Crunch is Helping Americans Get Back to the Gym, One Chain at a Time

Gyms are finally seeing a fitness thaw after the pandemic locked doors, turned soup cans into dumbbells, and saw Peloton’s stock skyrocket. And now, with Covid as a backdrop, Crunch Fitness is marketing itself based on where you live.

Crunch, which closed all its 360+ locations worldwide between mid-March and May of 2020, is seeing business ticking up, according to Crunch's EVP of Marketing and Branding, Chad Waetzig.

• From February to March of this year, visits rose 30%.
• Membership sales increased 5.6% over the same period.

As a largely franchise-based business, Crunch supplies the creative and campaign work from HQ, and individual chains choose how and where to invest their marketing dollars.

And while its marketing channels haven’t changed (social, search, even direct mail), Crunch’s target customers have. Before the pandemic, only about 10% of the brand’s marketing was dedicated to getting former members to re-sign. Now, it’s about 25%.

“We're looking at direct mail, and right now it’s really about awareness building, reminding folks that we're there [and] that we're ready for them when they're ready to come back,” Waetzig told us.

Rep by rep, state by state

When it comes to marketing, Crunch isn't taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it’s targeting ads to potential members with creative that reflects where they live.

For example, coastal cities see messaging about cleaning standards, while inland or more conservative areas, like Texas, Georgia, and Florida, get messages focused on the range of workout equipment.

• That means in New York and San Francisco, ads show masked weightlifters with copy that reads, “Practicing Safe Sets.”
• Meanwhile, in Daytona, Florida, one Crunch location is running a promotion for free HydroMassages with a maskless model (the state doesn’t have a mask mandate).
• Targeting is like Whac-A-Mole. While locations in California just reopened last month, the brand’s Ontario, Canada, locations have all reclosed as the province goes into another lockdown.

“Our business has always been very hyper-local in terms of our marketing approach, and that's probably more true than ever before,” said Waetzig, adding that people who haven’t yet returned to the office are “taking a very cautious approach to retail and shopping and working out in gyms.”

Waetzig said Crunch wants its marketing to reflect how people are feeling, wherever they may be.

+1: Those bottles of sanitizer and disinfectant aren’t going anywhere either, Waetzig said. “That will always be an important part of messaging. It's just a matter of how much [we] dial that message up or down.” — RB