Biscuitville bakes up a genius obstacle race promotion

A competitor is showered in flour. Photo: Biscuitville

Looking for an on-trend promotional event that can boost your restaurant’s visibility while paying for itself and perhaps even turning a sizable profit?  Check out what 58-store regional breakfast chain Biscuitville will be doing with its Biscuitville Bowl event on April 13. The gimmick: leverage the red-hot obstacle run craze by having competitors navigate breakfast-themed obstacles as they work their way through the course.

Not familiar with obstacle racing? It’s an endurance sport enjoying the kind of exponential growth triathlon and marathon promoters can only dream about. In 2010, 20,000 participants ran, walked, stumbled and crawled through 20 obstacle course races held in the U.S. Just three years later, two million racers are expected to take part in 400-plus obstacle course events. The leading organizers to date have been Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder and Spartan Race. Coming on strong is the women-only Dirty Girl series. It plans to put on 62 races this year.

Individual races vary in length and present different challenges. Participants may have to wallow through mud holes, crawl under barbed wire and hotfoot it through burning flames before claiming their finisher’s prize. One race series includes zombies who chase runners through the course in a make-believe dystopian world.
No matter. The crazier the obstacles, the more people seem to want to take them on. Finishing the challenging course is what it’s all about.

So far the biggest challenges for obstacle course race promoters have been finding a venue with sufficient parking for the masses these race attract; getting a permit from local authorities to put on an inherently dangerous event at the chosen site; and buying liability insurance.

The Biscuitville Bowl biscuitvillebowl.com event isn’t as hard-core as most obstacle runs but still fits into the category. Its target market are students from Greensboro, NC-based Biscuitville’s hometown. Here’s how the chain describes its race:

“On Saturday, April 13, 2013, students from all seven Greensboro higher education institutions will take over Downtown Greensboro to participate in our 7 Campus Scramble. Competing for a Golden Rolling Pin, runners sprint through downtown and scramble through four off-the-wall biscuit-themed obstacles. The course will be set up in Center City Park with a 5k-race route winding through Downtown Greensboro’s Cultural District. Obstacles will be placed throughout the race route in Center City Park and competitors will slide, crawl, jump and sprint through breakfast ingredients.”

Those obstacles are:

• Sweet Tea Tumble: Scale a 12-foot-tall ramp with a lemon in your mouth and tumble down 14 feet into a pool of Southern Sweet Tea!

• Grit-Iron Tires: High knee through eight sets of tires filled with wet grits. Lace up your shoes tightly to get through this Southern-style quicksand!

• Buttermilk Slip n’ Slide: A running leap into a 27-foot long river of buttermilk and slide to the final leg of the race.

• Jelly Belly: Army crawl on your elbows under flags through a low 20-foot-long plane of strawberry jelly. Then race around the last stretch to the finish line!

• Finale Bonus Obstacle—Flour Shower: Get dusted in flour as you sprint through the course! Prepare to hold your breath as you’re breaded.

With 50,000 college students in the immediate area, we’re thinking this race will be mobbed. Plenty of nonstudents are expected as well. As is true with most adventure events, the race will be run in waves because of the large number of participants. Expect plenty of spectators, too.

The cost is $15 for students, $60 for student relay teams, $30 for nonstudents and $120 for nonstudent teams. The race will likely show a sizable profit,  which Biscuitville will donate to the Greensboro Urban Ministry.

The publicity bonanza that will accrue to Biscuitville before, during and after this race should be priceless. If you’re looking for a way to make your restaurant top of mind in your local community, you’ll have to search far and wide to find a better idea than this. As restaurant promotions go, this one’s genius.