It was only a matter of time before Apple got into the digital fitness space. Bloomberg originally reported in August that the tech giant was restructuring things under their Apple One umbrella, bundling several services like Apple TV and Apple Music together at a lower monthly price.
In that announcement came the addition of a virtual fitness streaming service, codenamed “Seymour.” The workout classes will be accessible via Apple’s higher-tiered subscription bundle and, hopefully, challenge industry leaders like Nike and Peloton.
Apple Fitness will have virtual fitness classes available that can be streamed via an app on the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. While “Seymour” is the placeholder now, this service very likely could be renamed Apple Fitness because in iOS14, the iPhone Activity app that links to the Apple Watch is being renamed to Fitness.
There is thought that in addition to digital fitness videos, this new service could offer programs related to running, cycling, weight training and stretching. It should also have the ability to track your progress, similarly to how the Apple Watch and Activity app already function.
In Apple’s latest preview of the watch OS7, they showed that the device had the ability to chart core training, dance, functional strength training and cooldown times, so these options may also be incorporated.
What this move from Apple says to anyone listening, is that if you have a brand, you should be in the fitness streaming game. Each fitness offering is unique and, you, as a brand creator, have the ability still to reach an untapped market.
Endorphinz is eager to see how Apple will launch this and are ready and waiting for their grand entry into the market. If you want to expand your virtual fitness platform we are here to help.
Whether you are just starting out as a creator or brand, let us guide you on your digital fitness journey. Give us a call today at 833-227-4469 or email us at Hello@endorphinz.net and we will start implementing solutions for you that have helped revolutionize the fitness streaming industry.
Social Media – Consumers preferences are very personal. One person’s preferred channel is not another’s. Did you know YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world? You must expose your brand across many channels via video, micro-content, posts, surveys and freebies, all in an effort to capture ATTENTION. You will not dilute your brand by leveraging snippets of content or hosting a class. Research has proven Social Media as a leading channel for discovery of Online Fitness Brands and Content. And, videos are leading content for engagement.
Targeted/Niched Aggregators Sites – Some aggregators compete with you for the same consumer, but niche aggregators targeting specific market segments or using different business models can be lucrative. Why? Because it’s THEIR spend, marketing YOUR content. In most cases you are licensing some content, so you aren’t diluting your brand. You’re exposing it to a market you likely would not be targeting. Think of it as someone paying to promote your brand and you only pay when a user engages, gravy. You make money, and control the content. Correlate this to music, imagine you hear a song you like. You might go buy the Album because of this track. In this scenario your content is the Album. You leverage a great promotional tool to gain broad exposure to a new target and create revenue at no expense.
Branded Video Platforms – These are brands who also provide fitness videos or closely related content. There are multiple ways to look at this. For example you may be niched in Boxing and we know that a high percentage of these consumers also do Yoga. Think compliment product (co-op marketing). If you’re not interested creating yoga content then adding it to your site or delivering your boxing content on a compliment product site makes sense. The co-partner platform has a customer base who benefits and likes to engage with your content and it gives you exposure to a customer who is highly correlated to your product. We know a large percentage of consumers engage with multiple fitness workouts. Allowing them to try yours on their preferred platform is simply picking the low-hanging fruit.
We all have our regular “preferred” search platforms. Some search everything on Google, some use YouTube and others are addicted to Instagram and Facebook. If a user is making a buying decision and searching or browsing on a specific platform and you’re not on that “Shelf” then you miss the opportunity to make a sale or engage a potential customer.
The key is to ensure you have a branded site with your own monetization/paywall so you have a sizeable content library to engage visitors. Once they land on your site you can control the journey to re-engage based on their preferences. It is critical to continue to have both free content that leads to a free trial as well as story-based content so they can get to know your brand and instructors. When executed effectively you can expect a 60%-70% conversion rate or greater.
In traditional media content you create it once and deliver it across as many channels as possible to monetize and grow awareness. You can achieve greater engagement and garner more ATTENTION by adding bonus platforms to your strategy. If you would like to gain a deeper understanding of what content you should deliver across their platform vs yours, reach out to us at Hello@Endorphinz.Net We will design a playbook for your content creation and delivery. The first step is to meet them where THEY engage!
Thanks,
Mike Hansen, Managing Partner of Endorphinz
