Pre-Pandemic Baseline Comparison
May 5, 2022 – Moorestown, NJ – RunSignup, the leading registration provider for U.S. endurance events, provides an YTD industry update. The company, itself, has experienced strong growth in registrations and new events being added to its platform. However, year-to-date data on a per race basis has revealed there is a decrease in the per event registrations and a decrease in repeat events. The company feels this trend demonstrates a decrease in industry enthusiasm fueled by three years of pandemic challenges.
“Since we as a company have experienced growth and increased market share due to a number of reasons, at first glance our data would indicate that things are going fine in the industry. However, we had many event organizers report that their numbers were down. So, we took a deeper dive into things and focused in on comparing exact apples to apples and were able to validate their findings,” said Bob Bickel, Founder and CEO of RunSignup.
As reported previously, the industry is showing a 22% reduction in planned events for 2022. At the close of April, 2022 RunSignup compared 2022 YTD data with the baseline pre-pandemic numbers of YTD 2019. When comparing events that took place in both 2019 and 2022, the data shows an approximate 15% decrease in average registrations per event. In addition, RunSignup tracks the number of events that do not host the same event the following year – what it terms as the “no race churn”. This data is showing an approximate 20% reduction in repeat events.
RunSignup attributes this reduction in both the races being produced and registrations to a lack of energy, reduced resources, and reduced engagement with the community and participants due to the prolonged challenges associated with three years of the pandemic. Many events are encountering unfamiliar processes, people supporting the organization may have changed, and they may be experiencing reduced available resources. For some, this is too big of a hurdle to conquer. In addition, there may be a disconnect of enthusiasm with participants as many events have not interacted with the community and participants since 2019.
“The good news is event organizers who actively engage with their community can take advantage of the pullback by others and fill the gaps. Now is the time to put forth greater efforts to re-engage with fellow race organizers, participants, spectators, and volunteers. And we have a lot of excellent tools and resources that can help our events. The message to event directors is to bring optimism and energy to make your event successful as we emerge from the pandemic,” continued Bob Bickel.
RunSignup is hosting a 2022 Marketing Best Practices webinar on May 12 to help event organizers apply the most effective marketing approaches and tools to build enthusiasm and attendance for their events. RunSignup offers many free marketing tools such as email and custom websites for events using its registration platform.
About RunSignup
RunSignup is the leading event solution delivering the art of technology to endurance events and nonprofits. More than 25,000 events use our free and open platform to register 7 million annual participants, raise more than $1.6 billion and grow their events. Our expertly crafted, open and all-in-one solution powers event revenue generation and supporter engagement through flexible registration, free event websites, free email marketing, integrated fundraising, and a suite of RaceDay tools. No subscriptions, no plans, no monthly fees.
To find out why customers like the Philadelphia Marathon, American Cancer Society, Vacation Races, and RaceDay Events use RunSignup, visit www.runsignup.com.
