We’re at the tail end of April—heading into May—so it’s safe to assume that many of those who set New Year’s resolutions to get more fit and went out and joined a gym have long since run out of steam and quit going. 24 Hour Fitness—one of the nation’s largest privately-owned and operated fitness chains—strives to help members stay engaged and meet their own, unique fitness goals. Today, 24 Hour Fitness announced that it is leaning on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud to deliver a custom, personalized experience to meet each members’ needs.
Frank Napolitano, president of 24 Hour Fitness, said, “It’s not an easy feat to achieve this with nearly 4 million members. Adobe is empowering us to create mass consumer personalization that scales, all utilizing the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. In doing so, we are better positioned to serve our members the workouts and health and fitness guidance they truly want and need.”
I had a chance to speak with Tom Lapcevic, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for 24 Hour Fitness, about the decision to use Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud, and what the ultimate goal is for the company. He told me that the high-level mission at 24 Hour Fitness is to transform the lives of members through fitness.
The question becomes, “What is the best way to accomplish that goal?” Each member is a unique individual. They are starting from different places. They have different objectives in mind. They have different lifestyles and availability to go to a gym. They enjoy different types of exercise or respond better to one form of fitness over another. The bottom line is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to health and fitness.
Lapcevic explained that the name 24 Hour Fitness was a reflection of the fact that its facilities are open 24 hours a day. That isn’t actually true of every 24 Hour Fitness facility—for example, the one closest to my house is not actually open 24 hours a day all week—but that’s a discussion for a different story. 24 Hour Fitness facilities were designed to provide everything a member could want for fitness and exercise under one roof.
The combination of convenience and availability when you have everything from weights, to swimming, to basketball courts, to yoga classes all in one place is definitely helpful, but it still requires members to have both the availability and discipline to make the trip and show up. Let’s face it—many people lack the availability, or the discipline, or both.
The new vision for 24 Hour Fitness is that the name is less about having brick-and-mortar facilities that are open 24 hours a day, and more about how 24 Hour Fitness as a company can be there for members and help them reach their own fitness objectives 24 hours a day no matter where they are. Lapcevic stressed that 24 Hour Fitness isn’t purely about exercise. Movement is just one of the four pillars 24 Hour Fitness supports to help members achieve complete health and fitness. The other three pillars are mindset, nutrition and regeneration.
The fitness chain already had a strong relationship with both Microsoft and Adobe and saw an opportunity to expand those relationships to enable the company to deliver a streamlined, custom experience to each individual member. “Adobe and Microsoft are at the center of how we bring in relevant data, draw intelligent insights, and then how we act upon those insights across all our channels holistically,” said Lapcevic. “Our mission is to help people improve their lives every day through fitness, both inside and outside our clubs. So, whether it be email communications with a member, a mobile push notification or an SMS communication, we make sure that all our channels are in sync with what the needs of that individual are. It’s about giving every one of our members and guests a better and more personalized experience—and ultimately the results they desire.”
The whole thing makes perfect sense to me. In the same way that Facebook can tailor ads based on what I like, and my activity online, or the way Amazon can make recommendations to me about things I might want to buy based on what other people with similar shopping profiles have purchased, it makes sense to gather the data we have available and leverage technology to develop a uniquely personal fitness experience. Providing members with tips, reminders, and guidance that are relevant to where they are in their fitness journey and designed specifically to help them achieve the goals they themselves have set will hopefully work to keep people more engaged. If people feel more inspired and less intimidated, maybe they will continue putting in the effort beyond the honeymoon phase of their New Year’s resolution and actually achieve long term, sustainable fitness goals.
