How Fitness Park increased member engagement with research-driven gamification

What makes gym members come back again and again?

Loyalty isn't built through discounts alone.

For fitness brands, the real challenge is creating habits that keep members engaged long after they sign up. Every day, members decide whether to visit the gym, open the app, join a challenge—or simply skip their workout.

Those seemingly small decisions determine retention, lifetime value and business growth.

Fitness Park, one of France's largest fitness operators with over 1.5 million members, wanted to understand exactly what motivates people to stay engaged over time—not what they claimed motivated them, but what actually influenced their behaviour.

Instead of relying on assumptions, the company partnered with UNGUESS to uncover the behavioural patterns behind loyalty and transform those insights into a completely redesigned loyalty programme.

Why traditional loyalty programmes often fail

Many loyalty programmes focus on rewards without understanding motivation.

Fitness Park faced three key challenges:

• Members lacked motivation and a clear sense of progression.
• Existing benefits weren't visible enough to create perceived value.
• Long-term members didn't feel recognised for their loyalty.

Rather than asking "Which rewards should we offer?", the real question became:

What makes people genuinely want to come back?

From user research to behavioural design

To answer that question, UNGUESS designed a multi-method research programme combining qualitative interviews, large-scale surveys and behavioural analysis. The research also leveraged the HEXAD gamification framework together with the Jobs-to-be-Done methodology to identify motivational profiles and connect them to real user goals.

The objective wasn't simply to validate ideas.

It was to discover:

• what drives recurring engagement,
• why members lose motivation,
• which emotions trigger action,
• and how loyalty mechanics could be redesigned around real human behaviour.

One insight stood out.

The dominant member profile wasn't looking for passive rewards.

They wanted challenges, progression and recognition they could earn.

Turning insights into a new loyalty experience

These findings became the foundation of LEVEL UP, Fitness Park's new gamified loyalty programme.

Instead of rewarding membership alone, the programme rewards progress through three complementary mechanics:

• Training frequency
• Membership seniority
• Monthly challenges

Together, they create visible progression that encourages members to keep participating over time.

The programme transforms loyalty into something members can actively experience rather than simply possess.

The impact

The behavioural changes appeared almost immediately after launch.

Among the results highlighted in the case study:

• +44% increase in traffic to the digital member area within two weeks.
• 80% of members said the programme increased their intention to visit the gym more often.
• 69% would actively recommend the brand after interacting with the programme.
• Tens of thousands of members joined even before the first challenge officially started, demonstrating the effectiveness of the engagement mechanics.

Download the full case study

This case study shows how behavioural research can become a practical business tool—not just for understanding users, but for designing experiences that measurably improve engagement and retention.

Inside you'll discover:

• the complete research methodology
• how motivational profiles were identified
• the behavioural insights that shaped the loyalty programme
• the gamification framework behind LEVEL UP
• measurable business results after launch

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