The following is an excerpt from the Promotions Chapter in my ebook, that will be released early next year.
12 Days of Fitness
The Twelve Days of Fitness (12DaysOf.fitness) is the singular most successful campaign that I’ve ever come up with…
Let me tell you a story…
When I first came up with this campaign we were working with Briarwood. We had been contracted on the 20th of October and we needed to get 420 new members by the 20th of January.
While driving from NJ to Virginia the song 12 Days of Christmas was played on the radio – the song wouldn’t go out of my head. On the first day of Christmas my true love brought to me a partridge in a pear tree – ad infinitum… During this long drive the realisation that Christmas sounded like fitness was embedded firmly.
When I arrived at the Club I explained the concept to John Bates (the GM) and we immediately produced some 12 Day passes to be sent to the members and made a deal with a Radio Station and a Sporting Goods store to promote the campaign.
The Radio campaign was that listeners would get a chance to win a one month membership on the 1st Day of Fitness and a can of Tennis balls (whatever), on the 2nd day they would win a one month membership, a can of tennis balls and a tennis racquet, and so on… All winners would then go into a separate prize draw for a one- year family membership.
We advertised that non-members could purchase a pass for $19.86 with the proceeds going to a charity.
Anyway, the day I left the Club (in December) we had sold about 240 memberships.
The holidays came and went and I was scheduled to go to the Club about the 11th of January to do a wrap-up. I called one of the MA’s (Sue Nagel) to confirm my arrival and to see what was going on, and I was on hold forever waiting for her to answer the call. When she finally picked up – I wished her Happy Holidays and New Year, explained when I would arrive and asked what the figures were, so far.
She said that we were at 300 memberships. So I said ‘Oh well, at least we tried.’ She asked what I meant. I said; ‘well the goal was 420 and we only had 300.’
She said; ‘No, we’ve sold 300 THIS MONTH! It’s absolutely insane; we’ve got people waiting to join, since the campaign ends in two days. That’s why it took me so long to answer the phone. I’ve sold six today!’
The bottom line; we sold 640 memberships, made a good bonus (the MA’s got a trip to Florida as a bonus) and that was the beginning.
Note: 12 Days of Fitness certificates sample provided by Enjoy! Marketing
Another story…
I reported this to various magazines and there used to be a Marketing newsletter call Peak Performance (owned by Jim Smith – RIP). The next year at IHRSA, I happened to bring a video camera to record some of my presentations and for Ray). Jim was presenting a seminar on Successful Promotions and since I had my camera I asked him if he would like me to video his presentation – which I did.
There were about 300 people in the room and when he wrapped up he asked;
‘How many of you have heard of the Twelve Days of Fitness?’
Almost every hand went up.
Then he asked; ‘How many of you think this is the best campaign you’ve ever used?’
Almost every hand went up.
He laughed and pointed to me holding the Video camera and said; ‘Well you can thank this guy, because he’s the one that came up with the campaign.
At the end of the seminar I was mobbed with people thanking me, kissing my feet and declaring that I had saved their year.
One last story:
When I was working with one of my first International Clubs (Sports Club Stockholm), I had explained the campaign to Per-Anders Dagborn (the owner) who decided to try it in Sweden. He had a very sophisticated Head Office that was able to print a cover letter, label the members’ envelopes, stuff the certificates and stamp them – so he was able to do it almost by himself.
He sent out the materials – but one problem, he hadn’t told his Club Managers what the deal was. The day the mailing hit – he wasn’t in the office and his Managers were frantically trying to get hold of him to find out what the offer was.
The bottom line – we had over 4,000 people come in to the Clubs in December and that was the best month in sales that the clubs had ever experienced to date (we actually beat that record many times over in later years.)
The month of December is normally a slow month for sales to most health clubs as is attendance.
So, the premise of Twelve Days of Fitness is to capitalise on the gift giving spirit of the holidays and for a member to give the gift of fitness to a friend or family member.
This pass can be restricted to the non-prime hours usage of the club and the twelve consecutive days must begin by the 31st of December.
The main reason for the non-prime hours is because the pass can actually be used during the first eleven days of January – when Club utilisation is at it’s highest – due to New Year’s Resolutions.
To establish value, the Certificate should be sold – the value that has been applied since 1986 was the year.
Thus the original year the price was $19.86 (and increased by 1 cent each year.)
When Doug moved to England in 1994 – the price became £19.94 (and increased in the same way.)
The price this year will be either $20.25 or £20.25 or € 20.25.
After the first year in the US – the campaign was normally co-promoted with the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots Programme.
This allowed a non-member to purchase a Twelve- Day pass by donating a toy to the Toys for Tots Programme.
The Marine Corps representatives would collect the toys on the 15th of December and distribute them to orphanages, children’s hospitals and various children’s charities.
You can call me Scrooge, but I don’t normally donate to any Charity, since most of the time the money goes to support the Administration. The main reason I chose the Toys for Tots is that the gift actually physically goes to the children. When we collected money for the passes – I’ve normally been able to arrange a serious discount with stores like Toys R Us who will give a great discount on buying toys at their stores (they want to clear the shelves.)
The charities I like are BBC’s Children in Need and also Augies Quest (Augie Nieto’s [Life Fitness Founder] charity to raise money to fund research [$150,000,000, so far] to find a cure for ALS – the disease that killed my friend)
I’ve come up with a few variations on the campaign since 1986. Probably the most successful is the Countdown. How much is your daily guest fee? How much is your Enrolment Fee? How much is your monthly dues? How many members use your Club in December? How many guests do you see in December? And most importantly, how many sales do you have in December and January?
Doesn’t it make sense to get in more prospects in a slow month, give them a great deal and maybe even the month of December free? How many times have you seen prospects that tell you “I’ll wait until after Christmas or the New Year and join then’?
The way to use the Countdown is this;
When the Prospect comes into the Club with the 12 Days Pass you can explain to them the normal prices –
‘Well, we charge $10 for our daily fee.
We charge $100 for our Enrolment Fee.
Based on what you’ve told me – the best membership option for you would be our Full membership, which costs $50 a month.’
So, you can use the 12 Days pass for 12 days or you can cash it in and save some money. Are you interested in saving some money?
I thought so…
Basically, I can give you $10 credit for each day. So, if you join today I can waive the $100 Enrolment Fee and actually give you a $20 credit towards your December dues. In fact, what I’ll do is give you December free.
I’ll need your first month’s dues (which is January) and you won’t get any money taken from your bank account until the end of January (which will be for your February dues.
If you wait until tomorrow – you’ll lose $10 and you’ll lose $10 every day you wait.
Now, we normally have a Ten Day Money Back Guarantee – but, in this case I’ll extend your Money Back for 12 Days – so you’ll still get the full 12 Days free and still save the money.
How would you like to take care of the first month’s dues? Cash cheque or credit card?’
