Continuing the endurance.biz series of ‘inside the news’ video interviews, we spoke with Hans-Peter Zurbruegg, Senior VP, Personal Corporate Fitness, at Infront.
The discussion explored the diverse areas that Infront is involved with. The company is part of Chinese-owned multinational Wanda Sports.
Hans-Peter (HP) noted that IRONMAN remains a key strategic partner of Infront, after the sale of IRONMAN by Wanda to Advance earlier this year.
He added that Infront is a 360° service provider – offering sponsorship, media rights, digital solutions, event operations and media production. It is based in Switzerland – with Europe a key market, as well as Asia an area of focus.
Infront’s Personal Corporate Fitness division is sizeable, and has a B2C and B2B component. Here, there are partnerships with the Berlin Marathon and Abbott World Marathon Majors – while Infront also owns events, such as the Roma Marathon.
A big part of its business is corporate fitness, where it holds business/corporate run events – such as the B2Run series, with, so far, over 200,000 individuals participating.
Other activities include obstacle events, as well as Megarmarsh, ‘mega hike’ events. A relatively new addition is Hyrox, which aims to ‘create a sport in fitness’. It is a combination of endurance training and physical exercises.
For its own forays with virtual racing in recent months, Infront has had positive experiences, with events such as the Digital Swiss 5, the virtual version of the Tour de Suisse, generating notable traction and interest.
Commenting on the long-term outlook for mass participation events, HP noted that the underlying trends are totally intact. He pointed out that the need for a work-life balance, and a consumer focus on fitness, is more pronounced than ever before. Going forward, he argued that finishing an event offers an experience that “money can’t buy”.
“Events offer emotions that can’t be found anywhere else.”
