Touchmedia's In-Taxi Workouts in China Shock Fitness into Fashion

SHANGHAI, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- When Touchmedia launched its "Mr. and Miss WOW" white-collar health campaign on June 1 under the nationwide initiative of the General Administration of Sports of China (GASC) 3510 Health for All, it was to promote health amongst affluent white collar taxi-riders in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Three months later, Huang Jie Ming has been crowned Mr. WOW 2011 and Gao Ying Wen has been crowned Miss WOW 2011. Both shall be invited on a trip to the Power Plate studio in Paris for their achievements.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110920/CN71458-a )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110920/CN71458-b )

Beyond crowning the white-collar male and female champions of the WOW 45 Day Health Challenge, the Mr. and Miss WOW campaign has also shocked China's white collars into an unexpected fitness fetish. Within a week of its launch, the campaign went viral, sparking intense interest amongst China's netizens and media alike. After 12 weeks, the campaign had reached 128,797,260 passengers with its in-taxi guided workouts, generating 21,414 registrations for the health challenge, 1,008,643 replies to the health surveys, and 26,761 passenger votes to decide the Mr. and Miss WOW champions.

Micky Fung, Founder and CEO of Touchmedia, commented, "With the Mr. and Miss WOW campaign, Touchmedia has demonstrated the power of its in-taxi interactive platform to connect and engage all levels of society, including government, companies, white collar professionals and the general public. More importantly, we have brought real benefit to participants and passengers alike who have started to take more responsibility for their health as a result of our much needed campaign."

Fun and Fashionable Fitness Outside the Taxi

Representatives from the organizers of '3510 Health for All' (GASC, Touchmedia, China Communist Youth League Beijing Municipal Committee, China Sports Media Group) all got into the fitness spirit by doing the in-taxi exercises together when kicking off the WOW 45 Day Challenge. Shortly thereafter, some enterprises began to follow the in-taxi workout videos in their offices, with other companies reportedly also adopting these exercises as part of their corporate health welfare policy for staff. And, even though the various in-taxi neck, shoulder and wrist workouts reached over 120 million passengers, they were additionally viewed online over 1.56 million times in three months. Netizens began to mimic the flamboyant fashion of the 80s inspired in-taxi coaches, posting images of themselves in similar attire online, copying the look for their on-stage performances, rendering the coaches in art, making videos of themselves doing the in-taxi workouts, and even competing on television competitions borrowing from the in-taxi coaches. The incredible response and reaction to the campaign has made fitness more fun and fashionable for many white-collar workers.

Newly crowned Mr. WOW, Huang Jie Ming, expressed, "Thank you Mr. & Miss WOW for offering me such a good chance to exercise everyday that I can happily see the change in my body and life." Many of the WOW 45 Day Challenge participants expressed various sentiments on their microblogs, "When there is no one in the office, I follow the in-taxi exercises. Ha ha ha." Another participant revealed that even after a month of overtime, at the end of the day, he could still look forward to meeting the in-taxi coaches during his ride home. Observed another, "Yesterday, on the street, I saw so many beautiful girls wearing the same style of clothes as the in-taxi male and female coaches. It seems that the in-taxi coaches are setting fashion trends."

WOW

Nancy Pon, General Manager of Touchevents, a division of Touchmedia and the unlikely online sensation as the "WOW gal coach" stressed the importance of consistent exercise, "As I grew up in Canada, exercise was so important in shaping my life and personality. Besides looking better and feeling better, exercise gave me a sense of achievement and confidence that I got from pushing myself mentally and physically. Even now in China, with my various responsibilities, I still carve time out to exercise almost every day because it keeps me relaxed, healthy and energized."

Survey Indicates That Running is Top Exercise Choice

Is health really one's wealth? In a September poll of passengers, over 30% said that their health was more important than money. Moreover, results from the 12 weeks of WOW in-taxi health survey revealed that passengers' favorite exercises was "running" at 20.1%, followed by "swimming" at 19.1%. Ranking 3rd was "ball games" (15.5%). When do you normally exercise? Topping the list by nearly 1 in 4 passengers was "Morning (before 9a.m)" (25.0%). Following was "Evening (usually after work)" (24.6%). 3rd choice was "During daytime" (22.7%). When asked "If you were told that your body lacked nutrients, how would you supplement"? Leading the group and accounting for 53.3% of results was "with diet". Second choice was "both, diet and supplements" (21.8%). When queried about their main source of information for a healthy diet, Ranked at the top (31.6%) was "Introduction from media (Internet information, TV program, etc.)", plus "Discussion with family and friends" and "reading relative books" ranking 2nd and 3rd respectively (by 25.6% and 23.7%).

About Touchmedia

Touchmedia was founded by its CEO Micky Fung in 2003 and joint-CEO Bernard Auyang aim to develop state-of-art touchscreen media technology in China and internationally. Today, Touchmedia is already the largest in-taxi media company in China, providing an innovative marketing platform for brands to build a closer and more effective relationship with their consumers.

For more information, please contact Tina Han, Senior PR Manager of Touchmedia on 86-21-51098699-1277 or [email protected].

For more about Touchmedia: www.touchmedia.cn

SOURCE Touchmedia