Mark Hutcheon, strategy director for ukactive, looks at how a number of UK fitness brands changed the conversation in their January 2016 ad campaigns

Something significant happened in January as the UK gym industry spat out the cliché of ‘New Year, New You’ resolutions to go conversational. Some even went controversial. We witnessed a welcome reframing of the message and a gear-shift in terms of positively changing attitudes to exercise – a rejection of the New Year’s resolution cliché in favour of joining in with consumer conversations about life, commitment, dating, achievement and feeling part of something much bigger.

And when brands start having these sorts of conversations, rather than just selling to people, interesting things start to happen. More people join in, get fit and ultimately delay the onset of the lifestyle diseases bankrupting the NHS.

While still early days, unofficial evidence suggests the sector had a very strong January for joiners, validating this shift in marketing strategy.

And the winners are…
So who triumphed in the January campaigns? Equinox, the New York palace of vanity, opted for Gucci-style effrontery, with fashion-photographed weirdness and nudity brought together under the appeal to “commit to something”.

At the luxury end of the market, the buyer is anti-conformist and the idea wrapped up in this campaign is a very real contemporary social dilemma: in a fluid, social world, what we are committed to?

Virgin Active, for me, takes the honours. Its ‘We’ve Got a Workout For That’ campaign had trademark cheeky Virgin humour and a central promise that this is the club for the life you want to live. Dating, Instagram and looking good go together – so why not correlate them. I’ve found the gym sector too often afraid to find its voice outside of the narrow language of getting fit. More of this please Virgin.

Fitness First, through its Australian arm, got in on the act with its ‘How did I get here?’ campaign, inviting intrigue from new users by showing real members living a more interesting life in the moment. Scenarios included the 75-year-old grandma on a night out in a gay club, and the woman climbing halfway up a sheer cliff face. Provocative, outside of the narrow gym conversation and invitational to the curious consumer.

What of the budget gym titans? Pure Gym let us know ‘everyone is welcome’ and The Gym Group asks us to ‘find our fit’, juiced up with these brands’ compelling product proposition of no contract, 24-hour access, great facilities and all for a surprisingly small price tag.

An honorary mention to Kwik Fit and its free 30-minute fitness class campaign to help customers ‘lose their spare tyre, by using a spare tyre.’ Genius.

Finally, Protein World played against brand and went with a safe, derivative ‘new year, new you’ message – perhaps put off by 2015’s furore over its beach body campaign – though we were distracted from the banality of it by the use of Instagram’s 10 fitness models.

So what?
Well, on one level, these ad campaigns demonstrate that the gym brands and owners want to connect to their customers beyond providing access to a building. Up to 50 years ago, activity was a necessity – many jobs were physical – or our recreation of choice. Today it competes as just another leisure choice, and frankly not that appealing compared to the pub, a box set or Call of Duty.

The trend for fitness as experiences – Color Run, Tough Mudder – partly shows the way. Brands are rejecting transactional communications wrapped up in self-help messages and appealing to consumers’ emotions. Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign turned the premise of how to market exercise upside down. Despite a vague call to action, it triumphed.

Marketing that’s positive, conversational, strikes a chord with me or identifies with my desires or fears, that’s shareable and enables me to join in, looks like a new blueprint for promoting physical activity.