Multisport research recently published the 2018 Endurance Sport Social Analytics report.

The report is all about creating benchmarks so that brands can know how well they're doing against competitors or overall in the multisport landscape.

MultiSport Research (MSR) was founded by Gary Roethenbaugh, MSR’s Managing Director, in 2010. Gary is a law graduate with over 20 years’ experience in commercial consulting & investigations, research and analysis. Before founding MSR, he was the Market Development Director at Zenith International Lt and has amassed extensive experience of the endurance sport industry. 

No small accomplishment, Gary is also a two-time IRONMAN finisher.

Kate Morefield is currently the North America Director of MSR. She has previously worked as the Research and Development Engineer for Mizuno and she spent almost 14 years working with Coca-Cola as the Process Improvement Team Leader, Business Innovation Leader, Category Development Manager, and eventually as a contractor for business projects. 

Kate is also a passionate IRONMAN triathlete (9 IMs so far, more to come!) with 20+ years of business experience providing business strategy, marketing, and research expertise to drive company growth. 

Together, along with a team of freelance analysts in a variety of countries - with extensive experience and language capabilities, they make up MultiSport Research.

WHAT DOES MULTISPORT RESEARCH DO?

MultiSport Research (MSR) is a specialist research and consulting firm to the triathlon and endurance sport industries.

After starting a blog that became the dedicated information site for the international endurance sport industry, Gary founded MSR after receiving so many research inquiries for multisport research. MultiSport Research has a single mission: "to be the most successful, creative, and ground-breaking consulting agency for the international endurance sport industry." 

To help the multisport industry continue its path to growth, MSR offers a wide range of services – from consumer and market research to economic impact studies around events, product and consumer segmentation, pricing analyses, new product development, branding and strategy.

In early April, MSR released the Endurance Sport Social Analytics report, which details how endurance sport brands are using social media.  The report goes as far as to provide analytics that have helped to establish benchmarks for the industry. 

Understanding The Endurance Sport Social Analytics Report

MSR wanted to offer something that would help the industry and help organizations and brands become more sophisticated and follow successful business trends with innovative insights. Thus, the ESSA was born. 

By looking at over 720 endurance companies (and the list is growing every month), MSR looked at key performance indicators across a variety of platforms and dug into the top posts from each.

The report is all about creating benchmarks so that brands can know how well they're doing against competitors or overall in the landscape.  One quote that Gary mentioned was from Warren Buffet that reads, "Only when the tide goes out, do you know who's been swimming naked."

Basically, you're in a vulnerable position as a brand if you dont understand whats going on in your industry. Brands can even look at non-competitors just to assess what they're doing on social media and try to emulate things that they really like from brands outside of their competition. 

Gary and Kate couldn't share all of their insights from the report, but some emerging trends showed gear manufacturers from bikes to wetsuits getting the largest results in terms of size and audience, coaches were seeing higher engagement rates, and media brands had higher post volume.

If you're interested in finding the full reports, click here. 

The Analogy That Explains It All

According to Kate, the importance of this report can really be conveyed with a simple analogy. Brands need to treat their business as they would for their A race.

The Race = Your Business Goals

Your Training = Your Business Plan

Knowing The Course = Knowing Your Competition

If you dont know who is out there and what they're doing, how can you compare and prepare yourself to end up on that platform when the race is over?