12 news
Oxford start-up brings a new twist to Olympic legacy
Activity Rewards, a start-up company, has announced the launch of
imotiva.com, providing incentives for individuals to exercise and a new way for sports-related organisations to engage with their members. Imotiva has been developed within the Isis Software Incubator, which provides support to allow business ideas from Oxford University staff and students to be developed into successful companies.
The unique approach taken by imotiva allows individuals to track their exercise and sport using their choice of fitness apps but also through their preferred clubs or venues such as gyms, sports centres or at events. This will be the first platform in the UK that provides such a wide choice of how to collect points and what to spend them on.
There is also an enormous opportunity for local retailers such as shops, cafés and restaurants to get involved and use the imotiva platform to provide attractive incentives to imotiva members that not only motivate but allow the local retailer to build a loyal customer following and help bring customers through the door.
Each activity gains the user points on
www.imotiva. com which they can spend online or with local shops and retailers. The website also motivates users through challenges such as
www.5x50.co.uk and competitions to encourage them to get fit and even compete against friends and teams.
John Stuart, an Oxford University graduate and founder and CEO of the company, said: “One of the biggest challenges for people getting involved in sport and exercise is motivation. Often people have a trade off as to how they spend their free time and our goal is to motivate them to use that time doing something healthy even if it’s going for a walk.
“Watching the stars at the London Olympics and Paralympics created an enormous wave of enthusiasm but it will take sustained effort to keep this going. Through imotiva we are able to provide detailed insights into the behaviour of people who
are exercising and identify and support people as they might consider stopping or slowing down again.
“Imotiva is free for clubs, venues and organisations and most importantly, it’s free for individuals too.
“Research into the effectiveness of financially based incentives to drive motivation has given us confidence that a unified reward platform like imotiva will deliver value – achieving between a 12% and 35% uplift in participation.”
Financially-based motivation in sport and health programs is not a new concept. However, nearly all applications of it so far have been bespoke or small scale, making them hard to manage and less attractive. Imotiva allows all sorts of programs, clubs and venues with sport, health and activity at their core to benefit from the platform.
Tom Hockaday, managing director of Isis Innovation, said: “The Isis Software Incubator was set up to provide practical, commercial support and mentoring for ventures like imotiva, which has scope and potential to drive positive social change”
Initial feedback from organisations using the imotiva platform has been very positive. Imotiva is being used in a diverse number of locations already to encourage and motivate healthy activity. The first UK user was the Allendale Centre in east Dorset which is using imotiva with its 5,000 community members.
The Luke Adams Foundation, backed by the Australian government in Western Australia, is using the platform to reach 5,000 sports clubs and encourage participation. Organisations such as Oxford University and Glasgow University are rolling out the platform. Social challenges like
5x50.co.uk are using imotiva to encourage participation.
Details: John Stuart
john.stuart@
imotiva.com 07590-182470
Karl Storz expands current operation at Slough Trading Estate
SEGRO, Europe’s leading owner-manager and developer of industrial property, has announced that Karl Storz, the medical equipment company, has agreed a pre- let for 25,000 sq ft on a 10-year lease at Slough Trading Estate, expanding its current occupation at the Estate.
KARL STORZ Endoscopy (UK) already occupies 12,220 sq ft at the Trading Estate and has been a customer since 1998. Headquartered in Germany, Karl Storz is a worldwide operation, with offices throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America and Africa, and
www.businessmag.co.uk
a global leader in the development, sales and distribution of specialist medical equipment.
The new letting is part of the continuing success of the redevelopment on the Slough Trading Estate. Over the past five years SEGRO has developed more than 1 million sq ft of new space on the Trading Estate. The deal with Karl Storz follows the recent 30,000 sq ft letting to Gyron at the Estate. A total of 44,000 sq ft is currently being developed at Montrose Avenue, following the Karl Storz letting there is 19,000 sq ft remaining.
More digital nominations for BOTTLE
Shortly after picking up an award at the CorpComms Digi Awards for the second year running, as well as being shortlisted for three social media campaigns in the 2012 CIPR PRide Awards, BOTTLE has added another feather to its bow by being shortlisted in the 2012 Digital Impact Awards for ‘Best Process to Evaluate a Digital Project.’
The Digital Impact Awards short- listing is in recognition of the work that BOTTLE has undertaken with international development charity Practical Action. The campaign gained an estimated total reach of between 1 -1.5 million people in a three month period. Focusing on the topic of ‘technology justice’, the campaign generated: 102 articles or mentions on relevant blogs, websites and forums; over 3600 interactions on Twitter, Facebook and Google+; 20,000 Flickr and YouTube views; 197 registrants for a webinar, which gained a reach of 72,000 people via Twitter on the day.
Paul Sutton, head of social communications at BOTTLE, comments: “The Digital Impact Awards are extremely well- respected and renowned as highlighting the real cream of the UK digital and social media industry. To be shortlisted is a great achievement and shows how BOTTLE’s digital offering is moving from strength to strength. Social media communications forms an integrated part of BOTTLE’s PR programmes. It’s important to us to leverage this medium in the most efficient and creative way possible to reach existing and new audiences, and then measure this impact to prove the RoI - so we are thrilled our approach is being recognised with awards and nominations across the industry.”
Read the whole case study of the Practical Action campaign at:
www.bottlepr.co.uk/Client-Details. aspx?folderguid=B33C56C4-DCA9- 47DC-8992-ED9203A50DB4
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2012
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