In the early days of the pandemic, many fitness brands had to overhaul their offerings, move classes online and find ways to keep consumers listening. Over the past year or so, many of the same brands have had to completely reverse course in an effort to get people back into the studio.
Orangetheory is one of these brands.
Orangetheory realigned its business and marketing efforts to keep pace with the pandemic — offering at-home workouts and launching content for its YouTube channel, for example — and the company had to do it again, which One time it was to get people back to the -human class. Orangetheory Fitness chief marketing officer Kelly Lohr explained that prior to the pandemic, the chain was more focused on overall brand building rather than performance marketing to attract people to the studio, adding that with the shift in behavior, Orangetheory is now more focused on Marketing studio rather than marketing brand building. “Prior to the pandemic, we were growing so fast that generating demand wasn’t our priority,” Lohr said, noting that she recently joined the brand earlier this fall. “We opened so many studios. We didn’t open studios fast enough. That was a big problem. Because of the level of referrals, we didn’t do much other than focus on the brand experience and the studio membership experience. things.” Lohr continued: “Obviously, the pandemic has changed that. We want 2023 to be a more normal year. Now, as we’ve been going through the pandemic period, we’re more focused on Bringing our members back and gaining new ones.” To that end, the chain has spent the past year and a half focusing more on performance marketing strategies to promote its products. It’s unclear how many members Orangetheory currently has, as Lohr declined to reveal the number. But she added that it was “closer to pre-pandemic membership numbers.” Now, the company aims to balance its performance marketing with a more “upstream funnel” strategy to grow the brand. As Lohr declined to share budget details, it’s also unclear how the chain will allocate its advertising budget. Orangetheory has spent $1.7 million on advertising so far this year, up from $1.3 million last year, according to Pathmatics. In addition to bringing members back to face-to-face classrooms, Orangetheory hopes to re-expand its footprint and plans to open about 100 studios over the next year. Before the pandemic, Orangetheory was aiming to open 2,500 studios by 2024, Digiday previously reported. Currently, the brand has 1,501 studios in 24 countries. Orangetheory isn’t the only company pushing to bring back customers in person. For Kristen Groh, senior partner at brand consultancy Prophet, the approach makes sense, noting that finding ways to reach new audiences and enter new markets is logical. “The fitness category has to really think about what needs to be done for the client,” Gros said. “Pre-pandemic fitness routines were different than when we were at home. Fitness needed for mental health. Fitness companies responded in interesting ways, providing value in focusing on what participants needed instantly. Importantly, It’s for companies to stay that way, not go back to normal. It’s never going to be what it was before the pandemic.” Going forward, Orangetheory plans to try to make its local and national advertising more synchronized to be as efficient as possible, Lohr noted. . Meanwhile, the brand is considering adding streaming ads to the mix. As for the downturn, the brand has no plans to adjust its marketing strategy, but plans to “maintain a strong focus on the member experience to ensure that people continue to use Orangetheory despite the [downturn],” Lohr said.
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