Gymnation has carried out a six-month research study which shows the power of connecting with members digitally and celebrating their achievements.

The UAE-based operator carried out a study to see the impact of its Gymnation Round-Ups. These celebratory, digital, progress-tracking updates – inspired by Spotify’s Wrapped – are periodically sent to members as a form of engagement to big up their efforts.

CTO at Gymnation, Karl Foster, says: “In the fitness sector, we often make assumptions about what drives member behaviour and lifetime value and to what degree this is immutable or not. Everyone is chasing that elusive true understanding the phenomena at the causal level of engagement and retention.”

The Gymnation Round-Ups generated an immediate viral spike, with members sharing their updates on social media. Digging deeper with A/B testing, Gymnation selected a random sample of 3,500 of its 50,000 members for detailed analysis (group A). It also created a comparable group of 3,500 members (group B) who didn't receive the Round-Ups to see how their behaviour differed pre- and post-Round-Up engagement.

The results showed that members who received the Round-Ups had a 10.5 per cent higher Lifetime Value (LTV) than those who didn’t. Group A's visit frequency also remained consistent, with only a 0.4 per cent drop-off, but group B's visit frequency fell by 16.8 per cent.

“Engaging with members in this context stabilised visit frequency and customer engagement over a six month period and increased lifetime value overall, compared to group B, whose visit frequency dropped significantly in the second period and suffered a drop in LTV,” says Foster.

“An 11 per cent increase in LTV and a clear impact on visit frequency are signs that engaging with members about their progress tracking – in the rights context – works and works well,” he said.