Active Nation has released a new app, Active Nation Anywhere, which offers over a thousand on-demand workouts to users.

The system was built using Wexer’s white label app, launched earlier this year, to complement its existing white label Web Player which streams virtual classes via the web.

Active Nation will promote the classes to its community, but anyone can sign up for a monthly fee of £3.99.

“If we are to get a higher percentage of this nation moving, we need to make it as simple as possible for people to access the support and content they need to succeed,” said Stuart Martin, MD of Active Nation.

“Physical facilities remain the go-to destination for many people who want to get involved in structured activity, but they're not for everyone. Delivering easy-access, quality content direct to people not only supports our facility users, but also provides a new channel through which we can engage those who don't currently have a relationship with our brand, extending our influence to a wider segment of the community.”

The app is designed to enhance user engagement through push notifications, which will allow Active Nation to personalise communication with its community.

“The app collects behaviour data so we can create target groups and ensure they receive only information of relevance to them,” said Martin. “This creates a personal experience for the user and helps us build a stronger relationship between our brand and the individual.”

The app will also be used to build Active Nation’s visibility in the corporate market. “Offering Active Nation Anywhere as part of an employee wellbeing package provides corporations with a simple, cost-effective means of delivering professional fitness content to their workforce, wherever they're located,” added Martin. “We can also tie in the use of our facilities in locations where it makes geographical sense to do so.”

Active Nation launched the charity’s first on-demand offering during the pandemic using Wexer’s white label Web Player. At the time, Martin explained in an exclusive interview with HCM, that digital was always part of the vision, but COVID-19, and the subsequent change in consumer behaviour towards fitness, accelerated its release.

“Digital has been on our radar for a while, so this complete at-home, at work, in-school, any time, anywhere solution – with hundreds of different activity options – wasn’t just done as a bolt-on to help us ride out the storm, it’s central to our hybrid in- and out-of-venue model,” he said. “We had up to 1,750 people taking part in a single online session during lockdown, but we expect on-demand to get even bigger and better.”

In terms of which content engages users the most, Wexer examined its Web Player data to discover that classes of 20 and 30 minutes are the most popular (38.6 per cent) followed by 10 to 20 minutes (29.4 per cent). However, around half of all sessions were less than ten minutes long, indicating that many users do not complete classes.

Strength was the most popular category with full-body workouts being the most streamed (32.5 per cent of strength sessions).

Karen Mason, senior customer experience manager at Wexer, said: “All Web Player content and features – including live-streamed, on-demand, own brand content and Class of the Day, are now accessible via the app, creating a seamless user experience for those wanting to tap into content via a mobile device. The app also offers enhanced casting functionality, enabling users to cast cross-platform via an AirPlay or Chromecast-enabled device.”

Active Nation Anywhere can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store and Google Play