I'm always on the lookout for clever campaigns that come with a bang, and this week, I came across a great one that's been taking over the App Store.
Planet Fitness, a national chain of gyms, is giving free access to teens for the entire summer. Free has a nice ring to it, right? No catch. Just sign up and download the app, which serves as your gym pass, and you're in.
Umm, wait, download the app...
The campaign, which started on May 16th, helped skyrocket the app to the top of the US App Store almost instantly. It hasn't left since, sitting pretty ahead of popular teen destinations like TikTok and Instagram.
That translates into a lot of attention!
Our estimates show that in its first week, the campaign has resulted in 1.1 million downloads across the App Store and Google Play. However, most of them came from the App Store, where downloads grew by more than 600%. Downloads doubled on Google Play.
I don't expect this to end any time soon as the campaign lasts until the end of August.
Why is this clever? Most teens aren't likely to sign up for a gym membership, which means Planet Fitness isn't cannibalizing any revenue by offering this. And I did say most and not all, so I'm sure there's some loss, but overall it's the cost of free promotion.
Teens like to use their mobile devices, so a download isn't a hard ask. Many downloads = better rank, and a better rank = more visibility. The kind of visibility that will put Planet Fitness in front of its actual target demographic, which is slightly older.
See what's happening here? Kudos to whoever came up with that idea, and get ready to see rivals attempt their own versions.
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