When professional golfers promote a service, their fans—and many of the general public—will pay attention.
That’s what Massage Envy is counting on, with its new PGA TOUR sponsorship and partnership with 10 professional golfers.
The service is Massage Envy’s new stretching protocol, which all of its 1,170 franchised locations nationwide began offering in late June.
Massage Envy is the largest massage franchisor in the U.S., with a total of more than 100 million massage and esthetics services performed since the first location opened in 2002. It employs about 35,000 massage therapists and estheticians nationwide, and has close to 1.65 million members.
The PGA TOUR sponsorship sees Massage Envy assuming the role of Official Total Body Care Sponsor of the PGA TOUR Player Performance Centers, mobile training and wellness trailers where all of the tour’s golf players may receive massage and stretch therapy.
The Players
The partner golfers are ambassadors for Massage Envy’s new, proprietary stretching protocol called the Streto Method. The roster of players includes Justin Thomas, who was ranked fourth by the PGA as of Aug. 2, and Jamie Lovemark, ranked 38th, according to the PGA.
Some of the players will be featured in television advertisements for Massage Envy, will others will have logo placement on their shirts or on equipment, Chief Brand Officer Debbie Gonzalez told MASSAGE Magazine.
A sample of player promotion was published recently in a Massage Envy press release:
“‘It’s impossible to compete at this level if you aren’t taking care of your body, and assisted stretching is a big part of my training,’” says Justin Thomas. “‘Being flexible and having a wide range of motion gives me an edge, especially against bigger guys who naturally get more power behind their swing, and it also helps me stay healthy over the course of the season.’”
However, the partnership isn’t really about golf or sports, Gonzalez said. Instead, it’s a way of communicating to the general public the improved flexibility, mobility and performance that can be effected by The Streto Method, also billed as Total Body Stretch by Massage Envy.
“This will elevate Massage Envy in the eyes of consumers, and take a service that’s new to most people and help them understand what it can do for a professional golfer and what it can do for them,” Gonzalez said.
The way that understanding will come about, she added, is through the golfers explaining how they integrating stretching into their training and self-care. In addition to television advertising, Massage Envy plans to use social media “to tell some great stories,” Gonzalez added.
Total Body Stretch
The Streto Method was developed by a chiropractor, an ergonomist and a massage therapist, Gonzalez said. The method consists of 10 stretches arranged in a top-to-bottom session.
The launch of The Streto Method, or Total Body Stretching, is one of the most significant moves by the company in its history, for two reasons, she said.
First, assisted stretching is growing trend that the company believes consumers will respond to. Second, assisted stretching is a type of hands-on care that is easier to perform than is massage, and so is less demanding of the therapist.
“We’ve heard from therapists who have been trained [in Total Body Stretching] who feel it could extend their career and help them do more of what they love to do—serve their customers,” Gonzalez said.
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