Degree's purpose is to inspire the confidence in everyone to move more, breaking their own limits as they do. A purpose rooted in our product. Which is why it's time for Degree to help athletes with disabilities break down the ableist standards that hold them back. Athletes who are remembered during the Paralympics but forgotten every other day. To accomplish this, Degree set out to drive change and establish itself as a credible champion of inclusivity. Our objectives were three-fold: For others to celebrate athletes with disabilities every day, to make people see Degree as a differentiated brand with a meaningful purpose and to make the fitness industry more inclusive and representative of the disabled community.

What if Degree, as a part of our mission to make movement accessible to everyone, tackled the issue of representation for disabled people by changing the face of the fitness industry?

We knew that if we were going to significantly impact the representation issue, change would have to start from within. So, we launched our initiative with three simple words: Dear Fitness Industry.

Through a one-of-a-kind website and athlete database, Degree became the ad-hoc recruiting department for the entire fitness world. We recruited and assembled a roster of candidates and shared their job profiles for the fitness industry to see. We launched our campaign to coincide with Disability Employment Awareness Month (October) and positioned our site as a one-stop-shop for the fitness industry, providing each athlete’s full resume, contact info and qualifications and ensuring fitness industry leaders were left with no excuse not to hire a disability.

A study commissioned by Degree in partnership with the Lakeshore Foundation found that 87% of people with disabilities don’t feel represented by the fitness industry. It makes sense since, at the time, none of the trainers from Peloton, SoulCycle and Equinox who have become celebrities were living with a physical disability. Our strategy was to get the fitness industry and the larger community of athletes to see Degree as a differentiated brand via its meaningful purpose by changing the face of the industry to be more inclusive of people with disabilities.

Digital out-of-home ads in the business we were trying to convince (ex: gyms and fitness centers) and an open letter in the New York Times highlighted the problem and drove our audience to our site as the ultimate solution. A digital billboard truck displaying our message moved around New York City and parked directly in front of major fitness headquarters.

We then we brought top candidates directly to fitness industry leaders via a first-ever fully inclusive spin class in downtown NYC, blocks away from fitness headquarters, led by legendary Paralympian, Blake Leeper. Through personalized LinkedIn messages, we invited hiring managers to join us for a ride.

And we partnered with disability experts, The Lakeshore Foundation, to conduct research into the specific challenges this community faces and built a toolkit for any fitness company to help make their facilities more inclusive, offering it for free on the website.

Communications Objective: For others to celebrate athletes with disabilities

Campaign changed the industry’s perception of athletes with disabilities seen by Forbes saying, “What inclusion & representation should look like in fitness classes.”

Brand Objective: Make people see Degree as a differentiated brand with a meaningful purpose

1.1B earned media impressions – doubling our goal 400-500MM – with headlines like this from People, “Degree shows the fitness industry it’s easy to include everybody.”

TrainersForHire.com saw 17K unique visitors in September versus a monthly average of 1.03K.

An astounding 7.49 minutes time spent on-site versus an average of 3.36 seconds for high-conversion websites (Source: FirstPageSage)

Societal Objective: Make the fitness industry representative of the disabled community

After launch, Planet Fitness announced their commitment to making inclusive equipment accessible and Peloton hired first-ever adaptive trainer.

Degree is in discussions with fitness leader Equinox to hire all our trainers.