Objectives of the service
Addressing the motivation deficit hindering physical activity, BST.COACH introduces a reward-based exercising approach. People often refrain from physical activity due to a motivation deficit. Embracing the latest scientific principles in public health, BST HIKES short-term reward-based exercising emerges as a strategy.
As part of the "Inclusive and Accessible Sport" Kick-Start initiative, BST.COACH extends its impact by creating outdoor digital exercise programs. Utilizing satellite navigation, our GNSS-stamped exercise stations connect to nearby businesses in the Czech Republic. Upon program completion, users receive vouchers from partner businesses, fostering a gamified trail experience. This innovative initiative, , collaborates with SMEs, hotels, and grocery stores through a subscription-based marketing service. Primary customers, aiming to enhance their health-promoting image, pay a modest fee, while secondary customers benefit from discounted subscriptions for guided remote fitness programs. BST.COACH's model uniquely combines health promotion, technology, and business collaboration, poised for scalability across Europe.
Users and their needs
The Czech Republic, the current target country serves the BST HIKES project perfectly, providing the needed geographical environment with parks and well-established hiking trails, as well as a culture of outdoor exercising and actively engaged businesses. Once established in the Czech Republic, the program will be disseminated across other European countries.
The primary customers in the business model are SMEs, hotels, and grocery stores that are interested in gaining a reputation as innovative public health-promoting businesses. The secondary customers are the exercise program users, looking for guided long-term remote fitness programs, who subscribe to BST.COACH platform at a discounted rate.
The main identified customer needs are:
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Affordable marketing service for businesses
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Client satisfaction
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Promotion of health foods
The primary target users in this project are youth and young adults.
The main identified user needs are:
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Short-term motivation to engage in physical activity
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High-quality fitness guidance
Programs tailored to the individual’s fitness level
The main challenges for the project to meet the user / customer needs are:
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Technical Challenges: software bugs, server downtime, etc.
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Partnership Development: Identifying suitable partner businesses
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Funding Challenges: Securing financing and managing operational expenses
Service/ system concept
The system offers three distinct trail experiences, accessible from a unified landing page. The goal is to guide users through exercise routines on trails and reward them upon completion.
Data/Information Flow:
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Users access the web frontend and choose a trail experience.
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The chosen trail's details are fetched from the Trail Service.
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Exercise content, including videos, is fetched from Vimeo and the bst.coach API.
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For navigation, the system integrates with the Mapping Service.
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Users' progress is tracked using the token stored in their local storage.
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Vouchers are generated upon trail completion.
From improving individuals' health and promoting an active lifestyle to receiving reward vouchers from local businesses, it all sums up to increasing the overall market by attracting people and fostering a willingness to continue engaging in necessary activities in exchange for desired pleasures. This cycle represents growth by combining overall societal health increase and a boost in the local market.
Space Added Value
The space asset used in this project is satellite navigation. In the current system, the application uses the Mapy.cz API integration to navigate the program users to the start of the trails as well as to guide them through the exercise stations and the partner businesses upon the trail completion.
Satellite navigation is a critical component to this project as it lets the users enjoy the gamification aspect of the guided outdoor exercise program. It provides the unique challenge of executing the exercise routines in particular locations in a sequential manner. It also “connects” the hiking trails and parks to the nearby businesses. It increases foot traffic and as a result adds potential revenue opportunities to the partner businesses.
Most of the current digital fitness initiatives and mobile apps primarily utilize digital rewards and do not add satellite navigation to increase the gamification aspect of their programs. Our solution uniquely compliments the existing approaches with innovative outdoor “treasure hunt” idea by applying the space assets.
Current Status
The project has approached the system testing phase.
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Hike Locations: 6 suitable hiking trails have been identified in Prague and Plzen, Czech Republic to test the exercise program;
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Exercise Content: 5 exercise routines (6 outdoor exercise video demonstrations in each routine) in 3 levels of fitness difficulties have been created and tested.
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Development: The app development has reached the final stage of the Minimal Viable Product status. The users can choose their favourite hike, get navigated to the appropriate location and guided through an exercise program according to their fitness levels as well as receive a reward voucher
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User Engagement: bst.coach social media pages have received significant engagement via the project related content (posts, reels, highlights). A user engagement questionnaire has been created and disseminated among outdoor fitness enthusiasts in the Czech Republic and other European countries. The project logo has been created to support an effective branding strategy of the initiative.
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Customer Engagement: 7 businesses have been onboarded to participate in our free trial of the program, 4 more are interested in joining to test the initiative.
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Economic Viability: The preliminary business projections, grounded in market research and assumed onboarding rates, present encouraging outcomes. According to the model, positive cash flow is anticipated by the third year of the commercial phase, with subsequent years showing significant growth. The decision to proceed with the next development phase will hinge on the outcomes of the project's follow-up activities and the initial success of the "foot traffic" marketing campaign.