Life Time's CEO, Bahram Akradi, an avid triathlete himself, will explain his interest in the events arm of his business to anyone who cares to listen. While only a fraction of all Life Time's customers participate in all its events (indoor and outdoor triathlons, footraces, and cycling events) its customer retention rates are much higher when those customers participate in these events. When
I wrote about this in 2012 I estimated more than 100,000 discrete registrations per year in Life Time's events. That certainly has increased between then and now.
So you have it two ways: Existing Life Time customers tend to retain and re-up when they are also event participants; event participants who are not Life Time members are subjected to a club outreach at these outside events.
This dynamic is probably optimized at the short course level and Life Time obviously now realizes that. But this deep tie, down to the sinew and capillary, with Ironman means those Life Time members who are hyper-goal-oriented have access to a grand aspiration.
Here's a data point, I don't know if this is valid, but it's intriguing to me. About 1 in 6 club members are "non-access" members, who pay monthly to be a part of Life Time Fitness without going to a club or, I presume, enjoying much if anything in in-club privileges. This is a huge number of people. By keeping some form of membership alive they reserve the right to reanimate their club membership (maybe they're temporarily living and working where there is no club; maybe they're just taking a club hiatus). It seems to me that granting additional out-of-club benefits and opportunities to these folks both keeps the string attached; and there might eventually be a kind of membership available for Life Time members who are never able to enjoy the benefits of a club – who might never live proximate to a club. If the adding of events, and coaching and training for these events, to its portfolio of offerings was simply a strategic initiative aimed toward these non-access members, it might have value there alone.
Ironman. What's it getting? Access to close to 2 million club and non-access members who are regularly exhorted and urged to do a triathlon, if even a very short, in-club triathlon (everybody starts somewhere). Bear in mind the indoor tris are co-branded and there is at least one Kona slot devoted to this program! (More on the indoor triathlons below.)