LES MILLS™ Program Launch

[ about ]

Greater Somerset County YMCA sought to successfully launch LES MILLS™ syndicated group exercise programming at its full-service facilities in Basking Ridge, Hillsborough, and Somerville on New Year’s Day 2023—beginning with the cult favorite BODYPUMP™. Branch leadership defined success as all available classes being “full” or “waitlisted” on launch day.

APPROACH & OUTCOME

The newest offering at the Y was promoted by planning and orchestrating a targeted 360º branded omnichannel campaign strategy to drive awareness, consideration, preference, and action (i.e., class sign-up). Collaboration with the in-house creative services team and external vendors advanced local fitness market share by delivering customized digital, physical, social media, and email marketing tactics—delivering messaging that resonated with both informed and uninformed audiences (i.e., those who had experienced LES MILLS group exercise classes in the past at another fitness facility and those who had not). An impactful design and messaging approach was developed that resonated with the target audience. The visual execution of all campaign tactics was innovative in that it honored both YMCA and LES MILLS brand standards concurrently—a win all around.

Creative execution entailed a four-week pre-launch multi-channel campaign comprising print ads, out-of-home backlit display signage, posters and flyers, targeted email campaigns, interior digital display signage, member newsletter placements, social media campaigns, and event and local media promotions. A coordinated YMCA brand-compliant color palette and core messaging approach was adopted and woven throughout all online and offline touchpoints. The campaign immediately transitioned to a maintenance cadence, characterized by a reduced frequency of content sharing. As additional LES MILLS classes became available, a similar campaign for each of those was launched in a manner and cadence identical to the BODYPUMP launch featured here. The definition of “success” was solidly achieved—all available classes were immediately full or on a waitlist on the day of launch and for the foreseeable future—thanks to ongoing nurture campaigns in coordination with new class launches within the program.

This LES MILLS BODYPUMP integrated marketing communications campaign was executed as part of the broader association-wide integrated marketing communications plan, including campaigns comprised of digital marketing, print advertising, email promotion, organic and paid social media marketing, newsletter content, out-of-home (OOH) and outdoor display ads, targeted direct mail, text messaging, location signage, as well as owned and earned media placements. Successful implementation of the plan helped drive an overall lift in ad click-through rates (CTR) from 0.83% to 3.21% as well as a 73% increase in Facebook followers and 464% more Instagram followers. Overall, these efforts contributed to a 10.48% increase in Greater Somerset County YMCA’s annual membership and programming revenue to $23.6 million. This program launch initiative is an example of the player-coach role I pivoted into while at Greater Somerset County YMCA as the organization recovered from impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including significantly reduced staffing levels in areas like marketing, finance, and HR.

MY ROLE

Copywriting, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Interdepartmental Liaison, Project Lead, Social Media Marketing & Web Design

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & TOOLS

• Strategy: Audience Segmentation | Brand Differentiation | Brand Messaging | Brand Stewardship | Brand Storytelling | Campaign Management | Communications Planning | Conceptual Thinking | Content Calendars | Cross-Functional Collaboration | Customer Experience (CX) Strategy | Customer-Centric Mindset | Data-Driven Decision Making | External Communications | Integrated Marketing Communications | Multi-channel Marketing | Nonprofit Marketing | Organic Social Media | Partnership Branding | Project Management | Stakeholder Management | Strategic Marketing & Planning | Word-of-Mouth Influence
• Creative & Production: Budget Management | Content Creation | Copywriting | Creative Development | Digital Marketing | Digital Signage | Email Marketing | Event Promotion | Graphic Design | Layout & Composition | Media Management | Print Advertising | Print Production | Social Media Marketing | Vendor Management | Video Shoots | Web Design | Website Content
• Tools: Accrisoft Freedom Website CMS | Adobe Acrobat Pro | Adobe Illustrator | Adobe InDesign | Adobe Photoshop | Daxko Engage Email Marketing | Facebook | Facebook Events | Google | Instagram | LinkedIn | Loomly Social Media Content Management | Marketing Automation | MarTech Stack Proficiency | Meta Ads Manager (Facebook & Instagram) | Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word | Outdoor & Out-of-Home | SimpleTexting SMS/Text Messaging | TikTok | X/Twitter