MASTERS often talks to prominent figures in the business world. This time with Jasper Bron, Managing Director Technogym Benelux. Among other things about current trends in fitness, but also the plans for 2023 are discussed. For example, a real experience center will be opened in the Netherlands.
"In 1983, Nerio Alessandri built the first fitness machines in his garage. Today, Technogym is the global leader in software and hardware solutions for fitness and wellness. Technogym has been elected official supplier to the Olympic Games eight times and works with the world's most prestigious sports clubs, think AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid and Chelsea in soccer, Ferrari in Formula 1 and Luna Rossa in sailing. Some 55 million people worldwide use Technogym products every day. When I started at Technogym 15 years ago, the consumer market was still in its infancy. Back then, if you looked on Funda, you would sometimes see a cheap piece of equipment in the bedroom that was mainly used as a coat rack. In recent years, especially with covid, that market has boomed: more and more people are setting up a gym at home with good equipment. Another development is digitalization. You used to get on a treadmill, press start and that was it. Nowadays there is entertainment, content and you can store everything you do. Whereas the gym used to be the focal point, now there is a hybrid ecosystem: people not only go to the gym to exercise, but also exercise at home, at the physical therapist or on vacation at the hotel, take a walk, go swimming... And everything is recorded. If I am on winter sports in Austria and get on the cross trainer first thing in the morning, I log on to the machine and my Personal Trainer at home sees what I have performed. Then when I go skiing, I set my smartwatch to ski mode and he or she can likewise see what I did."
"Our mission is to make people happier through healthy eating, a good mindset and exercise. You only have one body and you have to take good care of it. I have to exercise at least four peer a week by myself. My gym gear is in the car by default. If I'm visiting a client, I sometimes stay for a short workout. I apply the 80/20 rule: 80 percent mindfulness, but on weekends I like to drink a beer and prepare something tasty on my Green Egg. Technogym's focus is on exercise, but we can also design a whole vitality program for a company. We can also offer nutrition and mindfulness on our digital platform; we can do that through the Technogym app, but we can also bring in partners for that. A distinguishing component of Technogym is that there is a digital component in everything we market and we offer content for both our partners and the end user. Basically, most people find fitness boring, with features you make it attractive. Nowhere is retention worse than in the gym industry. That's why you have to make it fun, then people will come back."
"With the Technogym app, you can select all kinds of programs and workouts to match the equipment you have at home. Everything is tracked and you can share in the community. You can also compete against each other by, for example, virtually cycling up Mont Ventoux on our indoor bike Technogym Ride including integration with training apps like Zwift, Strava or Rouvy. That's one side of the story. The other side is that with the platform we offer our operators - gyms, corporate fitness, physical therapists - can also communicate with their members and offer challenges, for example. We ourselves organize once a year the challenge Let's Move for a Better World, where we let our partners compete against each other in a fun way: who generates the most moves within two weeks? Great fun! Clubs stay open 24 hours, drum up deejays and provide other entertainment to get as many people as possible to the gym and join the contest. It's also possible to 'donate' your own exercise to charity."
"Among our best sellers, in addition to the Technogym MyRun, Elliptical and Ride, are the Unica, a multi-strength station for maximum muscle activation, and Technogym Bench, an all-in-one functional fitness bench including dumbbells and elastic bands (pictured; ed.), which allows you to do countless workouts. The plans for 2023? We will move into our new office near Rotterdam, which will include a large experience center. We will also open a boutique in Amsterdam and come up with some new innovations, including an adjustable dumbbell set with sensors in it. These keep track of exactly what you do, how fast you do it, everything is monitored and content is provided with that as well, through the Technogym app. And for performance-driven people, we're coming out with a new treadmill with a big screen on it and new features. Technogym is the best you can buy. That's in quality, design, attention to detail... Most major chains and parties work with Technogym. Yet we have a brand awareness of only 6 percent. That's where we still have ground to gain. In that respect, the hotel market is an important market for us: that's where our target group comes, who can also experience our products there. That is why MASTERS EXPO is also interesting for us: half of the Quote 500 walks around there. Among other things, we'll put the Technogym Kinesis there and some cardio and strength equipment. Our branch for private individuals is an enormous cross-pollination. If someone has a villa built, he needs someone to realize a swimming pool, someone for a gym, yet another party for a nice sound system... At MASTERS EXPO everything comes together."
Curious to discover all of Technogym's innovations? Check out the website here.
The winter issue of MASTERS was created in collaboration with Jordi van den Bussche. Many will know him as YouTuber Kwebbelkop, yet he has been working hard as an entrepreneur for some time, as he reveals in the Big Interview. What's new is that his company JVDB Studios is offering to do social media marketing and short-format content marketing for other companies. "They can also go and figure it out themselves, but we cracked the code." Jordi gives a stage to like-minded entrepreneurs such as Jay-Jay Boske, Demy de Zeeuw, Chahid Charrak and Marcella de Bie, and discusses developments around games, crypto and NFT: "Just as bitcoin turned the financial system upside down, the same will happen with gaming." This extra-thick winter issue also features Lengers' first own ship, an interview with Corendon chief Atilay Uslu, specials on the new BMW 7 Series and Samsung foldables, and - exclusively for MASTERS! - an interview with Max Verstappen.
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