Orangetheory Fitness Makes Mother in LA Its Lead Creative Agency

Mother in LA did some heavy lifting to become fitness brand Orangetheory Fitness' new creative agency. As such, Orangetheory Fitness is moving on from Tombras creatively, though the Knoxville agency will still handle media for the company. In its search for a new agency, Orangetheory was looking for a positioning refresh in the category to help drive awareness and grow its business. It is hoping Mother's Los Angeles office will be able to vault the brand above the competition. The brand strategy and resulting U.S. campaign work will revolve around the company’s existing products, as well as new innovations. “Mother was able to really articulate the meaningful differentiation of our brand. They were able to find that functional and emotional creative sweet spot,” Kelly Lohr, CMO of Orangetheory, told Adweek. Lohr said that the pitch was part strategy and part creative execution. Mother brought in behavioral science, including the science of motivation and self-determination theory as a strategic approach. But the agency also brought in three creative ideas, one of which Lohr called “brilliant,” which is a word she uses sparingly. That campaign idea will be the fall effort from Orangetheory. Steve Aoki Pumps Up the Volume as Orangetheory Fitness’ First-Ever Chief Music Officer “Orangetheory has a phenomenal product that people, including us, genuinely love,” said Jesse Unger, head of strategy at Mother, in a statement. “Their scientific approach to wellness, paired with their incredibly passionate community, is the dream creative opportunity.” The campaign is scheduled to release in November, a time that Orangetheory calls “Newvember” to welcome new members to try out the company in a welcoming way. While Lohr wouldn’t give specifics, she said that the new Mother work will highlight "Newvember" by featuring member voices in a “really unique way.” Helping overcome ‘gymtimidation’ Orangetheory Fitness is a leader in innovative heart rate-based interval training, and the company’s gyms feature group workouts that combine science, technology and expert coaching. It’s also a fast-growing franchise company and Lohr said the franchisees will benefit from Mother’s work. The new campaign will help by building confidence in coming to the gym, getting over what’s called “gymtimidation,” which is the insecurity of going to a new gym for the first time or dreading working out with others. By utilizing behavioral science in its campaign approach, Mother is looking to get people comfortable to come into an Orangetheory location for the first time. Once they come in for their free first class, said Lohr, Orangetheory has a high conversion rate. “For us, it was really important to be able to help consumers who are in the category make that leap in a way where they feel comfortable. It's not just about our brand, but it's also about helping bring people into the category,” said Lohr. Moving on creatively from Tombras Tombras has worked as Orangetheory’s creative and media agency since 2015, and moving forward, Tombras will handle media while Mother will handle creative. Coyne PR, which has worked with the company for nearly two years, will continue with public relations duties. While numbers of the deal were not disclosed, in 2022, the estimated U.S. spend for Orangetheory Fitness was $6 million, with nearly all being digital, at $5.1 million, according to COMvergence. “We felt that there was value in having a separate creative agency, so that way we could let Tombras focus solely on media. We couldn't have done the successful work that we've done without them,” said Lohr. To narrow it down to Mother as the creative agency, Orangetheory started with 10 possible agencies, then narrowed down to four for the full RFP process. The November campaign will be the first work from Mother, but the bigger Orangetheory brand campaign will come later, in Q1, which is the most important timeframe for the fitness industry. “The focus now is this November campaign. It'll be a great way to like get our feet wet working together for the first time and then in parallel start to work towards something larger and bigger for our next campaign,” said Lohr.