PLAYNASIUM

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitlePLAYNASIUM
BrandYMCA
Product / ServiceYMCA VICTORIA HEALTH SERVICES AND FACILITIES
CategoryB06. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
EntrantMcCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement McCANN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Production BAYLY GROUP Richmond, AUSTRALIA
Production 2 TREEHOUSE STUDIOS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Credits

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 Campaign

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. Using the Playnasium as branded outdoor media 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.

Creative Execution

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 reinvented gym equipment and play equipment using children’s weight as exercise weights, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play, creating a new type of media for a gym – active outdoor.  This innovative use of outdoor media was a manifestation of the YMCAs brand purpose of getting people together to get active, helping parents role model healthy behaviour in front of their children and for the first time, turned public playgrounds into branded outdoor media for the YMCA.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

To help role model healthy behaviour in children our campaign targeted the root cause; 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, and when they do they rarely take their children. We needed to design a solution that would enable children to see their parents exercising, 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, instead of simply writing a brand manifesto, we should design them a manifestation.

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