Bally Total Fitness uses normal people and new media in online campaign

While surfing the web yesterday, I came across this ad for Bally Total Fitness. What caught my eye was the fact that there were normal looking people in the ad with a positive message, "Total Fitness Turnarounds. They did it, so can you!" I found the ad pleasing and relatable so I clicked through to get more information, and was even more pleasantly surprised by where I landed on the Bally Fitness website.

There are three people featured in the campaign, two women and one guy, and each has a different health goal. Ashley wants to lose weight. Dan wants to look and feel better, and Cristina wants to tone up. All these folks look like average everyday people like most of us, and they have realistic goals which are achievable and sensible. You won't find any "lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks" or "get into a size 2 in 3-weeks" hogwash.

Click on one of the profiles and you will get details of that person's 60-day program. For example, if you look at Ashley's page, you'll see her profile, her beginning and ending measurements, video posts at various points in her program, a slider that easily let's you go to a specific point in her journey, and a blog where she writes about what's going on. The video clips are "confessional booth" format, and you really get to see the personalities of each person which makes this promotion for Bally's program feel more real.

For a promotional campaign to get people to sign up for a fitness program, I'd give Bally Total Fitness an A for execution, message, and realism. I also really love the use of new media, and a clean, fun, and creative look and feel to the site. Gyms, fitness programs, and weight loss companies should learn something from this example from Ballys.