GoodLife Fitness is dedicated to giving back to families across Canada. Over the past six years the fitness company has opened its doors to teens across Canada for free during the summer. “We want to help all Canadians become fit and healthy and we know that when we start at a young age, they are most likely to carry that into adulthood,” said Ali Cooper, the member experience manager and operations lead for teen fitness at GoodLife Fitness.
The program has grown significantly over the years and this summer was no exception. Over 70,000 Canadian teens registered for GoodLife Fitness’ Free Teen Fitness Program, which is up from an average of 65,000 in previous years. Cooper credits this summers increased registration to several factors.
“As a company we have grown over the last year,” she explained. “We have opened a few new, large locations so that plays a part, but also word of mouth. Teens who have done the program in the past are really promoting it to other teens, family members and friends. Then parents are really looking for more affordable options for their children.”
Regarding the teen fitness program, affordable is an understatement. Participants have access to all of the facilities and classes free of charge between the hours of 8am and 4pm, seven days a week. “They don’t have access to a few pieces of equipment that are unsafe for teens to use, but other than that they have access to the majority of the items in the club,” added Cooper.
Luckily since the program has been such a hit, it does not require extensive marketing. Cooper explained, besides posting it on a few social media outlets the rest is dependent on word of mouth. And due to even higher participation rates this year, the company plans to cut back even more on external marketing efforts.
“We are going to continue with not doing as much external advertising,” said Cooper. “We learned this year that even though we weren’t doing much marketing, we still saw an increasing in participation, so next year we are hoping to keep around the same number.”
As for the future, GoodLife plans to keep the program running, as long as the demand is there. “We are going to continue this for as long as possible, as long as people want to come and utilize it, we will keep it open and free for teens,” explained Cooper.
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Emily Harbourne is the former assistant editor of Club Solutions Magazine.
