I. BRIEF
énergie Fitness Lichfield, a newly established gym in a city with several long-standing competitors, sought to grow its brand awareness and strengthen its presence in the local community. Positioned in the centre of the city, it attracted a younger demographic (mainly students) unfamiliar with gym equipment, as well as an older audience interested in group classes and personal training.
My task was to develop and deliver a content strategy that would appeal to both segments, increase engagement with the brand and increase memberships.
II. STRATEGY
I developed a short-form content strategy built around three core pillars of education, promotion, and community. The goal was to increase engagement and conversion by lowering friction in the user journey through educational, approachable and aspirational content.
Educational Content: I created a series of tutorials explaining how to use key equipment correctly. These were delivered in a more casual tone, often with myself on camera, forming a relatable (if informal) UGC-style approach.
Class & Membership Promotion: Energetic, upbeat content was used to highlight group classes and promote the gym’s “Epic” membership offering. These pieces featured a mix of age groups, particularly spotlighting older members, to make the gym feel inclusive and drive aspirational membership for that segment.
Community Collaborations: I initiated and produced collaborative content with local businesses and event organisers. This included a joint piece of content with Alpha Running and a mini-documentary for the local “One More Lap” charity ultramarathon.
Tone of Voice: A blend of lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek content with polish to humanise the brand and make the gym feel more approachable.
I also produced other commercial content outside of this wider campaign, including advertisements and printed materials for énergie’s PT Academy Course and Epic Memberships.
III. DESIGN
Creative direction was rooted in modern minimalism, reflecting the gym’s design itself and brand identity. I selected San Francisco Pro as the core typeface, a humanist sans-serif that balanced professionalism with warmth and accessibility.
The lighting conditions within the gym, particularly the strong overhead LED fixtures, allowed me to shoot at low exposure and base ISO, producing high-quality visuals straight from camera with minimal need for post-production. This lighting setup also enhanced muscular definition, which I intentionally emphasised to drive aspirational engagement.
I therefore opted to produce content with a clean, digital appearance, leaning away from film emulation techniques I frequently use to manage low-light scenarios, allowing me to produce refreshing visuals that harmonise with the typeface.
I started all projects with a music-first approach, and I worked the majority of the direction for these videos around that principle, first adjusting often a relevant trending audio to the desired length and then cutting at appropriate intervals in the track to weave the narrative and engage the viewer.
This creative direction and visual identity was also continued throughout the print and advertising materials created for the aforementioned PT Academy Course and Epic Membership.
IV. DELIVERY
While I did not have access to back-end analytics or conversion metrics, I observed clear indicators of campaign success across engagement, feedback, and local reach.
Public-facing content regularly outperformed previous uploads on the account when ranking by engagement and views, and several members of the gym approached me directly to compliment the quality of the videos, expressing that the tutorials had helped them feel more confident in the gym environment and had become part of their routines.
The community collaborations had a meaningful impact. During my time working with énergie Fitness Lichfield, the business established five new partnerships with local companies, supported a major charity event, and built meaningful brand alignment with other local fitness communities. These efforts not only improved the brand’s visibility but helped position the gym as an integral part of Lichfield’s fitness and wellbeing ecosystem.
"I want to say a quick thanks to the brilliant Thomas Purkis.❤️
Thomas is a designer and videographer from Lichfield, who did an amazing job of capturing One More Lap for Kids Village Charity last year.
He's also gone above and beyond to help us get the video on the OML website - cooly, calmly editing clips while I repeatedly message "MORE DINOSAUR!" 🦖
So, if you're looking for a smart, friendly, thoughtful and talented multimedia designer, give Thomas a shout!"
- Ian Covey, Freelance Digital Comms Specialist
Thomas is a designer and videographer from Lichfield, who did an amazing job of capturing One More Lap for Kids Village Charity last year.
He's also gone above and beyond to help us get the video on the OML website - cooly, calmly editing clips while I repeatedly message "MORE DINOSAUR!" 🦖
So, if you're looking for a smart, friendly, thoughtful and talented multimedia designer, give Thomas a shout!"
- Ian Covey, Freelance Digital Comms Specialist
