The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By Laurie Fullerton, Freelance Writer

November 16, 2015 | 3 min read

Momentum is building for the New Zealand-based fitness brand Les Mills which not only reaches more than 15,000 gyms and health clubs worldwide with an estimated six million participants but it is also seeking to deepen its business-to-business value with fitness centers and trainers around the world. Les Mills recently chose the award winning agency gyro - with 14 international offices including six in the United States - and is currently working with gyro: Manchester, UK to help launch its global campaign.

Founded in the 1980s, Les Mills fitness brand provides choreographed exercise-to-music group fitness classes to health clubs worldwide and is renowned for its workout programs that include an array of cycling videos for every level.

“Les Mills is an established brand based out of New Zealand and basically if you have ever done a group exercise class – ever – with a class leader it was most likely a Les Mills workout,” said Peter Davis, executive director of gyro: Manchester. “They have a whole portfolio of classes and expert trainers. They are a strong, global brand and work on a partnership model.”

Working out at this level and increasing membership and participation are key issues that face exercise clubs. However, even the most successful and busy trainer or fitness center experiences down time when – like clockwork – attendance slows down or drops off at gyms. gyro: Manchester created a ‘conversation starter’ about this subject to remind clubs and trainers that an empty gym is not a good thing.

The agency launched a ‘Dead Quiet’ campaign and created a video using live pranks, a hidden camera and real footage. The hidden camera captures a near empty, actual cycling studio, with just one person on a cycle with one trainer in the room. Suddenly, the lights go out, and a zombie like character comes in with a Halloween scream scaring the one customer and one trainer who run out of the room.

“Suddenly, the room is dead quiet. It’s empty,” said Peter Davis, executive director at gyro: Manchester. “This Dead Quiet campaign video is a ‘conversation starter’ showing what an empty cycling studio looks like. It’s not good.”

Davis explains that the agency saw the creative ‘ignition point’ and it was that an empty cycling studio will get the attention of fitness centers and trainers who need good programs offered by Les Mills. “gyro: Manchester is an agency that doesn’t necessarily adopt traditional methods. We want to engage the people we are talking to. In the world of fitness, the Dead Quiet campaign is very different for the market. It is based on human relevance, viewpoint or opinion. This one is a specific campaign around the product,” Davis said.

The ‘conversation starter’ is working, according to Davis and through direct marketing, print, email and tweaking the campaign for different markets - it is reaching a diverse audience and has traction.

“This is a strong, global brand and we want to engage the people we are talking to,” Davis said. “In the world of fitness, the Dead Quiet campaign is very different for the market. A prank video is a different kind of engagement in B2B. From a broader B2B perspective, we look at different markets and we are tweaking the campaign both locally and culturally for our global audience."

B2B Marketing Gyro

More from B2B Marketing

View all