17// Everyone, UTMB “Cares”
A Trailmix of news, quotes and ramblings about trail media
Hey pals,
For every new subscriber, hey, every week I alternate between comments on the news in trail running media and a long-form essay. This week, the news. We have AI in media, UTMB “Cares”, and Strava’s FATMAP.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Either respond with a comment, reply to this email or email me at Matt@wearetrailmix.com
Hope you enjoy,
Matt
Media loves a shiny new toy, even if it come with spikes.
Take video in the late noughties, it became the thing that was going to be saving grace for failing digital media companies, even though it meant reallocating resources away from already cash-strapped news departments. Along the way programmatic advertising was embraced with open arms despite it’s ruinous effect on website experience and no one actually knew how it worked (and still don’t).
Today’s new toy is AI. The rise of generative AI has come with excitement and fear forcing journalists to reckon with ways automation could improve their jobs — or destroy them. You can’t escape the thinkboi tweets or LinkedIn posts of people having mini-meltdowns after they’ve spent 5 minutes on ChatGPT and discovered the disruptive potential. Given the recent swathes of layoffs in media, you can forgive the hyperbolic hot takes around AI’s impact on media efficiencies.
At the moment AI is being trialled in writing intent based articles that are built to capture large swathes of search traffic, but are menial jobs for journalists who would rather spend their time on more in-substantive pieces. CNET started and then ‘paused’ an experiment around AI generated financial articles covering PR pieces and financial reports. In sport, the Associated Press started automating data-driven sport previews and results pieces in 2019, before it was even cool.
The basis of AI’s involvement in sports media is founded upon having strong, structured datasets and lots of historical reportage. On this basis, It's unlikely we’ll be seeing automated trail running pieces – our publishers and race organisations lack the sophistication and budget to do such a thing. It’s more likely AI will be used as a research assistant or creative prompter in written and audio pieces and a highlight clipper in livestreams. However it’s worth thinking about the consequences of a sports media environment flooded with AI content.
if AI becomes more prevalent in written reportage, In my view, it only strengthens the differentiation of content written by people - content with character. The uncanny valley of AI content will likely become something we know all too well, leading us to lean further into personalities and emotive storytelling.
UTMB cares, or so they say they do. UTMB launched an environmental and social endowment fund, UTMB Cares, that is meant to
unite trail running communities and create positive change by supporting local social and environmental causes in race destinations.
This comes at the same time as news about High Lonesome’s moral stance against UTMB caused a flurry of animosity against UTMB’s lack of thought towards environmental and social causes. Michael Polleti made the point that the organisation now has to consider global attitudes and perceptions when setting out their social policies, which inevitably delays their decision making. UTMB Cares is their response to claims of social and environmental inaction, and in fairness, on paper they’re seeking to invest vast swathes of capital into non-profit organisations that should help various aspects of their environmental output.
Yet, the whole launch is held back by the same thing that time and time again comes up as one of the main criticisms of UTMB – transparency. Why is this only racer funded, not UTMB funded? Why is it a minimum £1K? what goes into the selection process for non-profits? What proportion of donations goes towards the non-profits? What’s the bloomin’ goal? Some pretty fundamental questions to instilling trust in people who want to back you. UTMB’s exponential growth has shown us they’re money driven, not moral driven. Before they take any action, they must quell some of these perceptions, or it will appear to be business as usual for UTMB: profit before people.
Let’s look at the World Surf League, for example. The WSL set up a non-profit in 2016 that evolved to become the ‘We are on Ocean’ initiative. The goal is to get 30% of the world’s oceans protected or preserved by 2030, something it has petitioned to the UN about. Last year they made it an asset through having 11 activations across each of their world championship tour stops, achieving
The conservation of two surf ecosystems in Costa Rica and Indonesia through partnerships with the Surf Conservation Partnership.
Collected 100 tons of plastic from Indonesia’s rivers.
Removed 7,000 pounds of invasive weeds from Hawaii’s North Shore.
Doled out $25,000 in grants to conservation groups in Hawaii, Indonesia, Mexico, Portugal and South Africa.
They then incorporated it into their comms, by bringing surfers to take part in the activations who shared it across social and live broadcasts. Additionally they brought in sponsors looking to bolster their ESG credentials who, in turn, broadened the impact that the non-profit could have. To top things off, ‘We are the Ocean’ is audited to maintain their credibility and objectivity.
A social initiative shouldn’t be as hard as UTMB make it. In the words of Avril Lavigne ‘why’d you have to make things so complicated?’
Strava’s had a rollercoaster of a month. First they announce layoffs, then they raise the prices of subscriptions in a variable manner without telling anyone (which DC Rainmaker thinks could go against EU pricing laws), then, this week, they bought FATMAP.
FATMAP is a 3D mapping software that is popular amongst the FKT community as well as mountaineers, skiers and snowboarders. It’s a great tool for planning and visualising mountainous routes, both on trails and off-piste. The acquisition is the surest sign that Strava is moving deeper into the outdoor space through developing their mapping and route planning capabilities alongside the trail running features they brought out last year.
Strava’s business model centres around embedding the app in the sports person’s life by becoming the centre for all their activity data. Hence the path to growth is increasing the amount of sports they cover and the service they provide to each sport. Through this acquisition they not only get thousands of new email addresses to people who may have not used the app, they now have more reasons for current users to return and spend time with the app.
Yet this growth comes with a catch - the more unique sports you have, the more communities you need to service. With that comes greater expenditure on tools, community building and comms. All of which Strava has always struggled with, preventing them from converting free users to paid subscribers.
FATMAP is strategically placed to sit at the centre of the mountain sports venn diagram, so, in theory, this ticks a lot of sports’s peoples boxes. Now we have to see whether access to FATMAP will be free or behind a paid subscription.