Born Survivor

Born Survivor is one of the UK's toughest obstacle races, designed by Royal Marine Commandos. It had the foundations of a great event: a loyal following and a genuinely brilliant product. But the marketing around it hadn't kept pace. The website was dated, the social presence was quiet, the messaging was inconsistent, and there was no real system for turning interest into entries.

The event was reaching its existing audience and not much further, and its real edge over the Tough Mudders and Spartans of the world wasn't coming through. The job was clear: reach new people, tell the story properly, and turn that attention into entries.

We rebuilt the whole growth system. We started with positioning, leaning into what makes Born Survivor different: a genuine test of physical and mental strength, with Royal Marine credibility behind it, given a modern, distinctive look across website, email, social and print.

Then we built a video-first content engine around clear message pillars, replacing inconsistent posting with a steady stream of content made to be seen and shared. The reach followed: Facebook views up 590% and Instagram up 220%, with followings and engagement climbing on both. Always-on paid campaigns pushed the event well beyond the existing OCR crowd, returning an estimated 6.5x on ad spend, and a conversion system of email, SMS and well-timed urgency around price rises and deadlines turned that attention into entries.

Born Survivor Cheshire grew by over 97% in a single year, from 1,000 participants to 2,000, and more than doubled its take-home revenue. Lancashire grew 35% alongside it.