Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has launched a health and wellness app that combines fitness, nutrition and mental wellbeing advice into a seamless experience.
Renowned for his healthy habits and routines, which have allowed him a long and successful football career at the top of the game (he is now 39 years old), Ronaldo has provided guidance for the application known as Erakulis. Marketed as a lifestyle revolution, Erakulis takes a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.
"As a professional athlete, discipline, focus and balance have been key to my success on the field," says Ronaldo. "Countless hours of training, attention to nutrition and mental preparation have played a crucial role in my career and I've added these characteristics to Erakulis.
The app, which launched on 3 April, is believed to have broken the app shop, which crashed shortly after launch. Ronaldo has 627 million followers on Instagram and Erakulis' pre-launch marketing racked up more than 10 million views within hours of its launch.
The app provides access to personalised wellness plans that offer fitness, nutrition and mental wellness advice to meet people's needs and goals with a video call feature, providing access to health and wellness experts and the option to join an online community for support and motivation. Challenges and rewards, articles and recipes are also part of the mix.
Those who signed up before the launch were offered a 50 per cent discount. The app is priced at €4.99 per month and Ronaldo says the online dating, online community and unique approach set it apart from similar apps.
Several celebrities are launching apps to share and monetise fitness and wellness insights that influence their own lifestyles. These include Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth, with his Centr app, which includes a variety of workouts, meal plans, meditations and mindfulness tips, and a recently launched line of Centr equipment.
Legendary bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger is using his huge profile to build an online fitness community called Arnold's Pump Club, which includes a daily motivational email that provides workout and lifestyle tips and the option to subscribe to The Pump app, which offers workout programmes. The Pump, motivational tips, a personalised habit tracker and a positive online community.
Olympic triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee joined forces with Challenge Family to offer a virtual training platform, delivered through TrainingPeaks last year, which includes over 350 training programmes, nutritional advice, expert opinions from Olympic-level coaches and a supportive online community (most recently). They have launched a free artificial intelligence tool called Ask AI.
World-renowned survivalist Bear Grylls worked with Imperial College London, as well as a powerful team of breathing and mental health experts, to create a mental wellbeing app, Mettle, aimed specifically at men, which takes some of the perceived perception. fluffiness out of mindfulness.
Trusted British celebrities, TV presenter Davina McCall and 90s pop star Mylene Klass offer women-focused online workouts. American actress Julianne Hough created dance-based Kinrgy as an online community, which has now been reverse-engineered into a fitness model in partnership with Xponential Fitness.
With a growing variety of celebrity apps, success is likely to depend on the size of their fan bases, which bodes well for Ronaldo. With his own iconic museum, CR7, Ronaldo is no stranger to self-promotion and is also widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, having won five Ballon d'Or awards, three UEFA Player of the Year awards and four European Golden Shoe awards. European Golden Boots: the most for a European player.
Ronaldo began his football career at Sporting CP, before joining Manchester United in 2003; six years later he moved to Real Madrid for £80 million and a salary of €15 million, the most expensive transfer to date at the time. He has since moved to Al Nassr for a rumoured 220 million euros. Ronaldo has 627 million followers on Instagram, the most on the planet.
For the consumer, these online applications and trainings provide a rich and potentially transformative knowledge resource. The choice is also potentially overwhelming and could lead individuals to take out multiple subscriptions, some of which may not be used, negatively affecting motivation.
What impact will this growth of celebrity apps have on the fitness industry - will they be competition for memberships or will they inspire more people to join gyms in order to exercise? Will they reach the 85 per cent who are not currently members or will they sell a pipe dream?
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