Like many companies, ClassPass was born when its founder found a solution to a problem. Payal Kadakia couldn’t find a dance class that matched her hectic schedule, and after a frustrating web search didn’t work, she came to ClassPass: an app app community of fitness enthusiasts.
Six years later, ClassPass connects its community with activities around the world. Leading marketing – as well as pricing, packaging, and inventory – is Chief Commercial Officer Zach Apter, a Google and Microsoft alum that specializes in customer experiences. You can hear more of Apter at the Adweek Challenger Brands Summit, which takes place in New York from March 4-5.
We met with Apter before the conference to talk about strategy, data, and what constitutes good training.
How important are reviews for your marketing strategy?
Our ratings are important because they provide us with the world’s largest and most unique database of the millions of studio fitness and wellness experiences that our customers participate in every month. Reviews are an integral part of the recommendations we publish, both for new users who decide whether ClassPass is for them, and for long-time users who want to discover something new. In addition, the rating of content is also advantageous for search engine optimization.
Do you use influencers in your marketing and if so, how?
The experience with ClassPass is of course interchangeable, so influencers are a very organic marketing channel for us. We work with several ClassPass fans and offer free courses in exchange for contributions to their wellness trip.
One advantage of using your actual product as compensation is that you only attract people who are really interested in your service. The result is content that feels very authentic and authentic and engenders a real follower engagement – the ultimate goal of influencer marketing. We are also lucky to have a number of celebrities using ClassPass, and we are always grateful for their organic mentions.
How do you create a coherent price and packaging structure with a presence in almost 30 countries on five continents? Or is it very much based on the local market?
ClassPass members earn monthly credit that can be used as a virtual currency in our app to book 5 million fitness classes and wellness activities in almost 30 countries around the world each month. Plans are available from $ 9 (four credits) to $ 199 (130 credits). The individual price of each class is determined by a variety of factors such as genre, time of day, location, instructor and equipment. Then it’s up to you to decide how to use your credits. For example, for $ 79, you get 45 credits that can be used for a massage in Los Angeles or for 15 yoga classes in a small studio in Brooklyn.
What have you learned in your 15 years in consumer tech that you prioritize with ClassPass?
I have always been impressed by the appeal that consumer tech has to great talent. Tech attracts some of the hardest, most ambitious, and brightest in the world, which means that innovation and competition are relentless. So I learned that you yourself have to work tirelessly to find ways to improve and grow – both in terms of your personal development and that of the company. I think a lot about where ClassPass can be innovative, where we can do things faster, better or more efficiently. Otherwise someone else will.
You have a unique role at Google and have worked on the initiative for self-driving cars. How did that help you in this role at ClassPass?
A big part of my job at Google was to think through the potential market structures of the emerging Transportation as a Service (TaaS) division. Although fitness may seem a long way from self-driving cars, there are actually many parallels when zooming out – from the online to offline type of category (“Press this button to drive from point A to point B” or ” Press this button to enroll in training class C “to find out if digital interference can occur in a world of pelotons?”)
What is your favorite class
I’ve always been a treadmill person and a runner, so I’m excited about how many such classes are offered around the world. My favorite class right now is High 45 at the Mile High Run Club in Manhattan.