When the pandemic struck, the Global Experience team was working on various service design projects, and in the middle of commissioning, Studio D Radiodurans to conduct ethnographic research into the culture of exercise in Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore.
The pandemic necessitated all Virgin Active clubs in South Africa to be closed with virtually no notice and membership payments were suspended. This was an existential problem for a company that relies completely on membership fees. A rapid pivot was needed so we fast-tracked our online workout app.
Our IT infrastructure was in the process of a highly complex and long-overdue upgrade which meant we didn't have a platform available for us to build on.
The Experience team took pay cuts and worked around the clock for many weeks hacking together a passable digital exercise platform (initially using WordPress and Vimeo as we had no financial resources and no tech platform to build on).
We had a global customer base and no luxuries like SSO so we had to hack together login systems and connect disparate member systems and databases.
We also had no workout content so we had to create content in our closed gyms and team members' houses during the lockdown which required special permits with strict regulations.
We even live-streamed content around the clock from various instructors' homes around the world so we could foster a sense of community and togetherness in those strange, potentially isolated, and lonely times.
Before long we got the new online platform up to a level that members were predominantly happy to pay for and revenue started flowing again. The business survived and went on to thrive.
MacGyver would have been proud!
Virgin Active 2020. Team: Rohan Shackleford.
Cape Town