London based exercise and fitness brand Gymbox launched a late Spring/early Summer SEO digital campaign targeting rival gyms via tongue-in-cheek Google ads.
A Google Search campaign online sees the cheeky gym brand hijack ads with specific copy related to traditional competitor gyms and new rivals such as online fitness platform Classpass.
These cheeky search response spots are tailored to each rival brand.
So those searching for Classpass receive an ad with the copy ‘Join Gymbox and you’ll never skip a class again’, while those searching for rival Third Space are served a punchy response reading ‘Third? Never. You’ll always be #1 at Gymbox’
This social search tactic sees Gymbox turn its attention to disruption through what is so often a vanilla platform – Google Search. The objective is to drive awareness and coverage and to position Gymbox as a brand with a cheeky attitude
“Let’s face it, PPC can be a bit bland and all about performance marketing,” explained Gymbox Marketing Director Rory McEntee. “As ‘the antidote to boring gyms, we do things differently so thought we would shake things up a bit! You reap what you SEO and I think we’ve given all brands in the industry a bit of free PR. Having done some analysis on Google search terms, they are all up and we don’t even need a thank you from them”
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The tactic has certainly generated something of a social stir and even led to some users created linked digital memes, while rival Third Space CMO describing it as ‘kind of cheap’.
The UK gym chain Gymbox has long sought to differentiate itself and cut-through via tongue-in-cheek campaigns designed to disrupt, cause a touch of controversy and generate a stir with tongue in cheek online campaign.
Indeed this marketing burst followed hot-on-the-heels of a OOH Gymbox campaign described as ‘the world’s first ever four brand collab’ which went viral generated more than 2m social views.
While other recent examples of its cheekily disruptive tactics include January 2023’s ‘Comic Graffiti’ outdoor campaign, as well as January 2022’s ‘100 Classes’, 2020’s controversial humour-led campaign and 2019’s no-fun initiative.
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