Mobile rewards – Fitness First

Mobile rewards – Fitness First

Idealogy just recently completed its second mobile site for Fitness First – the First Club mobile site.

2011 - the year of the mobile and bright yellow pandas!

Did you know there are more mobile devices in the world than PC’s? I’m sure you did!

Yep, 2011 will be the year of mobile and location services and apps and HTML 5 and bright yellow pandas…I guess you’ve heard most of this before (maybe not the panda part though!) Every year, the experts try to predict the big trends and they rarely seem to get it wrong - they just happen to be a year or so out sometimes! That statement would certainly be true with their mobile predictions anyway, as 09 and 10 were both going to be the year of mobile, when, in fact they nearly were. At least, that’s my opinion.

I do agree with them this year though! 2011 does seem to be the year that things are really going to take off. The big brands are on-board already and the SME brands are realising they need to do something for the mobile customer - they just need some help on what that might be.

I believe you can thank Apple for the massive drive forward in mobile absorption in 10 and 11. The iPhone certainly kick-started a slow market and added real ingenuity and style. The iPad added to the momentum and with Google (Android) and Microsoft (Windows 7 mobile) biting away at Apple’s heels with some classy stuff, the train has well and truly left the station and it’s getting faster and faster in 2011.

Add to that, the fact that Nokia has just thrown it’s full support behind Windows 7 mobile, and then there is the ever growing glut of iPod ‘wannabees’ (and possibly a real contender in there as well) and you don’t have to look hard to see a rapidly increasing market and opportunity.

Fitness First goes mobile…a second time!

Fitness First was the first Idealogy client willing to experiment in the mobile arena way back in 2007/08; a long time before the rest of the market caught onto mobile applications.

The fast-growing Smartphone market of 09/10 and some significant analytical research by our digital team proved, beyond doubt, that a large proportion (10% and growing) of Fitness First’s online visitors came via a mobile device and current trends prove that this is only set to increase in 2011.

We approached them with a proposal to convert the most useful parts of their site into a mobile version, whilst still running it from one centralised source for easy administration. This solution, alongside a cost effective estimate with a strong ROI, made it relatively straightforward for them to give us the green light.

The actual project is fairly simple design-wise. Mobile sites need to be slick, responsive and easy-to-use while still emphasising the brand, so simplicity really is the key, as, to date, Smartphones still aren’t the fastest things in the world. Then the important considerations are good clean coding, testing and finally, speed to launch. This we duly achieved and the site is now live. If you visit www.fitnessfirst.co.uk on a mobile you’ll now be directed to the new mobile version of their site.

Posted by Simon Johnson