interview
(left) The BOA, British Paralympic Association and LOCOG CEOs join Technogym president Nerio Alessandri, Technogym Olympic Ambassador Christine Ohuruogu and Sophia Warner, Technogym Paralympic Ambassador, at the launch of ‘I Pledge’; (above) Ohuruogu and Warner with Denise Lewis
some sort of macro-policy around this. We see ourselves as playing our part in a tapestry of different stakeholders to achieve these goals. “What we can bring to the table is the
inspiration of the Olympic movement. With over £11bn having been invested in the Games, and estimates of some £2bn being spent by sponsors on marketing activation, we’ll be going into 2013 against a backdrop of massive investment in the Olympic movement. We hope to capitalise on that through careful alignment of our resources and brand marks with organisations that can make participation happen – and I think you have to start with the fitness industry, because it’s absolutely at the epicentre of this. “I also think you have to rely on
the fact that these are commercial organisations that want and need to recruit new people into their clubs – if all they do is get their existing members to work out more regularly, it’s not a very compelling commercial strategy. “We therefore have to give them the
tools and the touch-points of inspiration they can use to attract new members.”
Sustainable impact So what shape might this inspiration take – how can operators tap into the momentum around the Games to draw
Olympic legacy: The fitness industry should be at the epicentre of change
34 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
people into their facilities? How and why would someone be encouraged to get off the sofa just because they’ve watched a man who can run 100 metres in 9.58 seconds? “I think the answer to that is the
Wimbledon Effect – everyone goes out and picks up a tennis racket in June and July. But the real question is: how do you sustain the Wimbledon Effect throughout the whole year? So too with the Olympics: how can we take the inspiration of the most talented elite athletes in the world and translate that for people who are currently sedentary or not very active, getting them to do something that’s more active? And I think the answer uniquely lies in the
Olympic values, which are actually about competition – about being the best you can be. “The Olympic movement, while
it celebrates victory, celebrates competition and participation in equal measure. So what I hope will come out of these Games, as much as anything, is not necessarily the achievements of Jess Ennis or Phillips Idowu or Bradley Wiggins. Those will, we hope, be extraordinary and inspirational, but even if we end up with several dozen medals – I’m not trying to make a prediction by the way! – by definition the majority of Team GB athletes won’t be medallists. But they will have been the best they can be. “Those people are drawn from all over
the country, they all work out in local gyms and clubs, they have friends and family who are inspired by what they do. I think that’s actually the way in which Team GB will provide real traction and real inspiration across the country.” Nevertheless, I suggest, the route
from sofa to action is more obvious for sport than for fitness – if people do respond to the Games, aren’t they more likely to try out a new sport than head for the gym? “That’s where we come back to our
work with Technogym on the Our Greatest Team campaign. Set against the backdrop of the Olympics, Technogym’s pledge campaign provides a tool, a narrative, for trainers and instructors to connect both with gym members and with other people in their lives who aren’t very active. To say: ‘The
june 2012 © cybertrek 2012
STOCKLITE /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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