On The Clock with 24 Hour Fitness’ Victoria Hoe
Victoria Hoe is the Director of Olympic Games Partnership at 24 Hour Fitness where she oversees all internal marketing for the company as well as the relationship with the United States Olympic Committee and Team USA. She led 24 Hour Fitness’ role in The Next Olympic Hopeful TV show and is heading to South Korea as part of the 24 Hour Fitness incentive and activation plan for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games. This week, we discussed the growth of their partnership with Team USA that started in 2004, their programs and activation strategy for PyeongChang 2018, and a look ahead to the next Olympics in Tokyo, the 2020 Summer Games.
Here is Victoria Hoe of 24 Hour Fitness, on the clock:
OTC:
The relationship of 24 Hour Fitness with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committees goes back to 2004. Can you tell us how 24 Hour Fitness got started with Team USA and how the relationship has grown over the years?
Victoria Hoe:
For a long time, 24 Hour Fitness has understood the power of the Olympic brand and it has always been a natural fit with our mission which is, “Changing lives through fitness.” We started off by offering gym memberships to Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, then by providing equipment domestically at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers, and then finally, outfitting the Team USA High Performance Training Centers that are constructed in each Games’ host city. Over the past few years, we have become much more integrated with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) on a year-round basis, beyond just activating around the Games. We’ve collaborated to introduce a Team USA Certified Training Program, an exclusive program that’s unique to 24 Hour Fitness and one that takes our best personal trainers and gives them the qualifications to train our nation’s top athletes alongside the highest caliber coaches anywhere.
OTC:
Can you talk a little bit more about the Certified Training Program. Is it a national program and how does the program work?
Victoria Hoe:
We’ve developed this program and curriculum with the USOC in 2017 and have over 300 personal trainers certified right now. There will be varying levels of the certification called bronze, silver and gold. We have 300 bronze certified personal trainers and the goal is to have at least one of those per club nationwide. Benefits are two-fold. First, it gives our members an opportunity to train with these personal trainers that have learned from the world’s top fitness professionals; and, second, it provides a network across the country that aspiring Olympic and competition athletes can tap into regardless of where their travels take them in the U.S.
This training will happen through a combination of online certifications with in-person visits to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Our goal is to use the gold certification as a means of selecting the personal trainers who will go and work at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020. By the time those Games roll around, we’ll have a group of personal trainers that have been working with the USOC for years, trusting our staff to provide an increased level of expertise at the Olympic Games itself.
OTC:
During the past 12-months, in the run-up to the Winter Games in PyeongChang, you added some new exciting programs including “Next Olympic Hopeful” which aired on NBCSN. Tell me about it.
Victoria Hoe:
The Next Olympic Hopeful was a joint partnership between the USOC, NBC and ourselves. The goal of this program is to find the next generation of Olympic talent throughout the United States. There are a lot of great athletes in the U.S. that played college athletics that did not go pro. But, with the right coaching, they could become great athletes in other sports. In 2017, we held tryouts in 23 of our clubs across the country and in 13 different markets. We held tryouts for members, for guests, for anybody that wanted to come into the club and for an opportunity to pursue their Olympic dream. We actually had 16 of the contestants cast in the show come from 24 Hour Fitness, including two of the eventual eight winners
For example, Josh Williamson participated in tryouts in one of our clubs in Orlando and did so on a complete whim. He was a former college athlete, coming off an injury and he wasn’t really sure what was going to happen. He ends up getting cast on The Next Olympic Hopeful, was one of the show’s winners and he’s now training with the U.S. men’s bobsled team. And in his very first year with the bobsled team, he’s been traveling all over the world competing in the World Cup circuit and winning a couple of international medals in his first year of competition. This was a phenomenal success story. Likewise, Amanda Alvarez won a spot to train with the U.S. women’s skeleton team. She is an employee, actually a personal trainer, from one of our clubs in Seattle.
We are currently working on the plan for the 2018 event and show, and hope to expand beyond the 4 initial sports that athletes were recruited for, to include several others. We are talking with the USOC and several governing bodies about this now.
OTC:
With the PyeongChang 2018 starting in only two weeks, how else will you be activating around the Winter Games? Will you be doing anything in South Korea?
Victoria Hoe:
In the United States, we have two initiatives that are happening. The 24 Hour Fitness team produced a Team USA Bootcamp program which is really a great way for us to activate here domestically and has worked well in the past. We also have our 24Life Magazine that’s interviewed and profiled several of our Team 24 Olympic and Paralympic athletes such as Elana Meyers Taylor, Gus Kenworthy, and Rico Roman. We’ve got content and video being displayed on our 24Life Network, which is the television network that goes through throughout our 420+ gyms.
24 Hour Fitness is taking 20 contest winners to PyeongChang 2018 and I’ll be accompanying them to South Korea. These team members won sales contests and earned this trip as an incentive and a reward. These contests are something that’s proven to drive our businesses and has been a great incentive because obviously there’s a lot of folks that want to go to the Olympic Games. We’re also taking a couple of our club members who have won sweepstakes through our Fit:Perks rewards program. That’s another way that we’re rewarding members and giving them this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the Olympic Games.
We also have a very robust social media plan that we are ramping up. We will be following our employees who are going to be in South Korea, capturing the sights and sounds of what it’s like to be at an Olympic Games; covering everything from the food to the culture to cheering on Team USA. We’ve got a really robust activation plan and we can’t wait to get there.
OTC:
How do you track and measure the impact that 24 Hour Fitness is able to have, both on the athletes and the business given the strategic importance of this partnership?
Victoria Hoe:
We’ve done a lot of surveys and research around our partnership and we’ve always found that during the Olympic Games our workout traffic increases in the club. We also found that our members are very active, inspired by the athletes competing on TV to propel their own fitness goals. For employees, we found that these trips, incentives, and contests really do have an impact on the business. And now that we’ve been an Olympic partner for so many years, we’ve had several hundred people cycle through these different contests. And, when they come back to the States, it’s wonderful how they share what an amazing experience they had. Their inspiration goes through the clubs and now everybody wants to be a part of it. The partnership has been something that’s not only driven the performance of our business, but it’s also inspired our members and that instills the pride we have in the partnership.
OTC:
24 Hour Fitness’ partnership with the United States Olympic Committee was renewed last year through the 2020 Olympics Summer Games in Tokyo. How do you plan on building this year’s programs for 2020?
Victoria Hoe:
The Certified Training Program is one of the biggest ways that we’re going to be working together with USOC for the next several years. As I mentioned, some of those best and brightest personal trainers from all over the country are going to be the ones that are picked to staff the High Performance Training Center, which is the gym that’s constructed at Tokyo 2020 — a separate private facility just for Team USA. This is something that we’ve been partnering with the USOC on since Beijing 2008. There is a gym in the Olympic Village for all of the world’s athletes, but it can become very crowded and is not always the most private place to train. To be able to provide this facility that’s private for Team USA is a huge advantage for them.
We’ll also be developing other programs to engage our nearly 4 million members and guests with our Team USA partnership. We’ll develop content to excite and inspire our members and programs in our clubs and through 24GO, our new custom fitness app, so that whether you are a member, guest or consumer, you can become part of our exciting partnership with the United States Olympic Committee and Team USA both inside and outside of our clubs. We continue to dream big about ways to connect our partnership with our members on a year round basis. We’re excited about the future of our relationship with Team USA and we can’t wait to watch them take on the world in PyeongChang.
About 24 Hour Fitness
As an industry leader for more than 30 years, 24 Hour Fitness changes lives every day through fitness. Conveniently located clubs, furnished with a wide variety of strength, cardio and functional training equipment, are the perfect environment for fitness professionals to deliver dynamic personal and group training programs. GX24® and cycle studios feature a popular array of live studio classes included with membership. Combined with a welcoming community, the compelling TV and magazine content of 24Life™, Fit:Perks® Rewards and the innovative 24GO™ app, there are a multitude of offerings to engage and inspire every member to lead a full and healthy life both inside and outside of the club. Opening new clubs on average at the brisk pace of one every few weeks, 24 Hour Fitness is headquartered in San Ramon, CA and serves nearly 4 million members in over 420 clubs nationwide.
To learn more about us and to find the club nearest you, visit 24hourfitness.com
On The Clock:
On The Clock is a special segment on the Road to PyeongChang where I talk with executives from Olympic & Team USA corporate sponsors, Winter Games Olympic, and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls about their preparations for PyeongChang 2018 and the impacts they are able to have through their corporate partnerships.
About Ken Hanscom
Ken Hanscom is a veteran-fan of the Olympic Games and the recognized expert in ticketing, corporate sponsorships, traveling to and experiencing the Olympic Games. In his role as COO at InviteManager, during Rio 2016, Ken worked directly with the United States Olympic Committee, NBC Universal, Anheuser Busch, & Cartan Tours the authorized ticket reseller for 23 countries across the globe on their ticketing & corporate hospitality programs. While in Rio, Ken attended 30 events while guest blogging for the International Business Times, writing for USA Today, The Post Game, and appearing on ESPN Radio. For more information and interviews with Ken on the Olympics and the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 games, connect via Twitter or directly at kenh@invitemanger.com
