Inside YMCA 360: The content partnership powering growth across Ys nationwide

Tell us about the YMCA 360 app and how it’s evolved?

Shamain Bachman (SB), Vice President, Marketing, Greater Wichita YMCA:

YMCA 360 launched in 2019 as a membership alternative to support demand for options at times members couldn’t make it into a facility. Our CEO, Ron McMahon, along with Dan Dieffenbach, developed the platform. When COVID hit in 2020, that skyrocketed usage. We currently have around 2 million users.

Members use the app to earn points, join challenges, track activity, connect with Instructors and more. We now have over 250 YMCA Association partners on platform across the county. For members, it’s like having the YMCA in their pocket, allowing them to enjoy the same experiences they would at our facilities.

Lynn Wilmot-Stenehjem (LWS), Director of Programming:

I oversee our content, lead development conversations and help to shape what content looks like on YMCA 360. As a business we create our own content, but it’s a unique collaboration with our partners. Currently, we have 3,500 pieces of content in over 100 categories, reflecting the Y’s mission to promote healthy lifestyles, strong families and positive youth development to build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

Content mirrors our in-facility experience while expanding program options for those without them on site. It’s offered to Y Associations as a bolt-on service. If they choose to partner with YMCA 360, then all the branches umbrellaed under that association get access. We also offer a Wellness Portal which allows our association partners to reach corporate clients outside of the YMCA facility.

Why did you choose to add Les Mills content to YMCA 360?

LWS: A previous Y employee who now works for Les Mills reached out. She understood the opportunity that existed to enhance both of our organizations. Les Mills has incredible content and bringing that to our Ys with existing Les Mills relationships only enhances YMCA 360's platform. And it offers exposure for Les Mills within the YMCA movement, so it's reciprocal.

SB: Our philosophy is that we want to mirror the in-person experience, online. It’s clunky for members to have to go to different platforms to replicate that, so it made sense for those Ys that have Les Mills to be able to offer that on YMCA 360.

How did you choose content for the YMCA 360 app?

LWS: We had lots of conversations around content. We wanted workouts Les Mills is famous for: BODYPUMP™, BODYBALANCE™, BODYCOMBAT™. But we were guided by the working knowledge of the Les Mills team, who were able to advise which content already resonated with Ys and were driving attendance. It was really governed by the data. What were we all seeing?

How has content performed in relation to your expectations?

LWS: This was something new for both Les Mills and YMCA 360, so we really didn’t know what to expect but were pleased with the outcome. We were building a new analytics dashboard and we agreed to go with the recommended content and reevaluate how it resonates with our Les Mills Ys in six months, and we’ve had great viewing. Our members are loving having access to the Les Mills workouts they love, wherever they are. It’s the Y and Les Mills in their pocket.

Which YMCA 360 associations are showing the strongest engagement?

LWS: The Greater Philadelphia Y are leaps and bounds ahead. Their members have racked up the most views, 6 months in. For context, they have 15 facilities, so they're a larger Y, with a robust Les Mills live offering that has now translated over to the digital experience.

Greater Houston, Philadelphia and Delaware have also all seen strong adoption with the offering. And some of those smaller Ys are making a lot of impact for their businesses and their members. They’re using content in a variety of ways, plugging timetable gaps by working out when it suits them. We also have our InStudio offering — a screen that can go in any partner studio with an iPad. Members can go in and play a piece of content, or staff can pre program workouts.

Has the tech integration posed any issues for your ecosystem?

LWS:  It’s gone really well. The integration with API straight into our Wistia accounts and organizing content has been great.

If I had to share a learning, it would be that operators should keep Les Mills naming conventions. We thought that it would be good to integrate Les Mills content in language that was familiar for YMCA 360 and for Ys. But when it came to the back end and the mapping, it wasn’t as seamless as we would have liked. With our first releases, we had to figure out where the content was, and check it was in the right place.

With hindsight, I’d recommend not doing that because Les Mills people know where to find their content anyway. Regardless of the platform it's on, they know and love their classes or their categories. People would have learned their way around it!

Looking at usage data from the first six months, what surprised you the most?

LWS: BODYBALANCE is performing really well! It’s the top-performing category for us right now.

How have you used Les Mills to engage members and attract new ones?

SB: Les Mills Marketing Studio has incredible visual assets, which we used to support the launch on social media channels, and Les Mills also shared our posts. We used our internal comms channels to push the news out to partners and supplied Marketing Studio content for them.

Michelle LaRue (ML), National Sales and Engagement: We have 60 Ys that are active with the Les Mills channel right now. And we’ve had at least a dozen sign-ups where the Les Mills partnership either drove the decision or was the feature that ultimately tipped them over the line.

You guys have an awesome, robust team, who are constantly putting me in touch with Ys who might be interested in our platform.

The partnership has been incredible. We did some joint webinars to educate our members on the new features. We had so much great feedback from partners who were excited to have a singular place where all the content their facility offers lives.

What has the partnership enabled that you couldn’t achieve alone?

LWS: I think that global sensibility: Les Mills Instructors are from all over the world. And in my role, it's crucial that we are looking at content and production with diversity and inclusion in mind. To have that global perspective and diversity of Instructors and content is key. And of course, from a programming lens, it’s enhanced YMCA 360’s offering.

What would you highlight as the biggest business benefit of using Les Mills content?

ML:  We’re always looking to add value to our platform, and this has been an incredible value add to existing customers, plus it’s allowed us to attract new Ys because they see the value in having this content and a streamlined experience for their members.

LWS: The success we’ve had with content is driving us to consider more options for our members and partners. We're currently in conversations around bringing Les Mills content to our live stream platform. We’re being guided by the data to see what makes sense to support YMCA 360’s live stream schedule, which goes out to all our branches. So 250 associations, and over 1,000 Ys. We're right at the beginning of that conversation.

I'm excited about how that works beneficially for both of us, because our live stream views are significantly lower than I would like them to be. It's an area of growth for sure, and Les Mills will enhance that. And then, of course, because our live stream has the potential to reach over 1,000 Ys, members will be exposed to all of the great Les Mills content which will hopefully generate conversations about adding to their in-person experience.

‍