Catching Up With 24 Hour Fitness CEO Carl Liebert 24 Hour Fitness CEO Carl Liebert joined the company last year, long after it had signed its partnership with the U.S. Olympic Committee. But the former Home Depot executive was familiar with the property, so he had no qualms about approving a four- year extension of that relationship yesterday evening. Liebert chatted with SportsBusiness Journal Olympics writer Tripp Mickle about the Olympic movement and the Beijing Games following the sponsorship announcement. When did you get into Beijing? Liebert: I came over with the USA Basketball team. We flew with them to Macao and then went to Shanghai, and I got in to Beijing yesterday. How have you found things in Beijing so far? Liebert: I’ve been coming to Beijing for eight years for work, and I’m impressed. I’m impressed by the venues. I’m impressed with the professionalism I’ve seen. I’m also impressed with just how organized it is. It’s difficult in one place with 20 million people to get them all to do things. I’m very impressed with how China’s handling it. The city looks great. It’s certainly the best I’ve seen it since I’ve been coming. What stands out in your mind? Liebert: Obviously, it’s great to see the venues. Also, you see a lot of green space. You see flowers. You see excitement and enthusiasm. You can’t go out now without feeling this enthusiastic spirit. Every street corner has a sign for the Olympics. Has anything caught you by surprise that you didn’t expect? Liebert: I was impressed with Coke’s activation and their presence. I didn’t get a chance to go through it. … Across from the hotel, Audi’s popped up a building right beside the Bird’s Nest. That’s part of what’s exciting about the Olympic Games. What were the ROI metrics coming into this renewal that gave you the confidence to continue your relationship with the USOC? Liebert: One of the things we look at in terms of ROI is that we believe we can change people’s lives through fitness. We believe that when you join a club, you join a club for various dreams and aspirations. One of the things we focus on is making sure members achieve what they’re trying to do — weight loss, improve their cardio, become a better athlete, get ready for a wedding vow renewal — something. We see this “We are athletes” concept woven through our clubs. It allows us to leverage our 4,000 personal trainers. We rely on them to help our members achieve their fitness dreams. As we look at our metrics we focus on the number of members that join and the number of members that do training. Do you see any direct correlation between that and your USOC sponsorship? Liebert: Yes, we do. Especially during some of the campaigns we’re running with Kerri [Walsh]. People are actually coming in and talking about some of our spots, and our spots are about everyday athletes trying to achieve their dreams, whether it’s running with Jeremy Wariner on a treadmill or playing volleyball with Kerri in a gym. We’ve found there’s a renewed spirit with members coming in and talking about that and talking about a renewed sense for training. Another thing that’s difficult to measure but is important is this seems like a partnership our team and staff can rally around. Twenty-one of our trainers got to come to Beijing. Tell me how many other companies pulled associates or employees off their floor and brought them to Beijing to do their job. What we’re getting is improved employee engagement, lower turnover and we know that translates into a better customer experience. Is there any direct tie that emerged over the last four years between the USOC partnership and membership growth? Is there a percentage you can point to? Liebert: One of the things we’ve seen is better retention. In the club business, it’s about signing people up, but it’s really about getting them to stay. … I’d love to be able to correlate the two perfectly, we haven’t been able to do that but we know it exists. We also know over the last four years we haven’t done as good a job activating the partnership as advertising it. What do you see 24 Hour Fitness doing over the next four years that differentiates it from the four years before. Liebert: I think the next four years are going to be great. We’ve learned so much doing this [High Performance Training Center in Beijing] that I think by the time we go to Vancouver [in 2010], it will be really cool. We have a great brand awareness. It’s really come from “The Biggest Loser” and our sponsorship of that show on NBC. But we’re only in 13 states — well, we have one club in New York and one club in New Jersey, so that makes 15 now. But we have people in Georgia and North Carolina say, “When are you coming?” We think the USOC sponsorship continues to allow us to create brand awareness and a hook for us putting clubs into those markets. Therefore, it’s much easier to work with landlords, real estate developers and find members who want to join our clubs. How do you see the USA Basketball relationship benefiting 24 Hour Fitness over time? Liebert: What we’re looking to do is link the ability to use our gyms. We have — in non-peak times — basketball courts that go unused. One of the things we see by partnering with USA Basketball is help bring …. kids into our clubs and teach them the right way to play basketball. Do you see it helping 24 Hour Fitness’ bottom line? Liebert: One of the things it helps with is bringing in families. It’s a tough economy right now. If you’re a retailer and you start thinking about convenience, one of the things we see is that people start staying closer to home. One of things about our club is they’re convenient, and if we can create an experience where moms feel good about bringing their kid to the club for a basketball game, we see those moms or kids staying with us and they’re staying with us for a lot longer. Our member workout hours are up in clubs where we’re doing the basketball training. You mentioned the economy. Does making a sports marketing spend like this get tougher in this economic climate? Liebert: I think, right now, what you want to do is stay focused. It’s easy to get distracted. What’s great about the spend, the Olympic movement, you’ve either got it or your don’t. It’s an easier situation for us to participate and activate with in our clubs than, say, a partnership with a professional team. What happens is our members see those guys as far out of reach, but people like Kerri they can relate to because they’re everyday people. Posted by: Street & Smiths Sports Business Journal / August 6, 2008 / 2:23 PM .