YMCA: Playnasium

Credits & Description:

Agency: Mccann Melbourne
Client: Ymca Victoria
Designer: Guilherme Pocai
Designer: Vic U
Managing Director: Adrian Mills
Producer: Afrim Memed
Account Director: Alec Hussain
Account Executive: Angela Lethbridge
Music Production: Caity Moloney
Music Production: Nat Pavlovic
Art Director: Caity Moloney
Art Director: Matt Lawson
Copywriter: Charles Baylis
Social Director: Chris Baker
Digital Producer: Joe Guario
Executive Creative Director: Matt Lawson
Director: Nick Rieve
Editor: Oliver Knocker
Chief Creative Officer: Pat Baron
Digital Director: Tony Prysten
Agency Producer: Victoria Conners
Strategy:
To help role model healthier behaviours in children our campaign targeted the root cause; parents.We identified time as one of the key obstacles for this audience; parents of young children find it hard to get to the gym, and when they do they rarely take their children. We needed to design a solution that would enable children to see their parents exercising, and as a secondary objective, associate that activity with the YMCA brand. Our budget meant we had to be smart about the media we used, and our strategy relied on word of mouth for greater amplification. It was important that our communication reached communities at a grass-roots level.Furthermore, given the YMCA’s rich brand history of innovation in exercise (including the invention of basketball and volleyball), it was a logical conclusion that, instead of simply writing a brand manifesto, we should express the YMCA’s purpose through design.
Synopsis:
In Australia, 1 in 4 children and half of all adults are obese or overweight. One of the root causes of this epidemic is a lack of healthy role modelling by parents. As an organisation whose purpose is to get people together to get active, the YMCA wanted to take a role in solving the problem using design and in doing so raise wider awareness of their services and brand philosophy.
Campaign Description:
The YMCA believes in ‘health through happiness’, so we created a manifestation of this brand purpose: a new type of exercise equipment that uses a child’s weight as exercise weight, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play. The 3 machines include the Pec-A-Boo; a machine fly that works as a baby bouncer, the Row-Row-Row-Machine; a row machine that powers a child’s ride-on dolphin, and the Pull-Upsy-Daisy; a pull-up platform that works as a seesaw for the child.Installing these branded machines in public playgrounds allowed time poor parents to be at park with their kids and the gym at the same time. Placing the Playnasium in the community created events that increased awareness of the YMCA’s commitment to building healthier, happier communities whilst directly driving registrations to their services.
Outcome:
The YMCA Playnasium has been installed in 21 key locations across the state of Victoria, establishing the YMCA’s role as a key health brand in Australia. The launch of the equipment received over 10 million PR impressions. Over 40,000 parents have exercised with a YMCA Playnasium so far. Families spent an average of 37 minutes exercising on the Playnasium – twice the minimum recommended daily amount. Tracking studies showed that 87% of this audience had changed their perception of the YMCA as a health organisation and 73% said they would take up regular exercise with their children as a direct result. As an ancillary result, registrations for YMCA services in these areas rose by 27%.International roll out will begin in the United States in October 2017.
Execution:
Installed in public parks across the state, the YMCA Playnasium uses a child’s weight as exercise weight, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play. Each piece of equipment is designed for different age groups and muscle groups – but all help parents get fit, spend quality time with their children and model good behaviour. With their bold, simple, toy-like design, children were naturally drawn to experience the Playnasium, encouraging even the most reluctant parents into exercise. Created in consultation with sports scientists and child psychologists, the Playnasium not only redesigned gym equipment by making it communal and fun, but also redesigned play equipment by placing the parent in front of the child (unlike traditional play equipment) encouraging attunement – connecting the parent and child at eye level. This equipment exceeds the Australian Safety Standards for both outdoor gym and play equipment, ensuring it's safe for global roll out.