With Amalgama, Fitness Brands Master the Art of Going Digital

Alalgama emphasizes a user-over-tech mentality, helping fitness brands find digital approaches that truly work for them and their clients

As a leading digital product developer for fitness brands in an increasingly digital world, few organizations can read the room in the health and wellness sector the way Amalgama does.

Founded in 2013, the digital innovation consultancy has assisted clients through the pandemic, and into the resulting wellness boom, including the current demand for a more omnichannel approach to fitness.

With that experience, Amalgama has fostered a strong understanding of how fitness brands need to move to achieve success going forward, following trends — but not blindly.

Why It Makes Sense To Hire a Digital Consultant

Running a fitness brand is no easy task. With so much for companies to focus on, it often leaves digital design on the back burner. That’s where Amalgama steps up to the plate.

“It’s a matter of focus and expertise,” said Amalgama CEO Gonzalo Amuchastegui when asked why fitness brands struggle with digital design. “It’s probably not their core business. They might be a brick-and-mortar business or hardware first and they want to improve their customer experience. They have great hardware, but in order to scale, they need to bring digital to their service. In that sense, they are not entirely focused or have the expertise building digitally so they make mistakes.”

Brands also often believe that simply weaving advanced tech into their offerings without any foresight is enough to enhance their digital presence, when in fact it’s a far more complicated process.

Amalgama instead emphasizes a user-over-tech mentality .

“People put technology ahead,” said Amuchastegui. “They think that because they’ve brought in the latest piece of high tech, they will succeed. We need to put the user ahead. We need to understand whether or not that spaceship will actually add value to the user. We can create very complex things, but they might not solve any problem for the user or anything they wish to achieve.”

Longevity Is a New Favorite

From what Amalgama has seen, the way different elements of health and wellness coexist and even enhance each other to establish a more holistic approach to fitness is top of mind for brands right now.

“The main topic that we’ve seen for the last year already is longevity,” noted  Amuchastegui. “It’s mainstream right now. It’s how we not just live more, but live better. That leans towards mental and physical health.”

“It’s all about training, eating, and rest. Those three key elements retrofit themselves and allow you to be physically and mentally well,” he added.

Brands are recognizing this demand from their consumers more and more each day. Amalgama prides itself on staying attentive in terms of what tech is available and how to best apply it to meet that demand.

“We cannot focus just on one thing because people are thinking of well-being holistically,” Amuchastegui said. “They think about longevity and they think beyond being just fit. So when we help our clients, we need to understand which technologies are out there so we can integrate them and provide a unique solution.”

The brand’s own culture and interest in health and wellness play a pivotal role in that. Amalgama knows what’s most helpful for fitness-oriented clients because its staff thinks and acts like them.

“We as a company take well-being very seriously,” said Amuchastegui. “We train, we do sports and we eat well so we have healthy habits. We help each other to learn more and to know more, so that helps us provide a better service towards our clients.”

At the same time, Amuchastegui argues it’s vital for brands to stay true to who they are even as they keep up with trends. Amalgama builds brands up from the inside out, concentrating on their unique aspects before eventually piling on the ancillary components based on consumer demand.

“We don’t believe that our client or us will be the best at everything,” said Amuchastegui. “We have to help them understand where they’re unique, what is their core, and upon that, find out which things we can leverage.”

Be Quick to Pivot

Keeping a pulse on what’s trending as a digital content supplier also involves being ready to adjust your offerings at a moment’s notice. Trying different solutions and strategies needs to be a ceaseless endeavor no matter what stage a company finds itself in.

“We encourage our clients to test, test and test,” said Amuchastegui. “The sooner the better of course, but even if you’re already in the market, you have to keep on testing, testing and testing because user habits and tastes change all the time. Users get very excited with new releases or new products and one month, or two months later, they drop. You have to keep on adding value to them all the time.”

In the wake of the pandemic, Amalgama has also seen the swaying interest between in-person and remote workouts. As a digital provider, it has had to stay on its toes meeting those demands all the same.

“A couple of years ago COVID hit, so I think that’s been the biggest change in our industry because everything needed to shift towards digital,” said Amuchastegui. “Not many brands were digital so that was an immense change.”

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