How Ergatta Created the Game-Based Digital Fitness Category
Promoting Competition and Community with Music from Feed.fm
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The Challenge
Building a High-Quality Music Experience That Puts Users in Control
Ergatta’s mission is to make at-home rowing so engaging—even addicting—that regular exercise easily becomes a habit. The Ergatta program is unique in that there are no classes and no instructors; the entire program is based on games and competitions that motivate the user towards continual improvement. Tom Aulet, the CEO and Co-Founder of Ergatta, has said, “Our major insight, after months of surveys and interviews, was that half the fitness market didn’t want classes or instructors — they wanted to be in control, they wanted to compete, and they wanted a workout experience that felt more like playing a sport or a game.”
The leaders at Ergatta knew that to keep their rowers excited and engaged, music would be a vital component of the experience. And not just any music: it had to be a compelling variety of energizing hit songs that users would enjoy working out with.
After some preliminary research into the details of licensing music for corporate use, they realized that this was a bigger project than Ergatta wanted to manage on its own. Ergatta was committed to staying focused on its core mission: providing beautiful, aesthetically pleasing rowing equipment and enticingly addictive games and rowing events.
Ergatta recognized that managing music in-house—including the vast expense of hiring lawyers, additional employees, and hardware and software to deal with the intricacies of licensing, curation, streaming, data tracking, and royalty payments—would be a heavy strain on the company budget and would distract from the company’s area of excellence. In addition, the long timeline typically required to negotiate new music licenses would unnecessarily delay their speed to market.
The Solution
Partnering with Feed.fm to Build a Customized Music Experience Efficiently
Ergatta’s goal became clear: find a way to integrate music into the user experience in a way that would increase engagement, retention, and customer satisfaction, and without putting undue financial or operational burdens on the Ergatta product team. Feed.fm was the partner who made this goal a reality.
Feed.fm was excited to work with the first-of-its kind game-based exercise program, and went to work analyzing the Ergatta product experience and user demographics. Feed.fm worked with Ergatta to develop a customized set of music stations across multiple genres that mapped to the user experience. Ergatta implemented the Feed.fm SDK to create a personalized, choice-based music menu that allows customers to select the soundtracks for their workouts. Stations are continually optimized by Feed.fm’s expert curation team to maximize engagement.
THE RESULTS
5.5x Longer Session Times!
Ergatta users row 5.5 times longer on average when they listen to Feed.fm’s custom music stations!
Selecting Feed.fm as their end-to-end music partner saved Ergatta significant money, time, and operational headaches.
In Action
Ready, Set, Scale!
The combination of exercise, music, and competition has created a winning formula for Ergatta users, many of whom are enjoying the benefits of a regular home exercise routine for the first time. When Ergatta surveyed its full membership—over 75,000 users—they found that prior to discovering Ergatta, the majority of their power users had not been able to create a lasting workout habit. For these individuals, Ergatta has opened up a new horizon of possibilities. And for Ergatta, this means reaping the benefits of music-led growth. Music powered by Feed.fm significantly amps up workout engagement: Ergatta users row 5.5 times longer on average when they listen to Feed.fm’s custom music stations! The most streamed music stations are high-energy pop and classic rock, followed by dance music, country, and hip hop.
Additionally, selecting Feed.fm as their Unified Music System (UMS) provided the with an end-to-end solution saving Ergatta significant money, time, and operational headaches. Feed.fm’s one-stop-shop music solution handles all licensing, curation, optimization, and rightsholder payment management.
Alessandra Gotbaum, Co-Founder and COO of Ergatta, says, “Feed.fm allows us to bring music into our product flexibly and efficiently.” When the right music is there at the right time for the right user, everyone wins.
Ergatta is positioned well to scale this winning combination. They are slated to release multiple new games this year and expand sales to international markets.
