Marketing partnerships are a tried and trusted way for two companies to exchange value and mutually achieve their goals. However, this is a growth strategy which has been underutilised by the fitness industry for too long.
Arguably the best-known marketing partnership in the sector remains the deal that originated between Virgin Active and Vitality Health, providing fitness as a benefit to private medical insurance policy holders.
Without taking anything away from this successful collaboration, a single high profile deal doesn’t seem good enough for a sector that could and should be a leading contributor to multiple high profile joint marketing campaigns.
The cinema industry has benefitted from a huge national marketing campaign thanks to their collaboration with CompareTheMarket and their Meerkat Movies campaign. In the most recently available data from 2018 this campaign generated >3% of all cinema visits nationally thanks to a >£100m campaign led by CompareTheMarket.
At a time when fitness operators are dealing unprecedented pressure in the post-pandemic trading environment, could marketing partnerships become a major customer acquisition channel?
Why hasn’t our sector been involved in big national campaigns like Meerkat Movies, what can we learn from this deal and how can we use these learnings to help improve even the smallest, local marketing partnerships?
At the 2022 Elevate exhibition, our very own Jamie Owens and Lawrence King explored the mechanics of successful marketing partnerships, based on our experience at Hussle gained through successful campaigns alongside thousands of gyms and health clubs with companies such as AXA Health, The AA, BUPA, WPA, Revolut, McDonalds, Vodafone, Tesco Clubcard and many more.
The presentation, under the title ‘Powering Fitness Partnerships’, investigated the factors that make a successful ‘Partnership Pyramid’ where all participants can achieve their goals and optimises the marketing investment that fitness operators can expect from their marketing partners.
It also explored some of the blockers that have historically made it difficult for national brands to engage with the highly fragmented fitness industry.
If you weren’t able to attend this event don’t worry. We will be sharing the key points in a series of follow up articles which will provide a step-by-step guide on how you can benefit from more effective marketing partnerships and grow revenue at your clubs.
Stay tuned.
Interested in using Hussle to help generate new leads for your? Looking to sign up new members or generate revenue through large scale marketing partnerships? Find out more here.