Utah Business magazine’s annual SAMY (Sales & Marketer of the Year) awards celebrate the state’s top marketing talent. Highlighting individuals and teams in Utah that go above and beyond in their efforts to deliver great marketing to companies, the SAMYs showcase some of the best thinking in the state when it comes to messaging that truly impacts a business’s bottom line.
Utah Business has been using their SAMY Awards to highlight marketing professionals in the state for over a decade. Categories like,” Best Social Media Campaign”, and “Marketing Professionals of the Year” highlight great work that has come from Utah-based talent, as well as individual players in Utah’s marketing world that have had massive national (or worldwide) success at creatively solving marketing problems. The awards spotlight how this top marketing talent is making a difference for brands that expand well beyond our state’s humble borders.
Epic’s win for “Best Use of Video” was for a spot created to launch “VASA Studio” for big-box gym VASA Fitness. Expanding their personal training offering, VASA Studio competes with the training style and experience smaller, boutique gyms offer. Our VASA Studio work showcases the one-of-a-kind experience VASA members get when they step into a Studio class. To set it apart from the other group fitness classes VASA offers, we amped up the music and drama—focusing on the intensity, excitement, and love of a great workout only the VASA Studio experience can deliver.
When VASA first approached us with their new premium gym experience, we knew it needed a name that showcased the concept as unique to their other class offerings and helped to highlight the smaller, more intimate—and more intense—nature of the workouts. Landing on the term “Studio” as a moniker we focused on capturing the boutique, elite-level feeling of the classes.
For messaging, we knew VASA Studio would be competing with more boutique gyms where members were used to getting quite a bit of individual attention. Studio would be no different; so we focused our message on highlighting the small class size, the state-of-the-art equipment (Woodway treadmills, Myzone heart rate monitors), and the intensity you could expect when you walked into a Studio workout.
With the cornerstones of naming and messaging laid, we moved on to Handling identity design, marketing materials, environmental graphics, as well as the video production work. Our task with video became how to show the Studio experience. How do you recreate the visceral feeling of sweat, energy, and excitement that Studio would represent? In shooting the video spots, we choose dramatic red lighting to match VASA’s brand colors. We stylized the Studio experience to spotlight our models and their silhouettes; not only showing the intensity of their workouts, but bringing attention to the individual’s experience and giving Studio the premium feel it had within the VASA brand.
Our work was a massive success. Not only did the rollout generate big buzz for VASA and increase memberships, but it was so well received that VASA decided they would incorporate the Studio model—and Epic’s campaign—into all their fitness centers nationally. Our efforts helped launch VASA Studio as the premium Studio experience it is, allowing the new offering to stand out with sleek, innovative creative that also helped to elevate the entire VASA brand. Our work highlights Studio as an exclusive experience that makes VASA gyms a destination not just for causal gym-goers, but for people who take their fitness a little more seriously and want classes that cater to their level and the individual instruction they’re used to.
As a full service agency just south of Salt Lake City, we’ve delivered advertising solutions for local and national businesses and brands for over fifteen years. Our diverse group of clients spans multiple industries, and we’ve built the capabilities to service our client’s needs across multiple channels and platforms; including broadcast, digital, print, and other media. Our group is focused on delivering the creative and strategy businesses need to grow, and we cater our services to the unique and individual needs of each client. Our philosophy is centered around delivering messages that create strong customer relationships, with an emphasis on consistency and a focus on brand planning, messaging, and deployment.
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