Race Space

Market

Target market

Race Space aims to become a predominant player in a fractured and undervalued market, established first in the UK before expanding into new markets.

Our primary customer type are Organisers, and while their needs are similar, approach and identity can be varied. Organiser types vary from part-timers, to clubs, to charities to professional race directors: both individual and company based.

Globally we estimate there to be 95,000 - 120,000 regular Organisers (at least one event per year) with 2,500 - 3,500 here in the UK, with a number of others too small to be registered, or who may begin to create events with technology like Race Space available. Globally, we estimate ticket and related event sales revenue to be in the region of £4.5B. The size and value of an Organiser can vary greatly. The following are some averages:

Smaller Organiser (mostly clubs): 1 event per year, 400 participants, £10 ticket price. Resulting in £420 value and 400 potential new users.

Small Organiser: 3 events per year, 800 participants per event, £18 ticket price. Resulting in £3,700 value and 1,800 potential new users.

Medium Organiser: 10 events per year, 900 participants per event, £23 ticket price. Resulting in £16,700 value and 4,500 potential new users.

Larger Organiser: 20 events per year, 1,000 participants, £30 ticket price. Resulting in £45,900 value and 10,000 potential new users.

Characteristics of target market

The fitness market is growing in all areas, and endurance sports are no different. This is emphasised by the 63% increase in triathlons participation and 240% more cycling sportives in the UK in 2015, compared to 2009.

The event management software (all types of event management) market is expected to continue to grow locally and internationally in line with the general trend and as the accessibility of events through platforms like Race Space becomes easier. By 2020 it is expected to be valued at USD$9.3B, an increase of over 200% on the 2015 market valuation. Race Space plans to carve a small, but strong niche in this growing market, servicing first UK and then more regions in the small-to-medium sized event market.

In our view the endurance event management market is severely under-served, highly fragmented and wide open for innovative technology to make a real impact and secure a solid market share.

Marketing strategy

We estimate that there are 95,000 - 120,000 small-to-medium sized event organisers globally, with 2,500 - 3,500 here in the UK currently. With a concentrated pool of potential customers our marketing strategy can be highly targeted and budget efficient.

Access to key data like decision maker’s details are readily available using the listings sites available currently, and we’ve already sourced a large majority of those details for the UK.

Our communication strategy via all channels will be driven by comparative values against competitor products, where for most there is a clear and strong benefit and the main challenge will be in the education of that value to the point where a system change becomes viable.

With the information on hand and a communication strategy in place, our short-to-medium reach strategy is relatively straightforward:

DIRECT SALES
Direct contact via phone has proven effective so far and will underpin our initial on-boarding strategy.

CONTENT MARKETING - EMAIL
Mass marketing mixed content marketing using benefits, comparisons and industry insights creates to opportunities. Direct conversions, and brand recognition for later direct sale conversion.

BRAND HERO'S
With the smaller community, we believe that our growth will be self perpetuating. Where organisers often speak to each other and attend others events, we believe, and will help push, our customers to be brand ambassadors.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Our direct efforts will also be supported by the usual suspects: Social Media, SEO, SEM, PR etc.

Competition strategy

A large majority of our target market cobble together a myriad of services to meet their requirements, and few are directly comparable. However we consider any company that accepts ticket payments a competitor.

LISTINGS SITES
Listing sites represent the most heavily used competition for small-to-medium events. They create value in the high number of event searches they get from Racers. Features are limited and usually of a low quality. Organisers will need to use other services for comms and racer, photo &, timing management.
Success against this type will be in communicating comparative value, especially against those more expensive than us. We expect there will be a tipping point when Race Space gets a comparative amount of searches, at which point, the limited nature of the competitors will mean they become obsolescent.

GENERIC TICKET REGISTRATION
These platforms are the same as the listings sites, with the exception that they have advanced, but generic features associated with ticketing and are generic across any ticketing industry.

As our feature set grows, this competitor type will be less able to compete as they need to focus on generic solutions to ticketing only across all ticketing markets. As our ticketing features grow on top of niche focussed requirements, these competitors will become less and less relevant.

EVENT MANAGEMENT
These larger systems often come with a high price point and minimums which put it out of the reach of many event organisers and is designed for the needs of larger events, which often comes with hard to use or understand bloatware that is simply not needed for our market.

This competitor type focuses more on the mass participation events. Success against this competitor type will be in focussing on the needs and processes of the smaller event market, leaving the big events to them.