Virgin Active Quest two makes tracks

Begun in February this year, Virgin Active's Toyota Quest is a four phase promotion that runs in two-month bursts in all of the health club group's 77 gyms nationwide. At the start of each phase, members must register to participate. Each visit to the gym enables them to log hours which make them eligible to win prizes. The more hours logged, the better prizes available including the top prize of a Toyota RunX 160 RX.

"Although Quest 1 which ended in March was considered a success, in hindsight we see that it just set a foundation for Quest 2 which concluded end June," says Carter. "In short, our total unique members registered shot up from 55 445 (Q1) to 104 085 (Q2) an increase of nearly 90%. More importantly, we saw the ratio of Quest registered members to Virgin Active members increase from 13.4% (Q1) to 25.4% (Q2). This means that more than a quarter of the group's membership base participated in the latest Toyota Quest program". Polokwane, the country's most successful Quest club, raised their Quest/Virgin Active membership ratio from 43.9% to 55.8%.

Carter attributes the impressive uptake of Quest 2 to the inherent results of regular exercise. "Apart from promoting a healthy lifestyle through ongoing gym training, Quest provides our members with a tangible goal and incentive, through a combination of exercise and fun. Although the main prize of a Toyota RunX 160 RX may have been the motivator for some members, that wouldn't explain why the numbers are so different considering we gave away a Toyota RAV 4 in the previous phase as well. We believe that all of Quest 1's participants came along for the ride in Quest 2 and that their word of mouth combined with our ongoing communications programme resulted in a phase two generation of new wellness converts."

Toyota Quest 3 starts in August.