Gymbox has called out the traditional OOH media industry after its new year ad campaign fails to appear on billboards across London, leaving the gym brand open to criticism from an “influx of aggravated customers”.
Brand and marketing director Rory McEntee aired his frustrations with traditional out-of-home advertising (and Global in particular) after the media owner appeared to botch the fitness brand’s new year campaign.
McEntee told Marketing Beat the ‘Made for London Life’ campaign had been “meticulously prepared” to coincide with the high-traffic January period crucial for annual membership sign-ups.
In an exasperated LinkedIn post, McEntee claims that – despite having provided Global with all the necessary materials in early December – Gymbox’s end-of-year promotion was still on display well into the first week of the new year, leading to widespread customer confusion and impacting the brand’s messaging.
Instead of seeing its new creative appearing on billboards across the capital, Gymbox’s end-of-year deal offering customers the ‘rest of the year free’ remained on display, leading to perplexed customers and a “lot of issues with the membership team”.
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“It’s pretty ironic that Global and the traditional media owners who were the first to lambast us for our fake advert, which let’s face it was just a bit of fun, couldn’t even deliver me a simple 48-sheet in the time agreed. Maybe we should just keep faking them? At least then I can control when they go up,” McEntee said.
“The outcry from the media and creative world when we faked an advert felt a little over the top. Rather than worrying about something that isn’t even real, it’s probably best if they just focused on doing their job.”
Coordinated through media agency the7stars, Gymbox said that the campaign artwork was planned to transition before the end of the year.
This latest development follows on from Gymbox’s controversial faux out-of-home campaign launched last August which caused consternation among some traditional media owners – and was denounced by Global as fake.
