GRNDHOUSE is a super exciting new fitness brand that I so enjoyed working with. Founded by five of the most famed ex Barry’s Bootcamp instructors, these guys knew their stuff. They had just raised £1.5M in seed round for their at home, strength training tech platform and were ready to get cracking. These guys have humour, they have fun, they have credentials and they have a great idea - especially as the benefits of strength training is on the rise.
They set me the task of creating their brand (everything apart from visual identity) and as they were so content focused, a content structure that would help them garner brand fame.
GRNDHOUSE
Brand Strategy
Much like the Psycle project, it all started with the brand strategy. I collaborated with another consultant that they brought on board - she did a phenomenal job doing consumer research, identifying their unique proposition, their audience and their opportunity. So, my role here was looking at mission, vision, manifesto, brand role, brand identity, brand objective, brand purpose, brand belief and their brand values.
I started with the problem that they were looking to solve, diving into how they solve this. I built upon their unique proposition and through at tone of voice strategy evolved this into short, snappy and funny one-liners that delivered all the attributes of the brand.
But, most of all. This brand is about the guys behind it. There has never been a fitness brand that is actually founded by fitness experts - can you believe it. These guys have the credentials, they know what they are doing. And most of all, they already have big social followings and presence. They were the foundation of this brand.
I ensured I captured everything about them by spending as much time as possible with them. We did an interactive brand workshop, we set fun challenges that made them question their brand deeper than before.
What we we ended up with is a brand that communicates that they are going to work you hard, but it is only 40 minutes. They have a structured programme with a new class dropping every day - eradicating that insane scroll of ‘what exercise shall I do today?’. Essentially, they take the thinking out of working out. They have injected the fun back into fitness - no chat about shredding and being ripped, but challenging classes that are going to deliver change, as well as a LOL. And this is where brand GRNDHOUSE is today.
Some Tone of Voice Examples...
Some Tone of Voice Examples...
We make working really f***ing hard, really f***king easy.
It’s hard. It hurts. It’s over in 40.
Hardly any gear. All the ideas.
Meet the trainers who need nothing but dumbbells to build your best body ever.
Take the thinking out of working out.
All Killer No filler Training Programme
Make your time count
Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.
Get it done in 40 at GRNDHOUSE.
Content Strategy
The GRNDHOUSE team loved content. They were great at creating content, and they had been creating a lot of content for Instagram. It all looked great, but they weren’t telling any stories, they weren’t communicating all of their unique propositions on which the brand is built. But, most of all, they weren’t letting their personalities and humour shine. These guys were built for entertainment driven content and they needed to own it. This approach in itself would garner the brand fame that this early start up needed. Let’s call this fit-tertainment. Farewell boring, take-yourself-seriously content. I’m here for this. You will be too, check out their instagram.
Also, I will never not laugh at this reel. Trust me, check it out.
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I started with a very thorough audit of what they are creating across all of their channels and played a very high brow game called “shag, marry, avoid” with the content. Yup, you heard right. Marrying it means it is obviously staying, shag means there is something there, let’s see what we can do with it. Avoid means, we don’t need this in our lives.
I did this through stories, reels, video, grid, TikTok, newsletters, YouTube, Facebook - the works. And each delivered some key takeaways from which we can start to buld the strategy.
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Using the framework of creating a brand that acts like a publisher I really instilled the ‘So what?’ challenge to them. They were creating great content of them doing their workouts and classes. But there was no utility (I wasn’t learning anything), there was no entertainment (just watching people workout) and while you could consider it inspiring (if watching really fit people do really challenging workouts inspires you), it could work harder. And I know that these guys could create some really amazing content that delivered on this.
As the founders are all impressive instructors in their own rights, but haven’t come from a marketing background, I worked up a strategy that helped them see the value and the place for content within their brand as a growth mechanism (albeit this was focused on organic content). I worked with them to help them understand that everything that they put out in the world has to have thought about what you want the audience to do with it - is it shareable, is it something fun to comment on, do you want them to save it as they are learning something.
I worked on a social strategy, an SEO led blog strategy, campaign/ content led newsletter strategies as well as an events strategy. -
From the content pillars that I worked up, we got into concepting. I really wanted to try and land a franchise that was super ownable to them and original. But I also wanted to work up some really fun and entertaining formats that allows the founders to be front a central to.
I had a lot of fun working on this, and I think what they are doing today is great. They really are friends, they really like taking the piss out of each other. But most of all, they are being themselves.
I can’t wait to watch this brand go from strength to strength.