From Ed Davey’s zorbing on the campaign trail to corporate away days, the market for outdoor experiences is booming. Across the UK, opportunities to go mountain biking, surfing or climbing are proliferating and for the general public, the barriers to entry are minimal. It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to have a go at any of those activities, you would first need to invest in (or borrow) the right gear and then find a friend to guide you into the inner sanctum of the crag, the wave, or the trails. Navigating the unique dialect or the activity and the accepted behaviours of the location were part of the experience, and for those people who made it through the initiation, those communities would become a second family. But most people never got that far: too hard, too expensive, too cliquey. The experience economy is quietly changing that. Now it’s possible to arrive at a purpose-built facility with no experience or equipment and have a great day, often guided by an experienced, enthusiastic coach, and decide for yourself how far you want to go with this new activity.
| A recent trip to The Wave in Bristol got us wondering, where did this come from and how has it come about? We live on a small island where land and infrastructure are expensive, so how are experience businesses able to get funding, market themselves, and price their activities at a level the market can sustain? We spoke to John Dunne, the founder of Parthian Climbing to find out more: |
| “I look at skiing,” says Dunne, “and I think a really great ski resort can boast about having the fastest black run or an Olympic run, but it can also boast that it has the best green or red run in the world.”We’re talking about making that initial experience in a climbing gym welcoming and achievable, while also indicating a pathway towards progression and hinting at the excitement that lies ahead. In the experience economy, first impressions count. “That’s a challenge in itself,” says Dunne. “I think we are doing a better job than most, but we could be doing better. Because a lot of that problem is visual: if I’m a V1 climber or beginner it should look amazing and be in the nicest part of the gym.” We’re talking about making that initial experience in a climbing gym welcoming and achievable, while also indicating a pathway towards progression and hinting at the excitement that lies ahead. In the experience economy, first impressions count. “That’s a challenge in itself,” says Dunne. “I think we are doing a better job than most, but we could be doing better. Because a lot of that problem is visual: if I’m a V1 climber or beginner it should look amazing and be in the nicest part of the gym.” |
| Dunne is in his 50s and has been climbing since 1978, and through the late 80s and 90s he was world class, travelling the world to climb outdoor routes. “Indoor climbing only existed as a winter activity for serious outdoor climbers,” he says. By the early 2000s indoor climbing was becoming more popular, but Manchester – Dunne’s home town – had nothing. Dunne saw the opportunity: he bought a building and set up Parthian Manchester in 2005, later expanding to Reading, Southampton, and most recently, Wandsworth. As a committed climber and advocate for the sport, both for its physical benefits but also for the mental health and social opportunities a climbing centre provides, Dunne has found that running the business has been a huge learning opportunity: “We realised that running a professional business, you can’t just rely on climbers,” he says, “so that’s why we created the kids’ birthday parties and the school activities and really developed that side of the business. Today, your outdoor climbers are probably 10% of the business.” |
| A teething pain for many businesses in the experience economy is that with owners deeply embedded in their enthusiast communities, the tendency is to focus too much on that 10%. “New climbers are absolutely critical,” says Dunne, “but in most walls that 10% is still in the forefront of the business owners’ minds. If most gyms said ‘we’re not going to put any problems beyond V7 in our climbing wall, but we’re going to really bottom-load,’ they could do twice as well.” The big issue for any business operating in the experience economy is channelling potential users into a marketing funnel. Most of these businesses are constrained by their size and location, so awareness, cost of customer acquisition and customer retention are all big topics. For Parthian that means a blended approach to PR and marketing. “We’ve done two big events with Arcteryx” says Dunne, “which is amazing as we’ve had nearly 1,000 people through the door. The problem is that people are travelling for the brand – in London they may have passed four or five other gyms to get to us, so while these types of events are incredible for visibility, we can’t take our eye off the ball of local retention.” Dunne goes on to say that he’s working with multiple brands on innovative activations that also help Parthian to champion local engagement. |
| While high profile events keep the venue on the radar of engaged climbers, getting in front of a local audience has to be the bread and butter of a marketing plan, making Parthian an easy place for people to hang out, work, meet new people and of course, enjoy climbing. “I want Aspire to do some work with us over the next few months, but I want them to do it within a square mile of Wandsworth. There are so many new apartments being flung up there and people get in them and they’re gonna feel lonely. They’re not gonna know anybody because they’re on the eighth floor. How do we get them on our wall, socialising and making new friends?” The other element of building community is using that community to be the business’ biggest advocates. “At the moment the cheapest marketing we can do is giving you a free climb, a coffee and access to some workspace. And then what we want you to do is to bring your best friend in, and if you do that, we’ll give them half price climbing for a month. But we’ll also give you half price climbing next month! As a business we don’t actually lose anything. But how do we harness the positive, mainstream feel of climbing, and maintain retention and get growth?” |
| As a PR business this broadening of the outdoors market to incorporate experiences is incredibly interesting and creates opportunities few would have imagined 20 years ago. We have spoken in the past in this newsletter about the difference between promoting an activity versus promoting a product and the rise of outdoor experiences brings this into close focus: all the tactics that work to promote brands that create activity-specific equipment work with activity experiences, but with a subtle shift in hierarchy. As Dunne says, at this moment in time, targeted, hyper-local campaigns may be more beneficial to Parthian than national press coverage. By contrast, when we work with an organisation like the Ramblers, mainstream press is often very much a target – getting their message in front of as many people as possible is the desired outcome. What’s vital is being able to tailor PR plans to a client’s needs while bringing a deep understanding of the outdoors consumer, alongside knowledge of national, regional and hyper-local markets. That’s what we do – whether you’re an experience-led business looking to scale or reach new audiences, or if you’re a product-based brand looking to create exciting experiences that showcase your product in an immersive environment, contact us at hello@aspirepr.co.uk to see how we can help. Sign up to our newsletter here to keep up to date with our latest news and work. |
