HOTSEAT
Customers visit the website, choose a gym, buy an ePass and redeem their pass at their chosen gym
All the gym operators who’ve got involved recognise the fact that, by doing this, they could double their audience. Indeed, our market research showed that penetration lev- els among potential gym-goers in the US are twice as high as penetration levels among potential gym-goers in the UK. This shows that there’s still a lot of opportunity to grow the UK market. We believe that, if you can provide a wider vari- ety of offers, more people will go to the gym.
Is it based on an existing business model? There’s always been a pay-as-you-go offer in the gym mar- ket, but this differs in that we’ve pulled it all together in one place. An online wallet is a fi rst for the gym industry, as is the idea of giving people the opportunity to buy passes through their mobile phone when they’re on the move. It takes the best of a lot of other business ideas that are out there and pulls them all together. The iPhone app was launched in March, and was quickly followed by Android and Blackberry apps. The iPhone app is like a mini version of the payasUgym website, and allows customers to create an account, load their card and fi nd the gyms they want to use via a map function.
How is payasUgym being marketed? It’s PR-led. We’re working with a lot of partners to pull together interesting offers, and are working with our part- ner gyms to communicate the message to their catchment areas. We will mainly do online marketing, PR and social networking – for example, spotlights on gyms on Facebook and Twitter. Because we’re an amalgamation of lots of different operators, we can talk to and attract a wider audi- ence than any one single operator can.
Where will you be targeting outside of London and the south-east? We’re already getting a lot of gyms signing up in other parts of the country – gyms that are prepared to wait a few months. As soon as we’ve got London up and running, we’ll
24 Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
“There’s always been a pay-as-you-go off er in the gym market, but this diff ers in that we’ve pulled a lot of business ideas together. An online wallet is a first for the gym industry”
extend to the other major cities: Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffi eld. I think it will take us a year to fi nd our feet in these key cities, but ultimately we do want it to be a national service, open to as many people as possible.
How do you make money? We make commission on each pass that’s redeemed, so for the gyms there’s no cost unless they get a new customer.
How many gyms do you hope to have on board by the end of the year? Our initial targets were quite modest: we wanted 150 gyms by the end of the year. We’re already on course to smash that target, as we currently have 125 on board just in London and the south-east. Our customers – the general public – are also coming to us and asking us to get particu- lar gyms on board and we’re responding to that.
Would you take the idea abroad? We’d love to take it beyond the UK: I think it would work well in Germany and the US. We’ll stay with gyms and get that right fi rst, and then move on to connected services like Power Plate studios, yoga and pilates classes and personal trainers.
What’s been the best bit about this start-up? This is the best job I’ve ever had. It’s new and exciting and supports the goals of the customers, the gyms and the FIA, so I’m very proud to be part of it. ●
ISSUE 2 2011 © cybertrek 2010
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