Village Gym – Digital Member Journey Increases Engagement from 15% to 60% with Technogym

Village Gym operates 31 hotel-based leisure sites across the UK, with gym members and additional hotel guest visitors. In 2020, Village Gym launched their customised Village Gym app powered by Mywellness with Technogym Live & On-Demand content support to the existing member journey.

Village Gym has a long history with Technogym as equipment partners, enjoying the synergy with a brand that takes innovation seriously. When they realised their in-house platform was unable to offer the necessary scope and functionality for a full digital roll-out, they turned to Technogym. Village Gym’s National Leisure Operations Manager Andy Logan explains how the Technogym platform rapidly increased member digital engagement from 15% to 60%. “We already have Technogym in all our gyms, which means we have an ecosystem that members recognise,” said Andy. “Making the move to Technogym for our digital offer created a complete start to finish customer journey.”

Village Gym’s entire member journey is now hosted on the Mywellness app. When members join, their account is activated and they can book classes, swim sessions, induction and reviews. With the new addition of Technogym Live & On-Demand, they can also access on-demand classes from home. They also added their own on-demand content, external links to the most popular third-party classes, and a Village Gym merchandise store. “The flexibility of the Mywellness app over our previous in-house option has been key to the success of our digital journey,” explained Andy. “Technogym understand that operators want to put their own stamp on digital but need it to be simple and user-friendly. Our in-house app didn’t have anything like this level of creativity or functionality.”

Village Gym have experienced a positive uptake to the customised Mywellness app, taking usage from 15% of membership with the in-house app to 60% of membership with Mywellness. The Village Gym app acts as the backbone of their member journey and by creating this ‘Virtual Gym’ environment it brings all Village members together via connected and engaged experience, becoming a key and unique selling point for Village Gym.

Success with Technogym Live & On-Demand

After the success of switching to the Mywellness app, Village Gym asked Technogym for support with rolling out live and on-demand content via the platform. “We set up our own filming studio with great support from Technogym,” said Andy. “We quickly got up to speed, recording 60 classes a week.” As well as recording their own live classes, Village Gym filmed 3 on-demand sessions a week and have built a catalogue of 40 on-demand classes. This is growing every week, supplemented by Technogym’s vast library of high-quality on-demand content and the addition of the automatically managed Mywellness Challenges which have also been proven beneficial with its great uptake.

Over 500 Village members enjoyed the Challenge of completing 20 Live or On-Demand classes in January 2021 – giving people an extra incentive and motivation to try and regularly enjoy the Live and On-Demand Classes. Plus, over 1000 members were also active in the outdoor ‘1k per day’ jogging challenge released in February. “We now have 4500 active users of our on-demand content and this is growing every month,” said Andy.

The success of Village Gym’s digital content means demand for live content remains high even as members return to the gym. “Members are asking for a hybrid approach,” explained Andy. “We were excited to work with Technogym over the next 12 months to develop a model that combines live and on-demand for virtual users with in-person member visits to add even more value.”

Village Gym plan to roll out a digital membership with the support of Technogym. This will enable the group to Live & On-Demand their most popular instructors across the UK. “Technogym worked tirelessly with us to create a digital offer that was packed with value, easy to use, and simple for us to scale,” he said. “I know they will be great partners as we move the project forward. We will assess what members want from digital content so we can give them the right balance of content from Village Gym and Technogym.”

Digital content will even give Village Gym a new membership revenue stream, with the option to sign up digital-only members. “If you don’t live near a Village Gym club, you will still be able to engage with our content by having a digital membership,” explained Andy. “This is a fantastic and exciting development that we would not have been able to offer a year ago.”

Village Gym open its 32nd club May 2021. Village Eastleigh is the first Village Gym to offer app content as part of the digital member journey from day one. Andy explained how the Technogym customised Mywellness app has helped Village Eastleigh sign up new members without the option of on-site pre-sales.

“All our pre-sales for the new club have been digital, and we are on track for hitting our usual number of sign-ups for this stage of a new site,” he said. “New members have been directed straight to the app, and we’ve offered them live and on-demand content before they can even visit the site. Digital has been such a fantastic investment for us and we are hugely grateful to Technogym for their support, advice, and ongoing innovation.”