Gainesville Health and Fitness is one of the premier health clubs in the world. Adbiz was tasked to do something that other clubs couldn’t accomplish: Get an additional 4% or more of the local population to join the club.

Research at the time showed that approximately 10 percent of a population area attends health clubs or gyms. How do we get 4 more percent of the population to join the gym?

We did extensive research, including focus groups, to determine what motivates someone to join a gym. It turns out that 10 percent of the population loves to exercise, believes it is a very important part of one’s life and will seek out someplace to work out no matter what. Our research also showed that other people, especially those with certain ailments or disabilities, would like to belong to a health club, but felt like they would stand out in a crowd of “beautiful” people. 

It appeared that it would take two scenarios to attract that extra 4 percent.

The first approach would be to market to someone close to that person to ask them to join them for a gym trip. The second would be showing the club as a place where everyone was welcome, even those with disabilities or ailments.

The strategy Adbiz utilized was to come up with a series of videos that would show “normal, everyday” people enjoying the benefits of the gym. We also started an unusual campaign in the health and fitness world.

“Change Your Life at Gainesville Health and Fitness”

We designed a series of print ads that could transform into TV spots that featured people with certain ailments, like depression, PTSD, diabetes, among others, and demonstrated how they could change their life by joining Gainesville Health and Fitness. The campaign began to work, so much so, that IHRSA, a national organization for health and fitness professionals, was considering adopting the campaign themselves.