Thinking Outside of the Marketing Box

Sometimes, grabbing the attention of a prospect involves thinking outside the box.

Anytime Fitness in Upper Lafayette, Louisiana, has accepted this concept full-heartedly. Currently, the club is featuring a “join for a $1” promotion, and is using unique and funny staff-made videos to grab a potential member’s attention.

“We pride ourselves on creativity,” said Ethan Smoorenburg, the club manager. “We want to be able to appeal to all people by getting our message across by both informing and entertaining them. We also want to create a variety to show that we want to provide a service, while in addition having some fun in the process.”

The videos don’t just showcase an employee explaining the current promotion. Instead, the Anytime Fitness staff tries to incorporate a mix of funny and educational material into each video, which range from 20 seconds to over a minute.

For example, in one video, Smoorenburg states: “Here at our gym we reject the notion that beauty is one size fits all. We celebrate the little victories. We believe that we are stronger together and we’ll help turn your inertia into momentum.”

According to Smoorenburg, the videos are fun to make and provide an avenue for staff to bond. “The process of creating the videos increases camaraderie within our team by taking ourselves out of our comfort zones to work together to get the most out of our efforts,” he said. “It allows us to work together in other aspects and relieve tension during events and outside marketing.”

In addition to featuring staff, the club enlisted members to participate in some of the videos as well. “Without our awesome members we have nothing,” said Smoorenburg. “By providing them with a gold standard experience throughout their time with us they are more than happy to help out. In doing this a few times we now have members coming to us to ask to be in our new videos.”

Smoorenburg believes there are benefits to being lighthearted when it comes to marketing. “Health and wellness are ‘touchy’ subjects for a lot of people,” he said. “We want to create a welcoming environment where all people can see themselves achieving their goals with us. Creating a level of comfort allows people to open up to us, which then helps us create an action plan for them.”

This philosophy seems to be well received, as some of the videos have received over 1,000 views. “We have had people around the community talk to us about the [videos] — it creates a buzz for people to refer others to watch them and send new members our way,” said Smoorenburg.

According to Smoorenburg, this approach to marketing is one all clubs could benefit from. “Being unique in marketing and advertising will set your brand apart from competitors,” he said. “Don’t try to over promise in your message. Simply be appealing. Get some laughs and wow people with what you have to offer. When they come in to see you, the opportunity will be created to over deliver and provide an experience that would not be thought possible in a gym setting.”

At least for Anytime Fitness Upper Lafayette, thinking outside the box has paid off. “There is not one day that goes by without our team sharing a laugh with members,” said Smoorenburg. “We want to show that we can have fun and want everybody to be a part of that.”

By Rachel Zabonick