PureGym has focused on the post-exercise, feel-good glow in an advertising campaign that launched on Christmas Day across tv, radio, in cinemas and social media.

The low-cost operator worked with Manchester agency McCann on the advert which marks an innovative new approach – moving away from value-led marketing and the usual fitness tropes and instead representing the buzz you feel after a workout.

A character called Glow has been created as a visual representation of that post-workout feeling. Strutting out of the gym to a funky soundtrack, Glow is a fluffy, luminescent, blue and pink being radiating positivity – petting dogs, fist-bumping baristas and dancing with kids. 

Imogen Tazzyman, ECD at McCann Manchester, said it was a challenge to create a bespoke suit covered in hundreds of thousands of individual LEDs, which could only be operated by one lighting designer and was so heavy that the only people who could wear it were two incredibly strong female ballet dancers. 

Barney Harrison, group chief customer and commercial officer at PureGym, said the campaign is an exciting moment for PureGym and believes it will appeal to the people who don’t yet see the gym as a place for them: “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.” 

Jodie Maguire, group brand director at PureGym, says: “This is 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. Glow captures the positive feeling we want people to associate with PureGym everywhere, moving from gym-fit to feel-good-fit.”

Imogen Tazzyman, ECD at McCann Manchester, said: “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.”

The advert is being shown in the UK, Denmark and Switzerland, with an adaptation being used in the US.