Ww 2013
 

Starting to see stuff about how the program might change for 2013.

This earnings call in August was interesting.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/7723...pt?part=single

The gist is that the program will have a major innovation coming up. WW CEO called going from Points to PointsPlus a platform change and the 2012 changes as minor. This, he said, would be a major innovation and he compared to when they went to the Momentum program.

I would guess they would have a name change of some sort and I bet the changes will be related to activelink and perhaps changing how they account activity points.

He says: "While it is still too soon to reveal many of the details, we're in the process of wrapping up the development of a significant new program upgrade across all of our major markets currently planned for launch in time for January next year.

We believe that this new program the potential to significantly improve our ability to help members make sustained changes in their weight-loss behaviors. While this innovation is not of the same scope as the platform change we launched with ProPoints in 2011, we believe it will be meaningful nonetheless."

He talks about platform changes are about every 10 years and major innovations are every 2 or 3 years.

Talking about "sustained changes" coupled with Active Link coming out makes me think that the changes will center around activity points.

One of the things that seems crystal clear is that the Active Link way of counting APs is totally not compatible with the way that WW materials now have you counting points.

If you look at the books you receive, it is clear that if you, for example, go work out in the gym for an hour you earn APs for the entire time, with the amount depending on intensity. And you earn that regardless of how sedentary you are the rest of the day. Let's say you earned 3 points for the workout. You get that no matter what you do for other 23 hours of the day, even if you sit or lay down the entire time.

With ActiveLink though it is different. You have to meet a baseline first and then you earn APs. You could do that same workout and by the end of the day you might earn 0 points -- if you were very sedentary -- or you might earn 3 points (if you just met your baseline plus did the workout) or you might earn 6 points if you were very active in your daily life.

It seems clear to me that ActiveLink is far more accurate. The materials on the Phillips website essentially say that WW in giving you APs the "old" way always assumed that everyone met their baseline before doing the activity that gave you AP. That seems to be the spin that WW is putting on it. That is, trying to say that we have always been supposed to meet a baseline before earning APs. Suffice it to say, that we've never been told what that baseline is or given any means to measure it.

So, people under the "old" way of doing APs are earning very, very different APs than people using ActiveLink. Some people are actually earning more APs doing ActiveLink particularly if they are active in their job or daily life. But for someone with a sedentary office job who only gets much activity when doing formal exercise they are finding that their APs are way less than before.

I don't see how they can continue to give out materials allowing people to earn APs the "old" way so I suspect that is part of the change for the new program to go to requiring some sort of baseline activity before you earn APs.