not to be transformed into an image of a marathon. It is simply a contest for the contestants to challenge their own movements, and it is not like the entertainment of The Color Run to overwhelm the sport itself.
The most important role in maintaining the balance between sports and entertainment is also the obstacles that appear in Tough Mudder's games. For example, this is called the obstacle of Taishan, you need to jump from a high platform, grab a rocker in front, and then swing the rocker to reach a bell in front of you. If you do not succeed in grabbing the joystick, I am sorry that you can only fall into the mud pool below.
Will Dean's favorite obstacle is called the Loch Ness Monster. Participants need to jump into the pool first, and there are several smooth drums with a circumference of 18 meters in the pool. Participants need to climb over with the help of their peers. “First of all, it's fun. Second, it needs teamwork and a certain amount of physical fitness. Finally, it has a little stimuli and it's very exciting to roll off the barrel,†Will Dean said. In short, no matter what the obstacles, it will make Tough Mudder not as boring as the marathon, but it also adds more sports elements.
In fact, at the beginning of each obstacle design, these factors will be taken into account. “We want to ensure that the design of barriers is consistent with Tough Mudder’s brand value and the company’s mission. They have to meet four criteria: show teamwork and friendship; interesting and exciting; physically challenging; psychologically It makes people feel this is a bit scary."
These standards come from Will Dean's thoughts when he founded Tough Mudder: "When I founded Tough Mudder, I didn't want to create only a company that cares about income and profits. I hope to make this world better and let people learn to cooperate. Make people happier."
Tough Mudder was the idea of ​​Will Dean attending Harvard Business School. Before that, he was a counterterrorism officer at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Life in the bureaucracy is not always fun, and Will Dean finds that he is interested in starting, running, and managing a project. This makes him realize that the business world may be the best place for him. So he goes. Harvard Business School.
In the years of studying at Harvard Business School, he had a fitness and exercise habit. He thought that sports was a way to realize his ideal of wanting to change the world. The idea of ​​running obstacles began slowly.
One day in 2008, he and his three friends drank at the Boston Bar to discuss the name of the race. Just like a sudden light of a light bulb, Will Dean told his three friends: “How is the name of Tough Mudder?†After being recognized by friends, Will Dean rides a bicycle through the winter storm. The street returned home, registered the domain name Tough Mudder, and then returned to the bar again, sipping the wine from his cup.
During the time Tough Mudder was just established, Will Dean and his team were very small. Except for him and another founder, Guy Livingstone, there were only 4 interns who did not receive any compensation. That is, the 6 individuals started the first Tough Mudder competition in 2010.
Recalling those days, the adjective used by Will Dean was hard and lonely. He also experienced various cynicism while finding venues for the game. “As a graduate of Harvard Business School, this is what you can think of?†Will Dean recalled what they said at the time.
However, Will Dean later found a ski resort in Pennsylvania as a venue for Tough Mudder. Then they set up an enrollment website and started recruiting contestants through Facebook. Facebook's marketing was successful, and success to Will Dean was terrified. “When we saw 5,000 people sign up, we were all white,†he said. “We had expected only 500 people.â€
This is not a good thing, which means that the track itself needs to be adjusted, logistical support needs to be adjusted, and the medical system needs to be adjusted. All this made the six individuals feel more pressure. The only consolation may be that the cost of 5,000 registrations became the most important source of funds for their early start-ups.
It was not a smooth sailing on the day of the official game. The water prepared for the entrants was finished early and there was a long queue in the parking lot. Fortunately, the game itself was successfully completed and the contestants were still satisfied. In the final settlement, the first Tough Mudder game successfully broke even.
With the first experience, the rest is not too difficult. Tough Mudder soon began to expand. Today, it has grown into a 200-employee company with a valuation of US$100 million. Each year, 120 Tough Mudder competitions are held around the world, attracting more than 2.5 million people.
In the process of development, controversy also followed. In 2013, a 28-year-old contestant unfortunately drowned while crossing a barrier. Will Dean later admitted in an interview that there was indeed an accident: "But compared to the Triathlon, our game is 20 times safer."
In an interview with Curiosity Daily, Will Dean also mentioned safety measures repeatedly. When obstacles were designed, they had already conducted research on security. At the time of the official competition, security personnel are watching over every obstacle.
Another controversy comes from plagiarism. Billy Wilson, who founded Tough Guy in 1987, believes that Will Dean copied his ideas and sued Tough Mudder in court. Eventually Billly Wilson and Will Dean settled out of court in 2011.
"I didn't invent the obstacle race and didn't invent the mud," said Will Dean. "We just wanted to create the biggest and best obstacles and the spirit of teamwork."
These two points are also seen by Will Dean as the biggest difference between Tough Mudder and other similar obstacle games. At Tough Mudder, there is a dedicated obstacle creativity laboratory responsible for developing new obstacles. Each year, 500 different ideas are born, but after many levels, based on security, feasibility, and whether they embody those standards that Tough Mudder advocates, only three or five obstacles are eventually brought to reality.
Entering China this time, Tough Mudder has found IMG to work together. This is one of the largest event operators in the world. The ability of The Color Run to enter China is also a contribution of IMG.
"Because of language and cultural differences, cooperation with IMG is the best choice." Will Dean said. Previously, Tough Mudder had entered Britain, Australia, Germany and other countries. These countries are basically the same in culture as the United States, so it is easier. In countries like Mexico, Tough Mudder has chosen to operate for local organizers.
IMG's help for Tough Mudder is comprehensive. From event hosting, to marketing, to government relations, IMG is involved so that Will Dean uses the term support to describe Tough Mudder in cooperation with IMG. s position.
In the process of cooperation, IMG did a lot of localization. At Tough Mudder itself, the party after the game took a more Chinese style celebration. In marketing, IMG also translated a large amount of content into Chinese on WeChat. In addition, they also cooperated with the gym one-megawatt and fitness application Keep to promote Tough Mudder. Even they sent teams to look for people who exercise in various parks and organized some training camps for them.
But from Will Dean's point of view, the biggest advantage of Tough Mudder is Tough Mudder itself. "If you run in Central Park in New York and wear a Tough Mudder T-shirt, people will see you coming and you will be high-fiving." In Will Dean's description of Tough Mudder's expansion, word by mouth is what he uses. One of the most words.
Will Dean played a video. The protagonist was a Tough Mudder player named Randy Pierce. The only difference was that he was blind. In the video, Randy is passing through the previously mentioned obstacle called “Taoshanâ€. He first raised a walking stick to test the position of the rocker in the air. Afterwards, he handed the crutch to the other two contestants who had been with him and jumped in alignment. He grabbed the rocker and stuck in the air for a second before falling into the mud pit below.
Tough Mudder gathered players like Randy and made a documentary. This documentary will be broadcast on CBS on December 25. In Will Dean's view, this documentary is Tough Mudder's best advertisement, which not only raises awareness but also conveys the idea that Tough Mudder can make the world a better place.
Randy's players have also been used by Tough Mudder to overcome the psychological barriers of Chinese players. Although Tough Mudder is a bit difficult, you don't need to be a professional athlete to participate. "There are some obstacles. If you think it is too difficult, you can still go around."
However, Will Dean does not seem to worry about their prospects in the Chinese market, although here sports have not yet become a way of life, and sports have not matured enough to be called an industry. "China has a large population. Perhaps the percentage of people who participate in Tough Mudder is not high, but because of the large number of bases, the number of applicants will not be small."
Source: Curiosity Daily
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