The YMCA believes in ‘health through happiness’, so we created a manifestation of this brand purpose: a new type of exercise equipment that uses a child’s weight as exercise weight, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play.

The 3 machines include the Pec-A-Boo; a machine fly that works as a baby bouncer, the Row-Row-Row-Machine; a row machine that powers a child’s ride-on dolphin, and the Pull-Upsy-Daisy; a pull-up platform that works as a seesaw for the child.

Installing these branded machines in public playgrounds allowed time poor parents to get exercise and role model healthy behaviour in front of their child.

Placing the Playnasium in targeted communities promoted the YMCA’s commitment to building healthier, happier communities whilst driving increased registrations to their services in that area.

Installed in public parks across the state, the YMCA Playnasium uses a child’s weight as exercise weight, allowing a parent’s workout to power their child’s play. Each piece of equipment is designed for different age groups and muscle groups – but all help parents get fit, spend quality time with their children and model good behaviour.

By placing these innovative exercise machines in parks we directly targeted our audience when they were most open to our message – playing with their children.

Activations using the equipment allowed the YMCA to drive people to a campaign site where they could sign up directly for YMCA services.

The YMCA Playnasium has been installed in 21 key locations across the state of Victoria, establishing the YMCA’s role as a key health brand in Australia.

The launch of the equipment received over 10 million PR impressions.

Over 40,000 parents have exercised with a YMCA Playnasium so far. Families spent an average of 37 minutes exercising on the Playnasium – twice the minimum recommended daily amount.

Tracking studies showed that 87% of this audience had changed their perception of the YMCA as a health organisation and 73% said they would take up regular exercise with their children as a direct result. As an ancillary result, registrations for YMCA services in these areas rose by 27%.

International roll out will begin in the United States in October 2017.