JUNE 10 LETTERS
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the gaming industry is knocking on our door
David Minton points out that “the majority [of the population] do not relate to words like ‘fitness’ and ‘exercise’, so we need to change both vocabulary and graphics” (HCM May 10, p60). This is something I’ve believed for some
time; gyms’ penetration stands at just 12 per cent of the population, and we need to make exercise more entertaining. Our Webracing™ product therefore integrates with cardio machines to allow the equipment to act like gaming consoles. The gaming industry is now eying the
Iwan Thomas is involved in members’ programmes and in-club challenges
celeb endorsement has led to 38 per cent rise in enquiries
It was interesting to see specialists from the industry debating the impact of celebrity endorsements on health and fitness clubs (HCM March 10, p30). I’ve been working as a consultant with
Dolphin Fitness Club, an independent in central London, for the past 16 months. In March of this year, we introduced former European Champion, Commonwealth Champion, World Cup Winner, Olympic Silver Medallist and British Record Holder Iwan Thomas MBE to the business. There were two key objectives to this:
firstly, to attract more prospects into the club; and secondly, to boost retention of our current client base. We used Iwan’s image on our March marketing campaigns both for attracting new members and for referrals within the club. Our incoming enquires have increased by 38 per cent year-on-year (and 23 per cent just from February to March this year) while our referrals have increased by 81 per cent. Meanwhile, from a retention
perspective, Iwan and the team devised
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three set programmes that members can pick up and use on an ad hoc basis. We appreciate that not all members wish to have personal training, or even have a programme designed for them, but the three set programmes – Reduce, Re-shape and Re-size – can help to add variety to members’ workouts. We’ve also introduced a variety of
gym challenges for members. Iwan helps with these and the impact has been amazing – not many members can say they’ve completed a workout with a world champion! Although too early to determine the precise impact on attrition, we’re already seeing a 1 per cent improvement on our forecasts. In summary, being an independent and
therefore being able to closely monitor the impact of initiatives with accurate data, although still in its early days, having a celebrity/athlete on board has definitely benefited our business so far.
marc diaper
director, starc solutions
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
fitness sector, believing it can market ‘activity gaming’ where the focus may not on fitness, but where fitness is certainly the result. Indeed, Nintendo is already working on a bike to operate with the Wii, while gaming magazines such as Wired have reviewed our Webracing range. I’ve now been invited to present at a
gaming industry workshop taking place at the University of Abertray (Dundee), which will look specifically at how the gaming industry can transform health. These are exciting developments: given
the mass appeal of gaming, they could help the fitness industry move away from being a perceived niche player in the health and wellbeing market. We need to stop looking inwards and look outwards to gain a greater understanding of what our members might want.
duncan lawson
md, instyle fi tness
With activity gaming, fi tness may not be the focus, but can be the result
june 2010 © cybertrek 2010
JUNE
2010
PICTURE: WWW.ISTOCK.COM/ARTHUR CARLO FRANCO
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