How Virgin Lively’s Loyalty Program Is Altering Lives Via Frequency and Consistency – an interview with Ros Netto, International Head of Rewards, Virgin Lively
Each morning at 4 AM, a person in his early seventies stands exterior a Virgin Lively gymnasium in South Africa, ready for the doorways to open. He is survived a number of rounds of most cancers therapy and now in remission, has a brand new mission: hit his weekly wellness targets.
“He instructed us, ‘I’ll hit my targets each week. That is vital to me. I’ve beat most cancers, and I really like redeeming my weekly reward. I really like with the ability to see my development,'” recollects Ros Netto, International Head of Rewards for Virgin Lively. “The membership employees know precisely who he’s. He’s faithfully on the membership daily.”
This is not a only a profile of a high-profile loyalty program. It is a look into the way forward for buyer loyalty within the healthcare and wellness industries, each classes which can be more and more vital for tens of millions of customers. On this interview with Ros Netto, you’ll acquire perspective on the dynamics of the South African loyalty market and meet an individual main change in that market and past as Virgin Lively delivers its imaginative and prescient for wellness loyalty in a number of markets.
From Advisor to Change Agent
Ros Netto’s path to main one of many health trade’s most revolutionary loyalty applications started fifteen years in the past at Reality, certainly one of South Africa’s main loyalty consultancies. Beneath the mentorship of trade veteran Amanda Cromhout, Netto spent 9 years designing applications in a market simply discovering loyalty.
Earlier than diving into the formal interview, Netto talked about her private passions: she’s a aggressive endurance athlete and has accomplished two full Ironman races. Her husband shares her love of endurance sports activities, qualifying for the world championship Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii, and at present coaching for the 2026 Boston Marathon.
The revelation resonated with interview host Invoice Hanifin, himself a 20-year triathlon veteran with two Ironmans beneath his belt. The mutual understanding was quick—each knew intimately how dedication, persistence, and resolve contribute to reaching seemingly unimaginable targets. It is a mindset that permeates Netto’s method to enterprise and influenced her loyalty program design.
“South Africa’s loyalty panorama was nonetheless comparatively early stage round 2010,” Netto explains. “There have been solely a handful of established loyalty applications on the time, and no main grocery retailer had but launched a scaled providing.” Throughout her tenure at Reality, Netto was a part of a workforce engaged on early large-scale grocery loyalty initiatives, serving to to form technique in a market that was nonetheless evolving and knowledgeable by learnings from extra mature markets comparable to the USA.
After 9 years of consulting, one thing was lacking. “I hadn’t owned a program from finish to finish, from the model aspect,” she displays. That hole led her to KAUAI, South Africa’s largest wholesome fast-casual restaurant chain. Her first day? April 1, 2020—within the coronary heart of the pandemic.
Two years later, Virgin Lively acquired KAUAI and its sister firm Nu, bringing wholesome meals choices straight into Virgin Lively golf equipment. The acquisition introduced Netto together with it. Right now, she oversees rewards technique throughout six territories: South Africa, the UK, Italy, Australia, Botswana, and Namibia, with Thailand & Singapore subsequent on the horizon.
Reimagining the Health Membership
Virgin Lively’s transformation extends far past typical gymnasium rebrands. When CEO Dean Kowarski stepped in two years in the past, he introduced a imaginative and prescient of wellness past barbells and treadmills.
“He needed to rework Virgin Lively from only a health vacation spot into what we time period a social wellness membership,” Netto explains. Right now’s golf equipment characteristic restoration zones, wholesome meals choices, youngsters’ play areas, working areas with bookable boardrooms, and in-house consultants together with private trainers, physiotherapists, and swim coaches.
“We wish to be that second house, baked into your every day routine,” Netto emphasizes. The rewards program, launched in South Africa in 2023 and now rolling out globally, serves because the digital bridge connecting members to this ecosystem.
A Program Constructed on Behavioral Science
Virgin Lively Rewards breaks from conventional health loyalty fashions basically: it would not reward spending. In any respect.
“We incentivize how you utilize our amenities and reaching your targets,” Netto states. “We do not incentivize paying a membership price.”
Weekly Rewards concentrate on on the spot gratification and behavior formation.
- Members begin with a aim of two membership visits per week. Hit that aim, unlock a reward—usually a free smoothie from KAUAI or Nu. Obtain your aim, and subsequent week’s goal will increase to 3 visits, then 4. Miss your aim, and it adjusts again down.
- The outcomes? 82% of their members enrolled in this system are lively members with 62% of members reaching their weekly targets a minimum of as soon as month-to-month. This can be a exceptional stage of engagement in an trade infamous for deserted memberships.
Milestone Rewards acknowledge sustained consistency.
- Hit uninterrupted weekly targets for 12 weeks straight, earn a nourishing meal. Attain 26 weeks, obtain associate rewards or merchandise. Full 52 weeks, obtain a free month of membership. Miss every week, and the streak resets.
- “We have had far more members hit the 52-week milestone exceeding all baseline projections,” Netto notes. “It is a good drawback to have.”
Tier Advantages function as always-on recognition.
- Members earn factors for non-transactional actions: membership visits, reserving courses, watching on-line exercises. Factors translate into Bronze, Silver, or Gold tier standing, every unlocking progressive reductions from wellness companions like Biogen, Garmin, and Hyperice.
- And tier standing, as soon as earned, is all the time accessible for Virgin Lively members. “You might be Gold for all times,” Netto explains. “Our ecosystem sees worth in supporting extremely motivated wellness-focused members “the crème de la crème,” as Netto calls them.
The Function of Behavior Formation
Virgin Lively’s program design stems from deep understanding of behavioral psychology. Whereas common tradition suggests 21 days varieties a behavior, Netto factors to analysis indicating 60-90 days is extra correct
“We all know that the primary 90 days of somebody’s journey with us is probably the most vital,” she notes. “It is the interval after they’ll type the behavior, baking coming into our areas as a part of their every day life.”
Weekly rewards faucet into extrinsic motivation—the quick dopamine hit of reaching a aim. The milestone construction progressively shifts members towards intrinsic motivation, the place the streak itself turns into the reward.
“Members get obsessive about monitoring their consistency and never wanting to interrupt their streak,” Netto observes. “If there’s some glitch within the system and we do not observe a go to, and there is danger of breaking their streak, we’ll find out about it. They’re religiously monitoring that development.”
Buyer Expertise and Affiliate Coaching are tied to Success
With 82% adoption throughout all 6 territories this system operates in, this system demonstrates clear traction. However Netto acknowledges a fancy actuality about loyalty measurement in health.
“We’re not naive and suppose that rewards will repair every part,” she emphasizes. “You would have probably the most fascinating rewards and seamless redemption. However when you have a poor buyer expertise, or if the fundamentals of what we provide are missing, loyalty’s not going to repair it.”
This system serves as a instrument for operational groups, offering knowledge and mechanisms to help members. Workers understanding turns into vital. Virgin Lively offers employees a model of this system that mirrors the member expertise with out unlocking precise rewards, since employees getting into golf equipment every day would mechanically hit high achievements.
“We measure them by totally different leaderboards on how they have interaction members to take part,” she explains. Golf equipment get acknowledged for driving participation, incentivizing employees with out gaming the system.
The High 100 and the Energy of Recognition
Virgin Lively identifies its high 100 members yearly primarily based on membership visits over 12 months. These ultra-engaged members common 346 visits per 12 months—primarily daily besides Christmas.
Recognition goes past knowledge. High 100 members obtain a personalised plaque on a locker of their alternative. Membership employees become involved. Handwritten notes arrive. The CEO participates.
The revelation got here when Virgin Lively requested these members how they achieved such consistency. “A variety of them attributed their success to the rewards program,” Netto recollects. “That was an enormous aha second.”
The most cancers survivor at 4 AM wasn’t alone. Story after story revealed members for whom this system supplied construction and recognition throughout life’s most difficult moments.
“Once you’re within the thick of issues, and techniques are down, or budgets aren’t aligning, you replicate on these tales,” Netto says. “We’re really doing a rattling good job if we’re altering lives.”
Classes for Loyalty Professionals
Netto’s second of readability about loyalty’s energy got here early in her profession, whereas working with every day spend retailers in South Africa. “Folks would get to the top of the month actually struggling, ready for that subsequent paycheck,” she recollects. “However they’d banked simply sufficient cashback to purchase electrical energy, airtime, knowledge—one thing actually vital. What a second of readability.”
The conclusion that loyalty applications can present actual, tangible worth throughout troublesome moments shapes Virgin Lively Rewards’ philosophy. This system would not chase solely premium spenders or transaction quantity. It acknowledges habits, helps wellness targets, and gives related rewards when members want them.
For an trade the place deserted memberships and excessive churn are accepted norms, Virgin Lively is proving loyalty applications can work when designed across the rules of behavioral science and in flip reward the precise actions. It’s additionally key that the complete group helps member wellness.
“Loyalty’s not a silver bullet,” Netto concludes. “However while you align it with robust buyer expertise, while you give groups the instruments to help members, while you acknowledge consistency and make it enjoyable to progress—that is while you see actual affect.”
As Virgin Lively continues world enlargement, with current launches in Australia and upcoming rollouts in Asia-Pacific, Netto and her workforce are scaling a mannequin that places member wellness—not pockets share—on the heart.
The person ready at 4 AM represents a basic fact: when loyalty applications align with real human motivation and significant targets, they do not simply drive enterprise metrics. They modify lives.
