Title | PLAYNASIUM |
Brand | YMCA |
Product / Service | YMCA VICTORIA HEALTH SERVICES AND FACILITIES |
Category | C02. Health Services & Facilities |
Entrant | McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Idea Creation | McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Media Placement | McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Production | BAYLY GROUP Richmond, AUSTRALIA |
Production 2 | TREEHOUSE STUDIOS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Pat Baron | McCann Worldgroup | Chief Creative Officer Australia |
Matt Lawson | McCann Melbourne | Executive Creative Director |
Charles Baylis | McCann Melbourne | Copywriter |
Matt Lawson | McCann Melbourne | Art Director |
Caity Moloney | McCann Melbourne | Art Director |
Alec Hussain | McCann Melbourne | Account Director |
Angela Lethbridge | McCann Melbourne | Account Executive |
Victoria Conners | McCann Melbourne | Agency Producer |
Afrim Memed | McCann Melbourne | Producer |
Adrian Mills | McCann Melbourne | Managing Director |
Tony Prysten | McCann Melbourne | Head of Digital |
Chris Baker | McCann Melbourne | Head of Social |
Guilherme Pocai De Almeida | McCann Melbourne | Digital Designer |
Vic U | McCann Melbourne | Social Art Director |
Joe Guario | McCann Melbourne | Digital Producer |
Oliver Knocker | McCann Melbourne | Editor |
Caity Moloney | McCann Melbourne | Music Production |
Nat Pavlovic | McCann Melbourne | Music Production |
Nick Rieve | Treehouse Studios | Director |
Ryan Mischkulnig | Bayly Group | Design Engineer |
The YMCA believes in ‘health through happiness’, so we created a manifestation of this brand purpose: a new type of exercise equipment that uses a child’s weight as exercise weight, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play. The 3 machines include the Pec-A-Boo; a machine fly that works as a baby bouncer, the Row-Row-Row-Machine; a row machine that powers a child’s ride-on dolphin, and the Pull-Upsy-Daisy; a pull-up platform that works as a seesaw for the child. Installing these branded machines in public playgrounds allowed time poor parents to get exercise and role model healthy behaviour in front of their child. Holding Playnasium events in targeted communities raised awareness of the YMCA’s commitment to building healthier, happier communities whilst driving increased registrations to their services in that area.
Installed in public parks across the state, the YMCA Playnasium uses a child’s weight as exercise weight, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play. Each piece of equipment is designed for different age groups and muscle groups – but all help parents get fit, spend quality time with their children and model good behaviour. By placing these innovative exercise machines in parks we directly targeted our audience when they were most open to our message – playing with their children. Activations using the equipment allowed the YMCA to drive people to a campaign site where they could sign up directly for YMCA services.
The YMCA Playnasium has been installed in 21 key locations across the state of Victoria, establishing the YMCA’s role as a key health brand in Australia. The launch of the equipment received over 10 million PR impressions. Over 40,000 parents have exercised with a YMCA Playnasium so far. Families spent an average of 37 minutes exercising on the Playnasium – twice the minimum recommended daily amount. Tracking studies showed that 87% of this audience had changed their perception of the YMCA as a health organisation and 73% said they would take up regular exercise with their children as a direct result. As an ancillary result, registrations for YMCA services in these areas rose by 27%. International roll out will begin in the United States in October 2017.
The YMCA Playnasium is a recruitment tool for YMCA services that directly targets parents. By using a child’s weight as exercise weight, parents for the first time could work out whilst spending quality time with their children. This active experience encourages parents to become healthier role models for their children, and activates them to join YMCA gyms and services. The campaign strengthened the YMCA’s relationship with its communities and helped establish the brand as a leading health organisation.
We targeted a group that the YMCA has had difficulty recruiting in the past, and who are largely ignored by most sports brands, parents. We identified time as one of the key obstacles for this audience; parents of young children find it hard to get to the gym. We needed to create a direct solution that would get parents exercising with their kids and as a secondary objective, associate that activity with the YMCA brand. Our budget meant we had to be smart about the media we used, so we strategically relied on word of mouth for greater amplification. It was important that our communication reached communities at a grass-roots level. Furthermore, given the YMCA’s rich brand history of innovation in exercise (including the invention of basketball and volleyball), it was a logical conclusion that any recruitment tool should be a manifestation of their brand philosophy.