Advertisers who want to reach health-conscious consumers can brand entire areas of commercial gyms, snagging female household decision-makers in their yoga and spinning classes and young male executives in weight rooms.
To find out how to get your client’s message before health club members while they work out, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Messages from one advertiser dominating an area of a gym.
Who
Health Club Panel Network (HCPN), headquartered in Los Angeles.
How it works
The advertiser takes over an area of a gym, such as the shower room or weight lifting room, and puts its brand messages in a variety of places, in addition to signage.
Examples include:
-Special K cereal took over weight-training areas with branded weights, branded medicine balls and mirror clings.
-Head & Shoulders shampoo branded shower areas with branded shampoo dispensers, shower and mirror clings, take-home samples, and shower mats where the advertiser's logo became visible when exposed to hot water.
-Ensurance insurance took over workout areas with branded column wraps and mirror clings and distributed branded workout towels and water bottles.
- Jennie-O Turkey Store attached coupons to its panel advertising.
Areas that can be branded include aerobics, spinning, yoga and sports league practice areas.
Other options include sweepstakes and gift bags.
Advertisers often use branded equipment and floor mats as an add-on to panel advertising. Panels very from 16 inches wide and 20 inches high to 26 inches wide and 37 inches high and can be backlit.
Creative is provided by the advertiser. Some advertisers reformat existing creative and others develop creative specific to healthy clubs.
Some of the fitness chains in the network are 24 Hour Fitness, Fitness Formula, Powerhouse Gym, Women’s Workout World and Gold’s Gym. Independent gyms are also part of the network.
The program is turnkey.
Some local advertisers use the program but the vast majority are national brands, says chief marketing officer Richard Hirsch.
Groups can be targeted by region, DMA, income, life stage, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.
Markets
The program is available in 150-plus markets including the top 20 DMAs.
Numbers
There are 3,000 health clubs in the network with 12 million active members.
How it is measured
Impressions are estimated from data of member visits data provided by the clubs.
Coupon redemption tracking and pre- and post- surveys are also used.
Proof of performance photos are also provided.
Research
According to a study from Suburban Associates provided by HCPN, 61 percent of health club members go shopping after their workout. Of those, 55 percent go to the supermarket or drugstore, 28 percent go to a health food store, and 27 percent go to a wholesale outlet like Costco.
What product categories do well
Health and wellness, financial, automotive, pharmaceutical, insurance, entertainment, quick service restaurants and beauty aids are top categories.
Demographics
Health club users, according to MRI Consumer Segmentation Data published in 2006, break down evenly by gender. Nearly 80 percent are between 18 and 49 years old. Average household income is $80,000 plus.
Making the buy
Lead time ranges from 30 days to 120 days, depending on the elements of the campaign.
Advertisers can buy the network, market or a specific health club.
Panels are sold by the month on a per-club basis.
Cost is contingent on program elements, number of clubs and length of campaign.
Who’s already in health clubs
Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Unilever, Nissan, Pfizer, American Express and Coca-Cola have used the program.
What they’re saying
“Our primary target is health-seekers. People who understand the nutritional benefits and are likely to use it. We want to remind them about our product in an environment when they’re thinking about health.” – Cris Eide, retail marketing director for Jennie-O Turkey
Web site info
Health Club Panel Network at http://www.healthclubpanel.com
