A gym that has not opened yet has to be explained before anyone can join it. For GF Fitness in Newington, Connecticut, we made four short portrait videos for social media, each with a different job, so that people could see the training, the building and the person behind it in the weeks before opening.
5 minute read
One campaign, four short videos
GF Fitness is a gym in Newington, Connecticut, owned by Anthony. The goal of this campaign was practical: collect prelaunch signups and get people into the gym once it opened. The prelaunch signup campaign received a strong response.
Instead of one long film, the campaign is four short videos made for phones. Each one is between 13 and 26 seconds, and each answers a different question a possible member might have. What does training here look like? What is inside the building? Who is running it? And what is happening, right now, before the doors open?
- The training reel earns attention with movement and close detail.
- The facility teaser orients a viewer in the space, starting with the indoor pool.
- The presenter-led reel puts a face and a voice to the business.
- The prelaunch announcement is the update, ending at the entrance.
Splitting the message this way keeps every video simple. A viewer who sees only one of them still gets a clear idea, and a viewer who sees all four gets the whole introduction.
Built for a phone held upright
All four videos are vertical, in the 9:16 shape of a phone held upright. That is how social video is usually watched, so the picture fills the screen without the viewer turning the phone or squinting at a small box.
The portrait shape rewards certain choices. A face or a hand fills the frame well. A tall frame can hold a person from head to hip. A wide room is harder, and the facility teaser shows one answer: its wide footage sits inside the portrait frame with black bands above and below, so the viewer sees the whole room instead of a narrow slice of it.
Watch each version in the players at the top of this page, which use the same vertical proportion a phone would show.
The training reel: attention from close detail
The first video, 26 seconds long, is built around Anthony training in a white sleeveless top. It opens close on his face, and the poster above shows that opening. Much of the reel stays tight: parts of the body in motion, the edge of a weight plate, a hand on equipment.
Tight shots are a good way to get attention in a feed. They fill a small screen, they read as effort, and they leave the viewer wondering what the room around them looks like. The reel answers that question late. At about fifteen seconds the camera moves back and shows the athlete among the equipment, as in the frame below, and the video ends on the GF logo.
That order matters. A viewer is drawn in by detail first, shown the setting second, and given the name last.
The presenter-led reel: a person behind the business
The third video, 22 seconds, starts with Anthony in a black top with a clip-on microphone, standing by the GF sign and speaking straight to the camera. The poster for that clip shows the moment.
A local business is often a person before it is a brand, and members of a small gym frequently join because they trust whoever runs it. Opening on Anthony says who is behind the gym before showing anything else.
After the opening the reel moves quickly through the building: weights, an indoor pool, a basketball hoop, showers, cardio equipment and the logo. It is a shorter and more personal version of the facility teaser, with a face attached. Seen together, the two videos cover the same ground in different ways: one lets the building speak for itself, and the other lets the person introduce it. A viewer can choose either, and a viewer who watches both gets the building and the person who runs it.
The prelaunch announcement: speaking from inside the gym
The fourth video, 24 seconds, is the announcement. Anthony wears a white long-sleeve top and speaks directly to the camera from several places in the gym, including near lifting platforms. Moving between spots keeps a talking video from feeling static, and it lets the room appear behind him as it stands before opening.
One of the clearest images is the illuminated Trust the Process mural on the wall, shown in the frame below. A glowing sign gives a portrait frame a strong, simple background, and the phrase fits a gym in its preparation period.
Ending at the door
The announcement finishes outside, at the GF entrance, as in the frame below. Ending on the door is a visual way to point the viewer to the real place. After a video that has gone from training to the facility to the person, the last image is where a visitor would walk in.
Editing choices you can see
Across the four videos, a few decisions repeat. The first is the balance of tight and wide. Tight shots, like the weight plate or a hand, carry feeling. Wide shots, like the equipment floor or the pool, carry information. Each video uses both, in a different order for a different purpose.
The second is how long each video lasts. Thirteen to twenty-six seconds is enough to make one point. Because each video has a single point, none of them needs to explain everything.
The third is the opening. Each video gives the viewer something to look at in the first seconds: a face in close-up, a pool, a person speaking to the camera, a speaker inside the gym. Feeds move quickly, so a first image that is easy to understand matters more than a title.
The fourth is repetition. The GF name and logo appear in several of the videos, so a viewer who sees them on different days connects them as one gym.
What the videos were for
The purpose of this campaign was to bring prelaunch signups and get people into the gym. Each video was designed to serve that: to catch attention, show the place, show the person, and announce the opening.
The prelaunch signup campaign received a strong response, which is what a set of short videos with clear jobs is meant to earn.
If you are planning something similar, the same approach applies: decide what each short video is for and give it one job.
