age 50+ the untapped opportunity in the fitness business
TRANSCRIPT
Martin Pazzani
Founder/CEO
Act!vate Brain & Body
50+ The Untapped Opportunity in the Fitness Business
35 years of experience in consumer marketing, advertising, and strategic consulting on six continents…
Including…
¤ Bally Total Fitness
¤ Crunch
¤ 24 Hour Fitness
¤ Therability
Act!vate Brain & Body Brain/Body Fitness Facilities for age 45+
Coach-in-the Cloud / Remote Coaching
u 50 million members u +50k Fitness Clubs u $25 Billion in Club Revenue u $25 Billion in Equipment Sales
The IHRSA view of the fitness biz: Celebrates size from an industry insider’s perspective.
u A failed business model: u Self-serving, not customer focused
u Ignores 2/3 of potential customers
u Focus on sales revenue instead of results
u Grew while America became unfit!!!
My view of the fitness biz.
40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
Healthy Stress Obesity Diabetes 2 CardioV Dementia
Longer Lives: Healthcare Costs Skyrocket. Out-of-pocket costs grow at an even faster pace in the future.
x1
x2
The unaffordable cost of inactivity.
$
Baby Boomer Population Bubble
A unstoppable tectonic force… …that will reshape the economy, the workforce, and nearly every
facet of society and culture.
The Longevity Economy
Products, services, culture adapt to an older population.
Colin Milner The Int’l Council on Active Aging.
¤ “Most Americans spend somewhere around eight years at the end of their lives incapacitated, either unable or severely limited in doing things such as getting up from a chair or walking.”
The key question:
Can we motivate enough people to defy aging?
Longevity Economy: Passive or Active?
The steep decline in club membership after 45 creates a huge opportunity.
• 92 million people.
• Disenfranchised by traditional fitness biz.
• Seeking solutions that are not yet there.
• Compelled by the desire to reinvent aging.
• Fearful of the decline and expense of poor aging.
Why? AARP Study:
99% of all respondents report it important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but only
16% of boomers use the fitness biz to achieve that healthy lifestyle.
The fitness industry’s worst enemy is itself.
Intimidating. Myopic. Self-serving. Dishonest.
Alienated 2/3 of the potential market.
This didn’t help either:
Fitness Center or Disco Club? The Bally Model became the industry standard from the early 80’s until 2003.
¤ The Bally Effect ¤ Loud
¤ Extroverted
¤ Mirrors
¤ Crowds
¤ Competitive
Does fitness have to be painful?
“No Pain, No Gain”
A legacy continued today in Boot Camp, Combat Training, Cross Fit, and many others.
First Crunch, now Equinox and David Barton:
Their pursuit of the ‘beautiful people’ niche reinforces the “Bally effect.”
No Judgments?
The low bar for personal trainers.
The majority of personal trainers are either:
1. Unqualified / unprofessional
2. Not customer-centric
3. In the position for the wrong reasons.
Silicon Valley innovator Nilofer Merchant
“Sitting is the smoking of our generation.”
What to do?
It’s time to re-invent the fitness biz.
It’s time to re-invent the fitness biz.
IHRSA World ¤ Youth Focused
¤ Self service
¤ Un-suitable trainers
¤ Fad fitness practices
¤ Acquisition focused
¤ Churning members
Future of Fitness ¤ 50+ is 50% of the population
¤ “Fitness is medicine”
¤ Professional caregivers
¤ Science-based
¤ Relationship focused
¤ Long term / Lifestyle
1. Adapt the gym experience.
Eliminate the intimidation factor. Design without compromise.
Re-design the gym experience.
¤ Boomer feedback: ¤ Too loud and noisy
¤ No privacy
¤ Unsanitary / dirty
¤ Wrong equipment
¤ Harsh lighting
¤ Not my crowd
¤ Predatory trainers
2. Build a new fitness meme.
The imagery, the lexicon, the story of the fitness business must adapt to the mindset of the boomer generation who are
Looking to re-invent the process of aging.
Terminology needs to evolve. No Yes
¤ Boot camp Functional Fitness
¤ Ripped Balance
¤ No pain, no gain Injury Protection/safe
¤ Mental fitness Brain Health
¤ Compete Improve
From Jack to Arnold, and back to Jack?
New imagery to reach a new audience.
Welcoming a new audience to fitness.
New imagery to reflect the boomer mindset.
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39
76
5163
2834
47
25 24
6050
70
-‐‑40
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0
20
40
60
80
January May September January May September
Monthly New Membership
3. Embrace The Quantified Self movement.
$ 2 Billion spent on wearables in 2014… …(pre-Apple watch and iHeath)
Multi-dimensional Measurement.
¤ Movement
¤ Heart Rate
¤ Sleep
¤ Stress
¤ Diet
4. Put the brain first. Neurogenesis: the ability to build new brain cells
Neuroplasticity: your brain is “plastic”
No such thing as “muscle memory”
The Brain/Body Connection.
Aging impact on cognitive function.
“Exercise, Cognitive Function, and Aging” Jill Barnes Mayo Clinic, March 2015
Fitness may be the ‘fountain of youth’
Neuroprotection Cerebrovascular Reserve Cognitive Reserve
ActivateBrainAndBody.com
Obesity and brain health.
-8%
5. A higher standard for Trainers and Coaches
Advanced professional certifications and education. Highly experienced. Customer focused. Outcome oriented. Caregiving skills.
Functional Aging Institute
Results Oriented, Customer Focus
6. “Fitness is medicine.”
AARP: consumers prefer sources supported by doctors (72%) and professionals (69%) that are current and up-to-date with supporting statistical data (57%). Very important to this demographic that programs be evidence-based.
Re-invent the fitness business.
Focus on OUTCOMES, not member acquisition. Think COMPLIANCE, not member retention incentives/tricks. Measure the WORKOUT INTENSITY, not attendance. SCIENCE-BASED, not individual preferences. Think RISK-REDUCTION, not cure.
Healthcare Preventive Upstream
10% Reduction = 1 million fewer w AD
25% Reduction = 3 million fewer
The big questions behind Act!vate B&B.
Imagine how much better off aging boomers would be if they were active for the last 10 years of life rather than in a wheelchair.
Imagine how much better your life will be if your brain stays healthy as long as your body.
Imagine if the fitness business attracted rather than repelled people over 50.
And imagine if all those new on-line brain games really worked.
ACT!VATE DASHBOARD
STRESS REDUCTION BRAIN EXERCISE BODY EXERCISE
SKILLED COACHING
PERSONALIZED PROGRAMS
SelfTheAct!vatedTM
OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE OF
BRAIN & BODY
Act!vate Brain & Body Process
Act!vate Brain & Body: remote/live coaching.
The trajectory of aging.
Trauma Dementia Normal
Radically Improved
