New on-demand on-screen fitness service iDEA is described by its developers as Netflix for the children’s educational activity market and has already begun to make a real mark on both the business and home markets.
iDEA is a unique new service for the schools, leisure and hotels sectors nationwide that offers on-demand, on-screen entertainment, fitness and dance activities.
Launched in September, the product is aimed initially at children and families, and promises to use street magic, breakdancing and martial arts to help get children active indoors.
It is the brainchild of a team with a stellar CV in the leisure and entertainment industries, with decades of experience working for the likes of The Tussauds Group and Thomas Cook Group. The co-founders, Jane Maguire and Ben O’Hara, created the concept for Haven Holidays two years ago and a discussion with Chris Sharman, who has extensive experience in the leisure and soft-play sectors, opened the trio’s eyes to the potential for iDEA to roll-out across both the at-home and out-of-home leisure and entertainment sectors.
Managing director Maguire, says: “Whether it’s for a school, nursery, gym, hotel or home setting, we plan to deliver the latest entertainment, fitness and dance activities directly to consumers on demand – with absolutely no need for special equipment.
“All of our sessions are delivered by experts – our martial arts offering, for instance, is hosted by Liam Richards, who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, to ensure a fresh, modern approach which appeals across the board.
“Today’s world wants today’s technology, so we’ll be using the latest in on-demand streaming to deliver the latest trends across multiple devices.
“Our mission is to get people active – physically, mentally AND socially”.
There are two streams to the product. The first is the business-to-business stream that sees a company with up to six sites pay £48 a month to licence the product and deliver sessions to children within its facility. This drops on a sliding scale down to £ 42 for 16 sites or more. The second is the home description market, which allows parents or childcarers to access the service for just £6.99 a month in their own homes or settings.
For any setting therefore, iDEA can provide a high-end activities solution at a very affordable cost, Sharman says, adding: “For me, the price had to be a no-brainer. I knew from my own experience that hiring a street dance specialist to an hour-long session in an indoor-play centre would cost £20 at least. For twice that amount, childcare settings now can have access to unlimited session content that they can use as often as they like.”
Jane Maguire and Ben O’Hara
Liam Richards and Luke Roberts
iDEA’s on-demand activities can expand the range od classes a setting offers and content is regularly updated to keep things fresh. All this without having to pay expensive instructors? “That’s the iDEA,” says Sharman. “If you run just 4 specialist classes per week that’s £80 a week and around £4000 a year. At £48.00 a month, the cost savings are obvious”.
NO TRAINING REQUIRED
There is no need to recruit new staff or give any existing staff extensive training either. “We do advise that someone should be on hand to facilitate, even if that is just to turn technology on and off, get the children engaged in the activity and then join in and have fun,” he says. So you’ll have no recruitment costs, no ongoing training costs and no issues with sickness or holidays.
“You can also run sessions when you want, not when your specialist can fit you in”.
iDEA’s interactive entertainment, fitness and dance activities could be the perfect way for pre-school and nursery settings to fill in specialist knowledge gaps in a stimulating and exiting way. The iDEA portfolio has been uniquely developed to increase participation and ability levels, whilst meeting National Curriculum requirements in certain specialist subjects.
All iDEA activities are specially formulated to maximise fun, interaction and engagement regardless of user age or skill level.
“The activities have three levels of increasing difficulty, and these levels can be watched individually for a short 20-minute sessions, or as two or three levels combined,” says Maguire. “Children will love developing new skills using iDEA’s exiting interactive format expertly hosted by experienced presents and leading experts.
“If it’s the latest trend in the playgrounds iDEA won’t be far behind. With fantastic choices delivered by leading experts – from learning funky moves with the Streetdance Masterclass to amazing your friends wi the magic you learn in Street Trix – it’s easy to find a subject that will entertain, thrill and inspire”.
Each activity comes complete with corresponding downloadable operating guidelines and evolution sheets designed to monitor progress. There is absolutely no need for specialist equipment – you can easily access iDEA with just the internet, a screen (across multiple devices) and the equipment you already have.
For the home carer, iDEA could help you and your charges feel better, look better and think better.
“We appreciate how busy you are, so when it comes to iDEA you are definitely in control, “Maguire says. “You can start and finish activities when you want to with our easy to use on demand service. Plus you can use the activities either as a series of short sessions or in one long masterclass to suit your commitments.”
RAPID TAKE-UP
iDEA has already been taken up by many venues in the UK, as well a a creche in Dubai, and says Sharman, the home subscriptions started to come in once the nights drew in and people began to look for new things to so that would keep kids active during the long, cold winter months.
“The concept started with some on-screen juggling and yo-yo-ing for kids at Haven Holiday’s parks along the English coastline”, he says. “It got kids in the holiday parks doing something productive when the weather outside wasn’t good. When I talked to Jane and Ben though, I said “I think there’s a market for this product outside the one contract it was created for”.
“Over 6 months, we researched its viability in the schools, leisure and soft-play sectors and developed some new content working with established experts from a diverse host of physical activities., like Liam. We also have CiTV’s Hi-5 presenter Luke Roberts fronting it, which ensures we have high quality content and high quality people delivering it”.
The activities in the on-demand video classes range from street dancing and street magic to more traditional fitness disciplines. All iDEA activities can be delivered in three levels – offering individual, 20–minute levels of combinations of two or three levels together, according to time commitments.
Sharman says: “On the educational side, it was important that we got the content just right and my experience consulting to schools and the leisure sector was helpful.
“It harnesses technology and the pull that has for children, rather than making technology something that we tell children not to do,” says Sharman “If you learn hula hoop on your iPad or streetdance with an instructor on a TV or computer screen, then that can only be positive, when screens have been so often painted in a negative light”.
For more info on iDEA, visit:
www.ideagetactive.com
iDEA is also on Facebook, at:
www.facebook.com/ideagetactive
and you can follow it on Twitter:
@iDEAgetactive