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DEFY! Advertising Campaign Creative BriefRegis UniversityIntegrated Marketing CommunicationKela VargasHalea McAteerAshley KarlLexe SviscoReetu Sandhu

Integrated Marketing CommunicationAd Campaign Team Creative BriefKela Vargas, Halea McAteer, Ashley Karl, Reetu Sandhu, and Lexe SviscoDEFY! Powered by Crossfit: Veterans

The Organization: DEFY!We are doing our campaign on Jonathon Sabars DEFY! CrossFit gym. DEFY! stands for defining excellence in fitness and functionality. The clients who come to DEFY! are looking for individual attention in a small class environment. Jonathons class size typically is six people or under for an affordable price. He mixes CrossFit strategies with other workouts such as walking lunges, plank holds, and squats for a continuous 60-minute workout. According to Jonathon, CrossFit is a small but nationally known company presenting a fitness system consisting of constantly varied high intensity functional movement. CrossFit exercises are often skill-based and need to be approached with patience and determination, and can be greatly facilitated by a competent trainer (DEFY! Limitations). Each class of his engages in different exercises for the best results, but one class example states, 9:00 am team workout, each team of 4 will complete: 200 walking lunges, 160 atlas stone-over-bar, 120 power cleans (155/105 lbs), and 80 axle shoulder-to-overhead (135/95 lbs) (DEFY! Limitations). Jonathon uses CrossFit for majority of his workout sessions, however, he is still having trouble wanting to associate himself with CrossFit when we spoke with him. With it being one of the most popular workouts today, he needs to choose whether he is or is not a CrossFit gym so that we are able to better advertise him to our Veteran clientele.The Target AudienceThe target audience that we chose for this assignment is veterans, specifically male veterans between the ages 30-35 and ages 45-50. The younger group of veterans, ages 30-35 are primarily minorities earning an average yearly income of $52,900+. The majority of this target audience are college graduates and work in management positions, which indicates that they are determined individuals who are working to provide for their young growing families. This target audience is full of small families ranging from 1-4, 1 meaning they are single (not as common), 2+ meaning they are married and have several children (most common). The older group of veterans, ages 45-50 are primarily white middle class earning an average yearly income of $50,000+. The majority of this target market has a high school diploma and work in management positions, this indicates that they are again determined individuals but because of their older age are probably more focused on providing their children with a higher education (high school, college) that is much more pricey than the begging years of their childrens education. This target markets family sizes range from 1-4. 1, which means they are either single or divorced, or 2+ meaning they are married and have several children.Objective Statement and Message ThemeDEFY! as a company has a few aspects to be worked on, but one that needs to take precedence is bringing in more customers that way the other things that need to be improved as well may follow after business increases. The objective of this advertising campaign will be to increase business and the number of people filling Jonathans training sessions, specifically by bringing in more veterans. By increasing sales, Jonathan will be more able to expand his business, which would include hiring more trainers. This will be something crucial to occur after bringing in more customers, there will be a clear need to have more trainers to continue the individualized attention Jonathan prides himself on. Another objective of this campaign is to really diversify Jonathans product from his competitors. Currently, he is having a hard time placing his business against his competition because he does not have a clear brand image. This will be another thing this campaign will work on.One way in which we plan to tackle these goals is by creating a connection with the Veterans Association in Colorado. This could be accomplished by targeting both the older and younger generations discussed earlier. One way to target the older sector of veterans would be to place print advertisements for his business at veterans associations around Broomfield. Using things like social media cites that they already use on a regular basis can better target the younger crowd. Again, connecting with the Veterans Association but this time with their Facebook page. This will be a great connection between these two groups because Jonathans training can be very helpful and rehabilitative. This factor supports what DEFY! and the Veterans Association stands for. This same sort of connection could also be made with the Veterans Hospital at their location, and their Facebook page again playing off the rehabilitative aspect. DEFY! will be more able to differentiate itself by making better use of its own Facebook page as well as its website. One way to do this is by posting more pictures as well as videos. The videos will be put to use by showing specific workouts he uses and explaining not only what they are but also how to do them, and ways in which they are beneficial. This will highlight not only the benefits that Jonathan offers, but what sets him apart from other gyms in the area.The message theme of this advertising campaign involves a few things. The key ideas that will be highlighted are that he is focused on not only helping people grow stronger, but also rebuilding people and their bodies at any age. This is something that will target both age groups. It is good for the younger veterans living in that area because they are living active lives, which fits perfectly with Jonathans training. While it works well with the older age group because they might be looking for something that is not as fast pace as at other gyms. Jonathan will be able to the fit this need due to the individualized attention he offers and being able to see what training will best suit his customers. This individualized attention is part of his unique selling point that will be another part of the message theme. This advertising campaign will feature his individualized approach and how this sort of training best suits all that come to his business and is one thing that sets him apart from all others in the area. This message theme including these aspects will be something that features an emotional aspect and highlights ideas of rehabilitations and strength at any age. As well as feeling the sort of connection with Jonathan, and other people at DEFY! that is similar to the sort of experience many veterans are familiar with. All together, these things highlight Jonathan and his unique training that can be helpful to people from many different walks of life.Supporting Elements and Creative TreatmentWhen carefully identifying which supporting elements would best attract a larger veteran audience, my team decided a television ad, t-shirts tailored to veterans and a well-developed webpage would be three key creative treatments to Jonathans success. First, we plan to film a commercial at DEFY! to move the focus toward the incredible features his gym has to offer and have plans to air this commercial on channels that we find are appealing to veterans. We will show various aspects of the gym while also filming Jonathan in action as he performs a typical class scenario with one of our very own veterans at Regis University, Kyle Knapp. Kyle has offered to feature in our commercial because he understands how crucial it is to display a veteran, who has endured such pain and hardships both mentally and physically, working his body in order to stabilize his overall health and strength post-war. A common misconception that we are trying to prove wrong in our commercial is that crossfit exercises can do further damage to veterans who have suffered severe injuries, when in fact, the movements work to loosen up the joints and allow the body to regain muscle and power in those problem areas. We think a television ad that presents a veteran getting the most out of a workout with Jonathans tailored classes while also giving a brief of Jonathan as a trainer could be enticing to our target audience of veterans.The second creative treatment we will bring forth is the customized veteran t-shirts Jonathan can sell in the gym. Merchandize can increase revenue for Jonathan while also serving as free advertising when people wear his products outside of the gym. This is especially vital because the more people who wear DEFY! t-shirts around the Broomfield area, the more likely Jonathan is to have new customers stop by and observe the gym, allowing Jonathan to offer a free session that entices the customer to purchase a monthly membership. T-shirts are a unique way to reach out to the target audience, especially when we can put an emphasis on veteran humor through the quotes or imagery used on the shirts. I think my team should offer army green, navy blue, tan, and camouflage-colored shirts to first attract the eye of a veteran in order to draw them closer only to find a quote such as, Check out these guns, Survived one battle to face a new one or Strength: surviving battles one day at a time. We could even include quotes in reference to the workout facility such as, Theres no fit like crossfit or Blood, Sweat, and Crossfit: DEFY your limitations. I think there is a multitude of clever ways to endorse Jonathans gym through merchandize that is affordable, comfortable and aesthetically appealing to the veterans.Thirdly, my team and I would like to give Jonathans website a makeover so that he appears to be more credible and serious about his passion for his work. The webpage of DEFY! needs to express Jonathans desires for his gym and his clients and should portray forward-thinking, motivational features that persuade people, especially veterans, to join the gym. I think by adding photos and videos of daily workouts to the site could enhance his brand and one very vital aspect he must display in order to capture the audience is that he is in fact a veteran. In my opinion, nobody knows a veteran quite like a veteran. If our target market can see that the very man constructing the classes and assisting people in bettering their life both mentally and physically is a veteran, I think this will increase his veteran customer-base. Jonathan should describe his own experience in the military on his website and explicitly state how crossfit has had a positive impact on his mental health as well as the condition of his body post-war. I think our team can use this emotional appeal to our advantage as Jonathan can directly relate to our target audience and the veterans can view him as someone to trust and who knows that what he is doing is fully beneficial to a person who has endured the difficult physical endeavors of war.In conclusion, I think Jonathan has a wonderful opportunity to expand his veteran customer-base through the strategic usage of a television commercial, t-shirts and a credible, progressive website. These supporting elements are crucial in defining Jonathans gym as the best in the area, especially for veterans who are skeptical of crossfit-styled exercise due to common injuries in joints and muscles. We are trying to give Jonathan an opportunity to prove the common misconceptions wrong through actual, real life examples in the commercial as well as on the website, while the t-shirts serve as an incentive to continue working out at DEFY! while also showing a direct focus on veterans as a target audience. Our team is currently developing these ideas and we plan to put them into action and express the changes we will be making during our presentation of the final ad campaign plan.Constraints Considered in Development of the CampaignThe main constraint that our team focused on is the fact that many people associate crossfit with injury. This is not true however if you workout properly and pay attention to what you are doing. In fact, crossfit can actually strengthen your muscles and enhance your athletic abilities. While doing crossfit Ashley and Lexe were told that our running ability and endurance would actually be enhanced by doing crossfit and we found this to be very true. We actually found that our overall endurance was enhanced when we made it to the top of two 14ers. There are many misconceptions associated with crossfit, the first one being that crossfit forces you to overwork your body more than you can handle, however, this is not the case. When going into crossfit they start you off with very lightweights and you build your tolerance up. Yes, they do like you to push your limits but not to the point that you become injured. The place in which Ashley and Lexe participated in crossfit, they properly teach you how to use the weights and how to lift and where you should start off as to prevent you from getting hurt. To overcome the problems with common misconceptions, we decided that since everyone is required to do a training course on how to use the weights and do the proper lifts, that Jonathan should also offer a course that explains the benefits of crossfit to others. That way the common ideas about crossfit will be put out of the way and people can feel more comfortable about choosing his crossfit classes. Also, Jonathan should offer classes that break down many of the lifts and WODs so that people can learn to do them properly and with the right technique so they do not feel embarrassed to ask for help and end up getting injured during his classes.