McDonald’s, the UK’s largest fast-food retailer, is collaborating with Hussle to offer a fitness-based prize as part of its McDonald’s Monopoly game. This is the first time a gym offering has been included in the annual giveaway, played by more than seven million people annually.
The deal will give McDonald’s customers the chance to win access to any of Hussle’s 2000+ partner health clubs and leisure centres. Winners will be given a code to enter into Hussle’s website, where they can then select the most suitable club for them from a nationwide selection.
As part of a competitive tender process, Hussle was selected as the gym partner of choice, which means thousands of different operators will now benefit from this exposure. For operators working with Hussle, this new partnership offers the opportunity to attract new users at no extra cost.
“Partnering with such a colossal commercial brand will mean every club on the Hussle platform is showcased to a third of the UK population (more than 3.5 million customers every day) over the six weeks The Monopoly promotion at McDonald’s runs in restaurants,” says Jamie Owens, director of fitness partnerships at Hussle.
“And with our new Membership Conversion Service (MCS), which actively encourages customers to join clubs they visit, we are opening up a whole new joiner channel in a notoriously tricky age group, as the Monopoly audience is predominantly 16-24 years old.”
The giveaway, launched in 2005, works along similar rules to the classic Monopoly board game. Customers collect game pieces – which appear as stickers on food and drinks packaging – and each piece represents a tile on the board.
When customers collect a set, they win a prize. There are also instant win game pieces, which can be redeemed straight away, and Online Win game pieces, which encourage customers to engage with an Online Win microsite to win more prizes, including the Hussle prizes.
“Post pandemic, with the country more focused on health than ever, now is the ideal time to get in front of the 85 per cent of the population who never use our facilities,” says Owens. “I can think of no better way than collaborating with The Monopoly promotion at McDonald’s, arguably the UK’s biggest brand engagement platform. We’re excited to catapult the fitness industry onto this stage.”
“If we keep doing the same things, marketing fitness to the same people, we’ll always get those same people through our doors. If gyms are going to be mainstream, we need to partner with mainstream brands.”
The partnership closely follows recent partnership announcements with the likes of Vodafone, Revolut and Premier Inn as Hussle seeks to bring new customers into the gyms and health clubs that list on its marketplace.
