UMTB Mont-Blanc has forged its myth through media coverage. Today, it is the most renowned and publicized trail running event on the planet.
Fabrice Perrin is responsible for live UTMB Mont Blanc. He takes us behind the scenes of the most watched ultra-endurance competition on the planet.
“Our main challenge is understanding what happens during the race, for Mr. / Mrs. Everyone.”
Lyon Capitale: How did we go, in 2003, from a niche event, in 2023, to the most publicized ultra-endurance competition in the world?
Fabrice Perrin: Above all, the country of Mont-Blanc is magical, and the fact of crossing 3 countries while achieving a sporting achievement is the first driving force. Next, I am convinced that Catherine Poletti’s commitment, from the very first edition, to sharing the images of the event with the whole world has created enthusiasm. Finally, the creation of Live in 2012, and technological developments in the years 2017-2019 helped us reach the general public.
I started as a volunteer at the UTMB in 2010, when the organization was in trouble on its discussion forum with the cancellation of the race. I was the manager of a digital agency, I helped them manage the community, then set up Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. It was the beginning, it was great, we saw the number of fans grow and get involved… and since then it has never stopped!
Fabrice Perrin, Head of live UTMB Mont Blanc
There were videos at the very beginning of the UTMB, right?
Yes, at the time, Catherine had launched with Serac Production and Gilles Sourice, on each event, high quality video productions for television channels. With a very fast provision of sumptuous images. This has allowed us to have appearances on several major international channels each year.
Over the years, we have equipped ourselves with drones and recruited runners and mountain bikers who allow us to follow the competitors on almost all the courses.
What was the idea of live at the beginning and what has it become today?
In 2011, there was the launch of a “web-tv” with cameras installed at key points along the route, live news at different times of the day, subtitled reports on the races (organization, volunteers, info, etc.), the country of Mont Blanc, portraits of the race, technical advice, health, etc. But the format didn’t work very well, and Catherine Poletti asked me to take on the project.
I wondered how to make the show attractive with a simple question: when there is an event somewhere that lasts in time, how does it happen? How do channels like CNN handle this event? The answer is very simple: they favor images. Commentators intervene, but the main element is the images. So I decided to remove the sets centered on the guests, and to limit the “reports”.
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Mathieu Blanchard, 2nd in the UTMB 2022 in 19h54’50”, 5mn 20, after Kilian Jornet.
At the time, we didn’t have the ability to follow the runners during the race. We sent cameramen to make shots of the supplies, but the cameras were so heavy that we could just see the runner passing, we couldn’t follow them. We mainly filmed our wait, it wasn’t really immersive! The teams took turns at the various aid stations throughout the race.
But as soon as we had the images, we took them, we edited them and we put them on a loop, so as to have images permanently commented on in different languages.
Another choice that paid off, by the way: we didn’t just comment in French and English, but also in Spanish. If we wanted to attract as many people as possible, we also needed a maximum of languages. We then added Chinese, Japanese, Italian, then Thai, basically wherever there are communities of runners.
Then, over the years, we have equipped ourselves with drones, and have recruited runners and mountain bikers who allow us to follow the competitors on almost all the courses. One of the production companies we work with even created a special bag to be able to broadcast our images via 4G and 5G to the control room.
During peak broadcasts, we have more than 100,000 simultaneous viewers.
In 2022, the group The team and the UTMB Group announced a broadcast agreement for the UTMB Mont-Blanc. What has changed with this partnership?
From the start, we partnered with DailyMotion, then expanded to YouTube and Facebook. During peak broadcasts, we have more than 100,000 simultaneous viewers. And we’re over 25 million views during the week of the event…that’s getting massive audiences.
In 2022 we were able to take advantage of the strength of L’Equipe, the No. 1 sports media brand in France with 42.2 million people reached each month. L’Equipe is however not involved in the video production, they take over our streams which are of perfect quality for them. But we take advantage of the notoriety of the brand: during the broadcast of the UTMB race, the channel L’Equipe is 2.9 million viewers.
@UTMB
Did you feel a rocking?
I think the real shift was in 2017, with audiences that exploded. This is where we started to exceed fifteen million video views during the week. It was the year of the Kilian Jornet/François d’Haene duel, where he said to himself that it was the toughest UTMB in history…
What are the means put in place in 2023?
There are about twenty runners, mountain bikers, with their guides. Often, mountain bikers also know how to handle drones, we will have 3 this year. The runners, on the other hand, film with GoPros connected to the bags I was talking about earlier. It is generally former professional runners, such as Sébastien Chaigneau (2nd and 3rd in the UTMB in 2009 and 2011, Editor’s note), incidentally co-founder of one of the production companies with which we have worked since the beginning, who can hold the shock, especially on an OCC, where it runs really fast.
The runners, like Sébastien Chaigneau (2nd and 3rd in the UTMB in 2009 and 2011, Editor’s note), film with GoPro
And on the downstream side?
We work closely with the Serac Production teams, more than 10 people, who take the “beauty” images of the race, in particular the views of the sky with the helicopter equipped with the ultra-sophisticated Cineflex camera, which offers image stability perfect, in high definition, and allows you to follow the runners from the sky. At the technical level, at the Majestic’s HQ in Chamonix, there are seven to eight people for the reception of the images, the mixing, the sound engineering, the planning of the advertisements, etc.
Then, we have a small team of four people who collect the facts of the race live, prepare them to make small video montages to feed the social networks, but also the “best of” which are broadcast on these same networks after each race.
@UTMB
Because, I repeat, it is also what made our success: from the beginning, we mixed live with activation on social networks. We have thus reached a very large community. Finally, the video streams are commented on by speakers in different languages, two or three people per language, i.e. around twenty speakers.
The UTMB Mont-Blanc reaches more than 5 million people on social networks
How many people are affected by all this media coverage, on all networks, on all channels?
My estimate is 5 million people. I have to travel a lot, and I can say that there are not many places on the planet where we have not already heard the four letters UTMB. There is not a single race in the world more publicized than the UTMB.
What are the ambitions of live UTMB?
Our main challenge is understanding what is happening during the race, for Mr./Ms. Everyone. When the runners approach the Grand Col Ferret, this gentleman/lady has no idea how difficult it is, he doesn’t realize the energy it takes, what it represents in terms of distance and effort. We are therefore going to develop the infographics even more, to give the profile of the Grand Col Ferret, the slope, the mileage, what it represents in relation to a building, for example, the times of the leaders and the peloton, etc. The idea is to transmit the effort, the sacrifices.
Our challenge is also to cover the entire race as best as possible, up to the last in Chamonix. Because all runners deserve to be on the live. This is also the UTMB.
2023-09-02 08:00:00
#million #views #week
