Pop-up leisure
The pop-up proposition
Kate Cracknell and Magali Robathan report on the emergence of the ‘pop-up’ leisure experience, and what opportunities this trend might present to the fitness industry
The pop-up concept is thriving – a new generation of time-limited operations that use existing or temporary locations to launch low-risk, often highly creative leisure experiences, from hotels to spas, restaurants to cinemas, parks to shops (see Leisure Management issue 2 2013, p42).
As Liz Terry, editor of Leisure Management, outlined in her editor’s letter in that issue (issue 2 2013, p3): “Designing, funding, building and running facilities is an expensive undertaking, but because the majority of people’s out-of-home leisure activity has traditionally taken place in and around some kind of facility, operators have always had to bear the costs associated with this.
“But they’re facing new competition from operations seeking to profit by operating equivalent experiences for customers, while bearing none of the costs associated with facility operations – and they’re doing it in innovative ways.”
The traditional facility-based model has already been challenged in the fitness sector by outdoor boot camps, virtual group exercise classes on the internet, fitness apps. And now pop-ups are starting to enter this same territory.
But rather than seeing this as a threat, the pop-up concept in fact offers fitness operators an exciting opportunity – a cost-effective way to expand their reach and test out new markets. Here’s a selection of initiatives that illustrate how to tap into this hot new trend.
Testing the waters
Any health clubs operator weighing up the pros and cons of developing a spa offering could, rather than immediately building a costly permanent offering, instead test the waters with a pop-up offering. This could be done either on-site at the club or in a standalone location nearby, taking advantage of the lower set-up costs to assess the viability of such an offering in the longer term.
Barking Bathhouse is a great example of this – a pop-up spa which proved so popular that a permanent offering is now being developed. Set up in London in the summer of 2012, it was created by design practice Something & Son and was open for 12 weeks from July 2012. Situated in a car park, it resembled a giant beach hut from the outside. Inside, it had a shingle beach where spa-goers could sunbathe, as well as three treatment rooms, a wood-fired sauna, ice room, relaxation yard and organic bar. Treatments were affordable and it became highly popular, hosting everything from yoga events to comedy nights.
“Setting up a pop-up spa enabled us to be more innovative than if we were running a permanent spa,” says Paul Smyth, founder of Something & Son. “We didn’t have the pressure a permanent spa might have, so we could try out new ideas and focus on getting people in and having a great time. We learned what worked and what didn’t.”
Although the pop-up was dismantled in October 2012, Something & Son transformed four rooms at the Barking Learning Centre into treatment rooms so the concept could continue in winter.
The £230,000 pop-up spa was funded by the local council and the Outer London Fund, created by London mayor Boris Johnson to support the outer London boroughs during the Olympics; a further £300,000 is now being invested in a permanent bathhouse. Something & Son is also talking to both Bristol and Brighton councils about recreating the concept there.
An interview with the founders of Barking Bathhouse ran in Leisure Management issue 2 2013, p54.
Corporate offering
Hotpod Yoga uses the pop-up format to target the corporate market – something other fitness operators might also consider to extend their reach into this market.
The company offers hot yoga classes in its own pop-up inflatable studios – the eponymous ‘pods’ – which it uses to provide an in-office offering. It focuses on Vinyasa flow yoga, with the heat (around 38 degrees) facilitating “maximum benefits in a relatively short time” – perfect for office lunch hours.
The pod – which includes heating, music and lighting systems – is designed to take people out of the office environment the moment they walk through the door. Any office that signs up is given its own pod and agrees a class timetable with Hotpod Yoga: they can offer as many classes as they like, with Hotpod also very flexible in terms of class times. Instructors then come in, inflate the pop-up “in a matter of seconds”, heat it and sign participants in for a one-hour class, before deflating it, tidying up and putting it back into storage at the office. The pod measures 8m x 9m when erect, and just under 3m high, with a capacity of 20 people.
Although Hotpod Yoga services its own clients in London and the M4 corridor, outside of this the concept can be franchised, to cater either for corporates or the general public.
Join the cool club
The novelty of the pop-up format – with its lack of adherence to traditional formats or venues, its lack of fixed abode, and its flexibility to morph in response to demand – gives these offerings an element of coolness and exclusivity.
London-based pop-up gym Move, founded by AJ O’Neil, absolutely embodies this. Its growing number of followers are brought together as a buzzing community whose excitement for working out is kept alive through new class formats and locations – including rooftops, piazzas and gardens.
With no fixed address and no membership contract (prices start at £10 per class), social media is used to great effect: via irreverent, fun and enthusiastic Facebook and Twitter posts, followers can keep track of the latest classes – and the locations for those classes. Not only that, but participants’ feedback is actively sought regarding where and how they’d like to Move.
All classes are designed to be great fun, with half of the timetable involving dance and dance fitness, including workshops with cast members of West End shows such as Chicago and Dirty Dancing. But as Move’s Facebook feed clarifies, it’s not all about dancing: “Dancers aren’t the only people with moves – we’re inviting some of London’s most exciting combat fitness instructors to come and show our Movers how to get fighting fit. What classes do you guys want to try the most?”
There’s a real club feel – a sense of being part of the ‘in’ crowd, allowed to work out in unusual locations with a focus on interaction and fun. “We have a vision of bringing fitness into inspiring environments, and opening it up to a wider public,” says O’Neil.
Meanwhile, in an initiative reminiscent of Lunch Beat – the lunchtime clubbing sessions in Stockholm designed to get workers active during their lunch break – class finding and booking website Fitness Freak organised its first pop-up event in London in June.
Run in collaboration with TimeOut, the event – which took place in the vaults beneath Waterloo train station – comprised four one-hour rave classes over two days, complete with live DJ and glowsticks for every participant. The high-energy cardio and conditioning sessions were set to 90s dance classics, with multiple instructors getting the crowd fired up.
All sessions sold out, at a cost of £13.85 per class including booking fee, with a total of 650 people attending across the two days. The event has now been followed up with £10, drop-in RAVE classes at Gymbox Bank, exclusively for Fitness Freak users, with further pop-up events planned.
Running such events need not be overly expensive, but executed and marketed well they could offer operators a great chance to build a sense of ‘club’ among members.
