Created in partnership with McCann in Manchester, the campaign is anchored by a high-energy 60-second hero film introducing Glow - a big, glowing ball of energy that represents that unbeatable feeling that people can enjoy, day in day out, as PureGym members. The spot follows Glow as they step out of a PureGym and radiate positivity through the world around them: making strangers smile, trading fist bumps with baristas, and moving through the city to an irresistibly funky soundtrack. Glow’s warmth and confidence act as a visual metaphor for the emotional uplift at the heart of the PureGym experience.
Built on the insight that while PureGym is known for being cost-effective, what people are truly buying is the chance to feel good, every day, inside and out. Moving beyond the category conventions of value gyms, the campaign signals a significant evolution in the brand’s strategy.
Launching on Christmas Day, the integrated campaign will run across TV, Radio, OOH, Cinema and social, ensuring Glow’s infectious energy appeals to a wide audience who value both physical and emotional wellbeing.
To bring Glow to life, McCann collaborated with a costume designer and specialist lighting artist to craft a bespoke fibre-optic suit, giving the character a tactile, real-world luminosity.
Imogen Tazzyman, ECD at McCann Manchester, said: “It’s not often you get the chance to blow the doors off a whole category. But gym ads have long featured gym people, doing gym things, talking about gym life, which is great for people already buying gyms, but if the objective is to grow the category, it's the worst thing you can do if your audience is nervous of the gym in the first place. It’s like hiring a spider as your spokesperson to talk to people with arachnophobia.
“So, we focused on the feel good instead, and our glowing manifestation of that was born. Which makes it sound simple. Turns out creating a bespoke suit covered in hundreds of thousands of individual LEDs, which could only be operated by the one lighting designer in the world, and was so heavy that the only people who could wear it were two incredibly strong, in every sense, female ballet dancers, came with its challenges. Who’d have thought! Luckily the whole team at PureGym trusted the process, and Vaughn and the team at Merman embraced the whole project with gusto. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the result.”
In a first for PureGym, the campaign also includes an audio-described version of the TV spot, ensuring accessibility for visually impaired audiences across UK linear TV and B/SVOD platforms. This forms part of McCann’s ‘Alt by Default’ initiative, which seeks to close the accessibility gap in advertising. Working with partners Cape and Voice Box, audio description was embedded in the creative process from the outset – helping to set a new benchmark for inclusive advertising.
Barney Harrison, Group Chief Customer & Commercial Officer at PureGym, said “This campaign launches our new brand strategy, Feel PureGym Good, and marks a defining moment for PureGym. What we sell is world-class gyms at affordable prices, but what people buy is wanting to feel good about themselves. Our role as a brand is continuously raising the bar for our customers and for the fitness industry as a whole. This is a catalyst for redefining what modern fitness looks and feels like, and in doing so we can appeal to those people who don’t yet see the gym as place for them and grow the market. This campaign is an exciting first chapter for our brand, setting the stage for much more innovation ahead as we focus on elevating the full experience members have with us”.
Jodie Maguire, Group Brand Director at PureGym, said: “It’s our first step beyond value-led messaging, tapping into a universal truth about the emotional lift people feel when they move their bodies. By focusing on feeling rather than fitness tropes, the work deliberately sits outside the category and helps redefine it. There’s a real beauty in the idea, which is simple, human, and can travel across our markets with minimal adaptation. McCann understood that ambition immediately, and Glow captures the positive feeling we want people to associate with PureGym everywhere, moving from gym-fit to feel-good-fit.”
The campaign debuts on Christmas Day in the UK, Denmark, Switzerland and an adaptation in the USA.
CREDITS:
Client: PureGym:
Group chief customer & commercial officer: Barney Harrison
Group marketing director: Stephen Rowe
Group customer and marketing director: James Gauduchon
Group brand director: Jodie Maguire
Group senior brand marketing manager: Laura Ross
Group creative lead: Karl Horton
Regional brand marketing managers: Jessica Dixon UK, Jess Robinson CH, Rikke Pernille Petersen DK
Group senior content manager: Ali Turner
Group social media lead: Bekki Asquith
Group senior designer: Hannah Wainwright
Agency: McCann
Executive creative director: Imogen Tazzyman
Business director: Laura McConville
Head of strategy: Jordan McDowell
Senior comms planner: Emma Prince
Strategist: Katy Kitchen
Junior strategist: Jasmine Boyes
Creative leads: Emily Cozens, Faye Jolly, Parisa Shadi, Sally Leach
Account manager: Fred Loveder
Head of McCann Content Studios: Luke Taylor
Senior social creatives: Hannah Tudor and Mike McGunniess
Executive producer: Millie Bennett
VFX Supervisor: George Hobbs
Film Production: Merman London
Director: Vaughan Arnell
Producer: Alicia Farren
EP: Siobhan Murphy
DOP: Tat Radcliffe
Production Designer: Ben Ansell
Costume designer: Kate Tabor
Lighting artist: Harish Persad
Edit House: Final Cut
Editor: Joe Guest
Color House: Rascal
Colourist: James Bamford
Sound Co: Nobel State London
Voiceover: Francesca Smith
Music Supervision: Chris Graves, Craft London
Creative & Strategic Brand Consultants: Mick Mahoney & Kevin Chesters
Accessibility partners: Cape and VoiceBox
Measurement partners: System1
Media agencies: Carat UK, Wavemaker CH, Advice DK
Audience consultants: Craft Media
