10 Insights Sparked by Fibo 2022

The excitement of EHFF and Fibo was palpable this year.

A lot of fitness whanau were desperate to be together again to push the overall health and fitness agenda forward.

Here are ten mind sparks from the event.

1. Same, same, but different.

Remnants of the old world with touches of the new. The show through rose tinted glasses by the optimistic and better funded half that tuned up, “survival of the most adaptable”. Some opted to sit this one out due to lower footfall and tighter purse strings. The trade show while down on size, still felt substantial and positive.?

Many brands were selling down stock, of course, and delaying big announcements until IHRSA, where confidence is expected to move north.

2. COVID kilos.

COVID was kinder on some metabolisms than others. Trend tracker and forecaster Karsten Hollasch from Deloitte spoke of the high volume, low price (HVLP) operations storming back, like Basic-Fit in Europe and of course, Planet Fitness here in the US. Continued pressure on the mid-market and also to expect some headwinds in the next 12 to 24 months as both ends of the market businesses in hyper-growth, like ‘connected fitness’ with full warehouses of stagnant stock and those with diminished sales are stretched to find a new consumer.

3. More permanent behavioural change.

Two years has been ample time for new behaviors to be tried, shaped and adopted. Visit frequency has shifted for some, and there's far more focus on mental wellbeing today.

4. Hyper personalization, and the resulting micro-segmentation is unfolding.

Meaning that we need to more finely dice the cohorts that we now serve. There's been an acceleration of personalized products and services to use and also to recommend. And are we suddenly over subscriptions, cue Netflix and their 30-35% attrition?

5. The advancement of technology is being expressed all around us in terms of convenience and ease.

Bank tellers are being replaced by next level ATM machines, telehealth services, food and pharmacy deliveries at supermarket prices, and this will have knock on effects in our industry also.

6. The church is broadening.

We step from fitness into wellness, pulling in mental health, nutrition, life coaching, travel, ecotourism and entertainment.

7. The displacement of consumers and businesses.

A bunch of us moved personally or shifted situations like our downtown office is now a hybrid or a remote working situation. Enough for a material change in customer baseline and demographic.

8. The division of resources as we're building for the new omni-channel customer.?

Expectations at the same time as digital solutions are generally in decline as the perception of live or face-to-face services open up again providing resourcing strain on businesses.

9. Inevitable consolidation.

As the many solo pursuits flourishing off forced self-employment and startups now face the reality of competition from larger purses. ue: Xponential and Mirror, Core Fitness and Wexer.

10. Work has changed forever.

In the wake of mass furloughs, the Great Resignation and hybrid and remote working models, we saw the rise of self-employment and startup fever, which is now seeing that divergence start to converge.

While we seek to find stability in a post pandemic world together, we put all oars in the water and pull away to a stronger fitness future.

I'll see you at IHRSA in Miami in June for the next installment and again in Fibo 2023.

https://hub.ihrsa.org/ihrsa-2022-convention

Fibo