Create challenges to motivate and retain your gym members, it´s now easier with the new gamified functionality in Aplifit Play. Fitness clubs can create a dynamic and interactive environment that empowers members to strive for greatness and ultimately succeed in reaching their fitness aspirations.

Leverage the power of gamification in fitness with Aplifit and launch a challenge that invites your members to push their limits with the motivation of gameplay. But let's explore deeper into what exactly this "gamification" is all about...

The Fitness Gamification

Gamification is about incorporating game elements into areas that are not traditionally associated with such dynamics, often with the aim of promoting and facilitating education. In the case of fitness, it involves using a series of playful techniques to encourage a healthy lifestyle and teach gym members how to train properly.

According to Pedro Hidalgo, a marketing and sales expert in the fitness industry, as mentioned in this article by CMD Sport, the adoption of gamification techniques in fitness is "relatively new and still has significant potential for further development."

According to him, gamification can be seen as a natural evolution of traditional loyalty programs, in which points were accumulated and could be exchanged for gifts. What makes gamification innovative is that the reward is emotional and accompanied by the playful and motivating component of the game, creating a complete brand experience.

Gamification In The Gym: Key Components

This adds to other key components of gamification that make it highly attractive to be incorporated into the club, or in the case of Aplifit Play... to add "club challenges" to the gym:

• It enables easy and effective communication of specific fitness goals to members.
• It helps cultivate a strong sense of community within the gym, where individuals form a cohesive social network with shared interests and connections, as explained by Hidalgo.
• It includes a competitive element, promoting a group or social dynamic.

Benefits Of Gamification In The Fitness Club

Incorporating gamification techniques in the gym, including features like the "club challenges" available in Aplifit Play, offers significant advantages for both managers and members. Here are additional ways to express this:

• Clients who are more motivated, energized, grateful, and socially connected, as highlighted by fitness marketing expert Pedro Hidalgo. The gratification can be dual in this scenario, involving both emotional and tangible rewards... especially if a prize is offered to the challenge winner.

• Clients who are more committed to the gym, as gamification serves as a compelling incentive for members to attend training sessions more regularly and with increased enthusiasm. Consequently, this leads to enhanced customer retention within the fitness facility.

How To Implement Gamification In The Gym

This is truly the most significant challenge: the moment to implement a gamification program in the gym.

To achieve this, it is essential to have a platform that facilitates the management of the gamification program. This platform can either be internally developed or an externally sourced solution. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages:

• A custom-built tool offers a more personalized solution for the specific needs of the gym, but it requires a substantial investment. This includes software development, along with the associated tasks of maintenance, updates, and bug fixes, as well as the need for management software to effectively handle and measure results.
• An external tool may not provide the same level of exclusivity or customization to the gym's objectives, but it does offer its own benefits. It comes with a pre-established and developed structure that likely allows for integration with other apps or wearables, providing convenience in retaining existing clients and even attracting new ones.

How To Create Club Challenges

If you prefer the external platform approach, as we have discussed, Aplifit has introduced a new functionality in their fitness gamification system, Aplifit Play, that combines all the stated benefits: the club challenges.

This feature, available through the Aplifit Play mobile app, enables the creation of challenges with set time limits that encourage members to reach a fitness goal within a defined period.

To create a challenge, you only need to define the following aspects from the app administrator profile:

• • Challenge Name. Set an attractive title for the new challenge.
  • Duration. Set a start and end date for the challenge.
  • Goal. Specify a target number of "Fits" that your clients need to achieve to successfully complete the challenge. "Fits" are an exclusive indicator used by Aplifit to measure the user's effort in each class.

Tips For Successfully Launching Your Challenge

• Marketing. Ensure the successful launch of each challenge by effectively communicating and promoting it to your members. Use the app's newsfeed to highlight the challenge, create visually appealing posters to display within the facility, and leverage your digital channels such as email marketing, social media platforms, SMS notifications, and more to generate awareness and engagement among your audience.

• Rewards. When there is a reward involved, the motivation to excel and achieve the goal set in the challenge increases! Define a "hook" to encourage your clients to train more, better, and make progress. Need ideas for prizes? Your reward could be a voucher for the club's café-restaurant, a discount on a future membership fee, club merchandise items, a free pass for a physiotherapy session or personal training session at the center... Use your imagination and surprise and motivate your members!

• Metrics Analysis. After the challenge is completed, analyze the participation of your members and the attendance rates for classes and the gym, and explore ways to improve the implementation of challenges among your clients. Set short-term and long-term goals with your gamification program.

• Involve Your Entire Team. Before anything else, it is essential that your entire staff is aware of and actively engaged in your gamification program. Take the time to introduce them to the tool and explain how the challenges will be implemented.

If you want more information about "club challenges" and the gamification options offered by Aplifit, feel free to contact us.