THE SITUATION:
New Year's sparks a desire to start a new fitness routine. This leads to over-serious fitness brands loudly proclaiming it's time to set lofty resolutions—which creates major gym intimidation among consumers. But, Planet Fitness is different. As the Judgement Free Zone, they offer accessible, non-intimidating fitness that feels good for all. In January 2023, Planet Fitness wanted to make that differentiator known in order to reach a business goal of 1.3M new member joins.
THE MARKETING OBJECTIVES:
THE IDEA:
With the ever-growing demands of modern life, the world is out of energy. In fact, 3 in 5 Americans feel more tired now than they’ve ever been in their lives. Too often we say, “I don’t have energy for fitness,” when in reality, adding fitness to your life increases daily energy. Planet Fitness needed to show people that a membership could actually cure their low energy problem. But how? Well, how does the world find out about any new health solution today? Pharmaceutical commercials.
Introducing Low E. A very fake pharmaceutical campaign solving a very real energy problem. This fully integrated campaign launched on New Year’s Eve 2023 and extended into January to highlight low energy in a humorous, irreverent way—a rare tone in the otherwise serious fitness category.
With a keen priority to reach Gen Z, we anchored media in social with multiple campaigns on TikTok, Snapchat and Meta as a market warming to NYE. To maximize exposure on the biggest night of the year, we remained front and center as the presenting sponsor of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
Planet Fitness amplified its presence with pharmaceutical parody TV spots during the night, on the ground exposure with “Low E-MTs”, verbal mentions, and logo placements. We also took over digital networks and bathrooms in NYC bars to remind party-goers suffering from Low E that Planet Fitness can spark their Big Fitness Energy.
Following NYE, Planet Fitness partnered with GrubHub on a digital ‘Hangoffer’ to officially cure hangovers on one of the lowest energy days of the year: New Year's Day. Plus, a Low E Test Kit was created to identify if you had Low E, which was promoted on social and with influencers.
Planet Fitness supported the NYE launch with CRM and in-app content that targeted prospective members with Low E messages and promotional offers. This fully integrated campaign flooded January with messaging positioning Planet Fitness as the solution for more energy in 2023.
Joins:The fully integrated campaign drove nearly 1.4 million January joins, a 33% increase YOY that also surpassed the 2023 business objective by ~100K joins.
Awareness & Consideration: Despite steep competition during this timeframe, the ‘Low E’ campaign kept Planet Fitness top of mind, securing them the highest aided brand awareness in the category at 80%7 and driving the brand’s #1 ranked brand consideration in the category.
Engagement: Placements generated this year proved more impactful and with broader reach: with 44% fewer placements (3,951) than in 2022, the campaign earned the same number of earned impressions (2.4B).
