Audience Engagement Digital Innovation
2 mins read

“The most important thing … is to keep delivering”: Hearst UK pivots to an online event in under a week

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To ensure fitness fans everywhere are still able to get their dose of energy and endorphins this weekend, Women’s Health Live 2020 has been creatively reimagined for the digital space. The UK’s biggest health and wellbeing festival will be live-streamed via a new WH Get Fit Done community Facebook page directly to people’s living rooms.

This follows the decision in March to postpone the 2020 event, which was due to be held London’s Business Design Centre over the same weekend period. The schedule is no-less packed, thanks to Women’s Health joining forces with some of its internationally known cover stars and experts such as Jillian Michaels, Alice Liveing, Davina McCall and Jessica Ennis-Hill, plus Strictly’s Oti Mabuse and Gemma Atkinson.

The move to a digital experience came this week after conversations with the business’ events arm, Hearst Live, and the brand’s editorial team.

Claire Sanderson, Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health, says: “This is a real shift for us and one that we find ourselves doing at pace. However, we have always worked extremely hard to ensure Women’s Health has a strong online presence, so are lucky that we can now rely on our digital expertise to bring our festival to life in a new way.

“The most important thing for all of us at the moment is to keep delivering exciting and inspirational content to our readers, and to keep connected as a community. We’ve seen a huge uptake in members to the new Facebook group already and I’m grateful beyond words for the support we’ve had from our fitness experts so far.”

Victoria Archbold, Managing Director, Events & Sponsorship, Hearst Live, adds: “To date, all our tentpole events have had an incredibly strong physical presence, so this has been a significant, but welcome, challenge for the team to change the platform in such a short time frame. We have focused on bringing together a brilliant digital marketing plan to ensure Women’s Health Live continues to reach as many people as possible this weekend.”

Participants can join the WH Get Fit Done Facebook group or sign up via Eventbrite for free, to be part of this world-first event while still safely isolating at home. All the content will also available via YouTube and Twitter at the same time.