PR Case Study on Gymshark's Deload
On May 6th, 2022, the popular athletic health and fitness brand Gymshark launched their campaign "CALM: Campaign Against Living Miserably." from their Deload forum. Gymshark stated, "CALM is taking a stand against suicide. That means standing against feeling shit, standing up to stereotypes, and standing together to show life is always worth living. We offer life-saving services, we get people talking and we bring people together to reject living miserably." Gymshark partnered with The Jed Foundation (a nonprofit organization that protects mental health and suicide in teens and adults by offering the support that is needed to be successful and thrive) in order to make this campaign possible.
Gymshark is well known for their promotion of having strong physical health and having healthy habits. They also promote models that are extremely fit which can be hard to see for those who are beginners in the physical fitness world. Gymshark having the Deload forum, (a place where you can access positive information, entertainment, and overall support for mental health) is something that builds a stronger community in the fitness world. Overall having strong mental health is just as important as having strong physical health, Gymshark recognizes this and promotes this in a way that shows inclusivity for all.
This campaign shows the steps taken in the RIPE model. Research, Planning, Implement, and Evaluation. Gymshark has known their specific target audience for a while now since this is a physical fitness brand. The brand also keeps up with current topics on social media and is aware that mental health is something that has been extremely popular and important within the last ten years. Gymshark researched their target audience and planned to create something that would connect those who could be experts in the fitness world or just started to get their journey started.
Gymshark then began to promote their forum Deload as a way to build those connections between different members in the community and worked towards having positive feedback and support be the only things accessible through this. After implementing this they evaluated the users that interacted with this site and began to launch different campaigns such as CALM, as well as teaming up with other non-profit organizations that support mental health awareness. Gymshark states, "Whether you're looking for some direction or some distraction, Deload is on-call to help take the weight off your mind."
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Overall, I think that seeing a brand that promotes such strong fitness habits and awareness for strong physical health talk about how mental health which is seen by some as "weak" is incredibly powerful. The way that it was promoted by using the same terms used when talking about physical health was a great way to show people that it is important to be strong in both ways and not just one or the other, how they both depend on each other. Other brands have come out with their own mental health campaigns, but I think Gymshark has done this the best considering their brand is health and wellness, and they now reach both sides of this.
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