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Technogym | Fit Tech promotion
Technogym | Fit Tech promotion
Technogym | Fit Tech promotion
features

Fit Tech People: Devi Mahadevia

Facebook director of sports and fitness partnerships

With Facebook paid online events, publishers can charge viewers to attend a video livestream on their Facebook pages or a third party video service

Published in Fit Tech 2021 issue 1

How can fitness providers use paid online events to their best advantage?
We’re excited to provide a menu of products that can help fitness organisations make money, no matter what type of business or business model they have. Many of these products mirror traditional fitness revenue generators, which makes them a natural fit for our partners.

With paid online events, publishers can charge a fee for viewers to attend a video livestream on their Facebook pages or a third party video service (eg. Zoom). Publishers can create the event, set a price, promote the event, collect payment and host the event, all on Facebook. This is just like charging someone to attend your fitness class on a one-time basis. For example, UK-based fitness instructor Rachel Holmes has used paid online events to earn revenue while broadcasting educational webinars, exercise classes, and other content that would normally have a cost to attend in-person.

Why is Facebook an effective platform for fitness events?
Facebook is a place to build an audience, a community and a business, making it an incredibly important tool for fitness organisations right now. We’re in a new era of fitness, which is in part brought on by COVID-19, but which is also the result of the continued evolution of digital, social and mobile experiences. These experiences are creating deeper online connections and relationships between fitness consumers and businesses.

In this new era, fitness has become democratised and consumer demand is met with accessibility and choice. No matter your fitness level, location, or trainer preferences, you can find the right workout online and, increasingly, find it on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Portal and Oculus.

This democratisation extends to the business side as well. No matter what type of fitness business you manage – whether it’s brick and mortar, event-based, influencer-driven or digital-first – you can now reach a global audience and tap into entirely new revenue streams through our products. This underscores how huge the business opportunity is in this new era — one that can be incremental to the historic model, with the potential to grow into entirely new frontiers of financial success.

Does Facebook collect any fees from paid online events?
We don’t take any fees today from paid online event purchases, and we do not plan on taking fees while communities remain closed for the pandemic – until at least July 2021. We’re committed to providing businesses and creators the tools they need to move their business online and help them maximise their payouts in this uncertain time.

What advice would you give to fitness providers who are considering using Facebook for paid events?
The advice we give all partners is to focus on building an engaged audience. You’re far more likely to make money if you have an engaged community of fans than if you’re starting from scratch. Across our family of apps, we have a number of products that can help publishers build community and ultimately convert that community into customers. Instagram Stories, Facebook Groups, IGTV and Facebook Watch are just a few tools people and businesses can use to authentically connect with and grow their community.

Once you’ve built an engaged audience, you can experiment with different monetisation products. Your fanbase may gravitate towards paid online events, especially if you can offer them something premium and exclusive. Or you may find that our fan subscriptions product, which enables you to charge a monthly recurring subscription fee, resonates better. There are a number of other monetisation products you can try.

Ultimately, whatever product you choose, we’d advise you to treat your followers like family. In other words, engage with them, listen to their feedback, and adjust your strategy accordingly. If you’ve built a meaningful relationship with them, meaningful business results will follow.

Ready to go live?
Devi provides some practical tips for fitness providers who are ready to hold their first paid online event.
Promote your event

Promoting your paid online event can help you increase the number of registered attendees for your event while generating awareness of your event to new audiences.

Start your live stream early

Starting your stream early can help prevent technical difficulties that might occur when starting an event online. It also gives you the opportunity to let your registered attendees know what to expect from your event.

Communicate expectations for your event

Be clear with your guests on what they can expect from your event so that they know what is going to happen. You can post schedules in your event description or in posts on the event itself. If attendees will need special equipment (i.e. a yoga mat) in your live event, you can provide instructions to attendees in advance.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

The team is young and ambitious, and the awareness of technology is very high. We share trends and out-of-the-box ideas almost every day
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

We ended up raising US$7m in venture capital from incredible investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

35 million people a week participate in strength training. We want Brawn to help this audience achieve their goals
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
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features

Fit Tech People: Devi Mahadevia

Facebook director of sports and fitness partnerships

With Facebook paid online events, publishers can charge viewers to attend a video livestream on their Facebook pages or a third party video service

Published in Fit Tech 2021 issue 1

How can fitness providers use paid online events to their best advantage?
We’re excited to provide a menu of products that can help fitness organisations make money, no matter what type of business or business model they have. Many of these products mirror traditional fitness revenue generators, which makes them a natural fit for our partners.

With paid online events, publishers can charge a fee for viewers to attend a video livestream on their Facebook pages or a third party video service (eg. Zoom). Publishers can create the event, set a price, promote the event, collect payment and host the event, all on Facebook. This is just like charging someone to attend your fitness class on a one-time basis. For example, UK-based fitness instructor Rachel Holmes has used paid online events to earn revenue while broadcasting educational webinars, exercise classes, and other content that would normally have a cost to attend in-person.

Why is Facebook an effective platform for fitness events?
Facebook is a place to build an audience, a community and a business, making it an incredibly important tool for fitness organisations right now. We’re in a new era of fitness, which is in part brought on by COVID-19, but which is also the result of the continued evolution of digital, social and mobile experiences. These experiences are creating deeper online connections and relationships between fitness consumers and businesses.

In this new era, fitness has become democratised and consumer demand is met with accessibility and choice. No matter your fitness level, location, or trainer preferences, you can find the right workout online and, increasingly, find it on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Portal and Oculus.

This democratisation extends to the business side as well. No matter what type of fitness business you manage – whether it’s brick and mortar, event-based, influencer-driven or digital-first – you can now reach a global audience and tap into entirely new revenue streams through our products. This underscores how huge the business opportunity is in this new era — one that can be incremental to the historic model, with the potential to grow into entirely new frontiers of financial success.

Does Facebook collect any fees from paid online events?
We don’t take any fees today from paid online event purchases, and we do not plan on taking fees while communities remain closed for the pandemic – until at least July 2021. We’re committed to providing businesses and creators the tools they need to move their business online and help them maximise their payouts in this uncertain time.

What advice would you give to fitness providers who are considering using Facebook for paid events?
The advice we give all partners is to focus on building an engaged audience. You’re far more likely to make money if you have an engaged community of fans than if you’re starting from scratch. Across our family of apps, we have a number of products that can help publishers build community and ultimately convert that community into customers. Instagram Stories, Facebook Groups, IGTV and Facebook Watch are just a few tools people and businesses can use to authentically connect with and grow their community.

Once you’ve built an engaged audience, you can experiment with different monetisation products. Your fanbase may gravitate towards paid online events, especially if you can offer them something premium and exclusive. Or you may find that our fan subscriptions product, which enables you to charge a monthly recurring subscription fee, resonates better. There are a number of other monetisation products you can try.

Ultimately, whatever product you choose, we’d advise you to treat your followers like family. In other words, engage with them, listen to their feedback, and adjust your strategy accordingly. If you’ve built a meaningful relationship with them, meaningful business results will follow.

Ready to go live?
Devi provides some practical tips for fitness providers who are ready to hold their first paid online event.
Promote your event

Promoting your paid online event can help you increase the number of registered attendees for your event while generating awareness of your event to new audiences.

Start your live stream early

Starting your stream early can help prevent technical difficulties that might occur when starting an event online. It also gives you the opportunity to let your registered attendees know what to expect from your event.

Communicate expectations for your event

Be clear with your guests on what they can expect from your event so that they know what is going to happen. You can post schedules in your event description or in posts on the event itself. If attendees will need special equipment (i.e. a yoga mat) in your live event, you can provide instructions to attendees in advance.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

The team is young and ambitious, and the awareness of technology is very high. We share trends and out-of-the-box ideas almost every day
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

We ended up raising US$7m in venture capital from incredible investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

35 million people a week participate in strength training. We want Brawn to help this audience achieve their goals
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features