Chuze Fitness — A New Way To Workout
We started working with Chuze Fitness several years after our partner Main Post — a San Francisco based private equity firm — introduced us to the Chuze management team after their first investment. I hate gyms, never go to one. But when I took a tour and heard their story, the first thing […]
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ADVERTISING, BRANDING, CULTURE, DESIGN, VIDEOS
We started working with Chuze Fitness several years after our partner Main Post — a San Francisco based private equity firm — introduced us to the Chuze management team after their first investment.
I hate gyms, never go to one. But when I took a tour and heard their story, the first thing that hit me was “Wow, this is like a gym for the rest of us!” And that’s how we started to help them tell their story in a new way.
Chuze is such an amazing and refreshing approach to gyms. The founders came from the restaurant industry and when looking at all other gyms, knew they could make a difference with their approach to hospitality and value. Most gyms follow the age old model of high-pressure sign you ups, often in the first week in January, then wait until you get bored and quit, then start all over again. Most gyms are faceless corporations or invisible franchisees. Chuze is family-run, with members from two founding families running the company.
Chuze’s approach is to give you so many amenities, backed by team members that are so nice and friendly and the place so spotless clean, that you never want to leave. Then they price it all so it’s almost too cheap to quit. Starting as low as ten bucks a month for a membership. That’s a whole new paradigm… and we set out to tell that story.
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First, we started with a video. Shooting it like a documentary with no script, no preconceived ideas, we just left the Chuze founders tell their story, then created a video (below) called The Promise. That set the stage for dozens of future videos, interviewing their members the same way. Real. Unscripted. Credible. Real people, not models. People of all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, all telling us why they love Chuze. You can explore more on Vimeo here.
Then we evolved their existing logo, away from the arrr-arrr-arrr of traditional male-dominated brands, to something friendlier. Lighter. Welcoming, not intimidating. We wanted everyone to feel welcome.
We created a manifesto, “You Deserve An Awesome Gym”, that set the tone for all of our future work. And helped everyone know this was a different gym. A gym for the rest of us.
Their difference was so demonstrable, that we suggested they can stop just competing against lesser, low priced competitors like Planet Fitness, but could steal members from every category — higher end gyms, boutique workout spots like yoga studios, spin classes and Orange Theory. They had a Giant Killer concept and we helped bring that to life.
It was so successful we kept adding to it. Chuze was the one making a difference. We just bottled it and let people have a taste. We got involved in everything, from creating a voice in internal signage and attitude inside the gyms, to developing training videos to maintain their culture as they expanded across the country. They are killing it.