Running on a treadmill in your living room or at the gym can be rather boring. Also, there is no one there to motivates and monitors you. Many people, therefore, hire a professional coach to help them go through some training sessions. However, not everyone can afford a 40 euro/hour sessions guided by professional coaches. Another option would be attending group classes, which is much cheaper than having a personal coach; however, the timing of these group classes don’t always fit your schedule. These will eventually become excuses for us to skip a fitness session. Is there a solution?
CEO and founder Jason Baptiste had a goal to lose 50 extra pounds after he finished school and decided to run 5km every day on the treadmill. However, after hundred days of running on a treadmill, he found it extremely boring and discouraging. This gives him the idea to develop a platform which will improve the whole treadmill experience. Meet Studio, a treadmill app on your smartphones or smartwatches that will bring motivation convenience and excitement to each of your training session. After subscribing to their services, users gained access to classes coached by professional coaches that motivate and guides users through their training session. Every class is accompanied by playlists that users can choose from. In addition, classes are offered in different difficulties and in different lengths; users can choose the corresponding classes according to their own needs. The classes can be taken anytime and anywhere.
Engaging the users
It is not only about running on the treadmill, Studio collects distance, speed and biometric data from every user that took the classes and these will be imported into the Real-time Leaderboard. Every user is rewarded with the in-app virtual currency Fitcoin after each session depending on how long and how far he/she has run. Fitcoin will defined users position on the leaderboard. Furthermore, Studio elevates its gamification experience to another level by making all users start with the basic level – Basic bear. Earning more Fitcoin, by running more, will allow users to rank up. To further motivates users during their training session, the real-time heartbeat of the users will be shown on the leaderboard and so as their real-time Fitcoin balance. In addition, users can choose to click on the cheer button during the session to motivates other users that are also doing the same exercise at the same time. In the future, Studio is planning to enable users to redeem Fitcoin for real-world prizes. Even though Studio targets users that would prefer flexible classes as opposed to physical group classes, the app still managed to provide users the same motivation they would get in a group-based training session with the help of its real-time leaderboard.
The business
Studio currently operates under a subscription-based model, which requires users to either pay $15 per month or a $100 upfront payment a year for unlimited access. The success of such Netflix and Spotify alike subscription model is dependent on the number of subscribers. To ensure that there is a sufficient and increasing amount of subscribers, Studio has to make sure that it keeps satisfying its existing users and at the same time keeps attracting new users. Like many other subscription-based business models, Studio offers new users with the opportunity to try out the services for free for a period of two weeks. Also, users can cancel their subscription at any time (for monthly subscribers). Every day, new trainings will be available for users to choose from. Besides, Studio has purchased full music licenses and therefore is able to offer a wide range of music for users to choose from. Studio is targeting both busy working professional and parents who often do not have time to visit the gym and own a treadmill at home. As for the professional coaches, Studio incentivized them to work for the platform by paying a commission of every listed class depending on the popularity of the class. Coaches are not limited to the number of participants in such platform compared to a physical classroom, there can be up to 20000 people taking their classes which is nearly impossible in a normal group training session.
Furthermore, it has been announced that Studio will partner up with treadmill maker Life Fitness to incorporate the Studio’s classes on Life Fitness treadmills in gyms. This will enable Studio to connect to an even larger audience as Life fitness is one of the largest and top manufacturers of fitness equipment. At the same time, having Studio integrated into the Life fitness treadmill will help Life fitness step into the digital fitness business.
References:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/health-fitness/studio-running-fitness-class/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/studio-life-fitness-partnership/
http://studio.live/#instructors
Consumer Value Creation 