Athletic Clubs Use Vanity 800 Number in Television Campaign to Drive Membership

Client: Marketing Director – Maryland

Background: This group of athletic clubs is dedicated to helping clients achieve their personal best by offering top-rated facilities, services and a supportive and professional fitness staff. The club’s nine locations offer a wide range of sports and fitness facilities and health education for clients of all ages – from kids to seniors. Members can rely on the club’s expert staff to share thoughts and ideas on fitness, health, nutrition, and events happening at the clubs and in the community.

Challenge: Drive annual membership activation, especially during the new year.

Solution: Use a vanity 800 number that aligns with the club’s “Where your Future Takes Shape” tagline.

Results: January and February are always the busiest months for health clubs in terms of new memberships and attendance. This group of athletic clubs uses this trend to their advantage.

According to the Marketing Director, “We run a huge TV campaign in January and the first week in February that drives people to call our vanity 800 number, 1-800-NEW-SHAPE. We do get a lot of calls, which is great.” Of the calls that come in during those five weeks, 15-18% are solid, qualified leads, and the activation rate is around 8 to 10%.

Using the online Call Tracking reports, she can monitor the success of Merritt’s television advertising spend by monitoring the number of calls that come into the vanity 800 number.

She explains, “Due to budgets and the high cost of television, we run our TV spots only in January and February. For us, it has proven to be a successful strategy. People remember the vanity number after they see our TV spots, and they call into the club for more information. Once we get them on the phone, it’s our job to turn them into members.”

The group of clubs does use the vanity 800 number in other marketing and advertising efforts throughout the year to brand the club with 1-800-NEW-SHAPE and make it easy for people to contact them and activate memberships all year long.

Call Tracking reports also provide the business with caller names, addresses and demographic profiles. This information can be downloaded and merged into the club’s existing lead database, and is invaluable for future marketing campaigns.