Thanks to our work building Crunch’s awareness over the last 4 years—they’ve moved from #7 to #2 in unaided awareness in the category—many people know of Crunch Fitness. But qualitative interviews showed us many didn’t know about all of the amazing things you can do there. And something we didn’t know? That “how” the gym FEELS matters most of all.

This Time with More Feeling
So we examined what makes the Crunch vibe, vibe. The way our gymgoers feel inspired instead of intimidated. How the music connects instead of feeling corporate. How the staff is encouraging and helpful. And how the people feel like YOUR people. Our job was clear—let’s not just talk about the Crunch vibes, but make people feel it.

Say Less
We decided the best way to make people feel it was with heart-on-sleeve emotion. Like our characters were stuck in a 90’s music video directed by the legend Hype Williams himself. In his videos the characters feel larger than life in heightened dramatizations that transport them away from everyday reality. So we chose the anthem "This is How We Do It" and made some magic.

Hype Williams? Gimme Some More
Yes, by the grace of the production gods (or Mel at Spang TV), we were able to track down the elusive, yet very much active Hype Williams. A man whose resume speaks for itself. And yet is not with a production company. Or has a website. For those who need more info—Hype directed music videos for legends such as Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, Dr. Dre, LL Cool J, DMX, Jay-Z and many more. We kept talking about how fun it would be to make a Hype Williams-esque music video for Crunch so when he said yes, we said heck yes.

Definitely Not More of the Same
Using a kickass Crunch gym as their stage, we got two gym friends to transform into music video dancers right before our eyes. How? By tapping into Hype’s iconic aesthetic (lighting, framing, angles), his go-to director of cinematography, assistant director and award-winning editor. For us agency folk who are used to making commercials, the experience couldn’t be more different. Trained dancers, a choreographer, smoke machines, mood lighting—we were firmly living in Hype’s world now. Where dancing more, laughing more, and being more reigned supreme.

More than Just a Commercial
Partnering with our friends at Spang TV, Overcoast and Good Ear Music Supervision we delivered an iconic :30 that lives in Cable, CTV and Paid Social. As well as two :15s, and five :06 videos (they’re bite-sized but they pack a punch!). But the #client wanted more. So we also created a longform video that shows more dancing, more of the gym and even classic tv show credits at the end. It’s nearly a full-length music video for Crunch to play at meetings, on their YouTube page and other owned media.

We also created a mini-identity system for Feel More using all the amenities and emotions you feel at Crunch. The system comes through in the aforementioned :06s plus in direct mail, OOH and on-site executions.