Psycle is one of the most well known boutique fitness brands in London. They have been around for eight years and lead the way for the boutique fitness trends in London. In that time, the brand didn’t evolve. And that’s okay. Pre pandemic every class was waitlisted without them having to do any marketing. And of course it was, the product is excellent.
But, post pandemic, consumer behaviour has massively changed in the fitness space. And, with that, Psycle’s brand, content and marketing strategy also had to evolve. And, essentially, that was my brief from the CEO. Here’s what I did…
PSYCLE
Brand Strategy
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I spoke to 50 Psycle consumers - the frequent users, the occasional users and the lapsed users to understand from a consumer point of view what they loved, liked and disliked about the brand and about the products. From this, I managed to garner some great insights not just on Psycle, but why people exercised and worked out. I also managed to identify their key audience.
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After a great deal of time diving into their audience and consumer behaviour within the sector, I got to work on the brand. I identified a strong mission, vision, purpose, belief & identity. I moved the ‘psy’ piece of the brand away from a more holistic approach to mindfulness (people go elsewhere for this) and focused on the resilience piece. Psycle classes are hard, they are designed to be hard - and that is why people come. But they are hard not just so you can get fit, they are hard to challenge you mentally. To push through your mental barriers of ‘I can’t do this’ to push yourself physically to show that you can do this. Proving that you can do this to yourself leads to a mental state of you can do anything. Because you can. I found that the feeling that people left Psycle with was a state of high energy and even of confidence that allowed them to work in high pressure jobs, to deal with lives challenges - many people I spoke to even cited that Psycle helped them through some of the hardest times in their life.
So, Do Psycle. Then do anything was born. The mantra that is going to take them forward. Do a double ride. Then ask for that pay rise. Do a deep burn class, then nail that pitch. Because the feeling of Psycle lasts way after class. And, that is powerful. And it is unique to psycle. And that is why people keep on coming back. We just need to tell the rest of the world about this!
As this is a busy space, I worked on pulling out their unique brand proposition, their ownable position and what makes them different to translate into all comms.I delivered this in a robust brand book that allows the marketing teams as well as the wider teams and new starters to really understand Psycle’s role in the market and to their consumer. But, also as a way that they can speak about the brand in an ownable way and stand out from the crowd.
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The feedback from internal teams was that they way that they talked was a bit vanilla. It lacked the energy and ‘oomph’ that each and every class delivers. So, we created a new tone of voice.
We created tone of voice pillars, came up with numerous, punchy lines to communicate what we are all about (more on that below). We created how we talk rules to be more socially relevant, fun and entertaining. Basically, reinvented how we should talk that delivers on the brand piece.
The brand that is Psycle has so many great kept secrets. While it launched as a ride only studio in Oxford Circus, they then added barre, strength and yoga (with reformer to come - more on that below) to their offering and also launched three new studios (with another one to come in 2023). On top of that, the ‘psy’ in Psycle stands for psychology - the brand is built on the fact that they are not just here for the physical benefits, but the mental benefits of exercise and the blueprint of each of the different disciplines is built with this in mind.
I wanted to modernise the brand - what it stands for, how it talks, how it looks. So, I took the following approach.
Some Tone of Voice Examples...
Some Tone of Voice Examples...
The HURT that becomes a HIGH. The BURN that becomes a BUZZ. The SHAKE that becomes a SMILE.
The world is hard at PSYCLE. But the payoff is sweet.
Brilliantly Brutal
If you aren’t shaking, it isn’t Psycle.
Totally Whooped. Totally Winning.
The incomparable feeling of Psycle ride.
If you aren’t pushing, it doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re killing it.
Overworking? Overthinking? Overloaded?
Get onto a reformer
Our new Reform-X class will help you refocus your mind, lower anxiety and strengthen every muscle in your body.
Hold my protein shake.
See your best. Then beat it.
Insane workouts that make you feel sane again.
Nothing sorts you out like a Psycle
Do Psycle. Then do anything.
Do Psycle. Then do anything is the new brand mantra that lives up to the fact that classes are hard - and we are proud of it. But also the new angle of the ‘psy’. Come to Psycle, push your mental and physical barriers, grow your resilience, grown your confidence and go onto smash your day. Because if you can do one of these super hard Psycle classes, you really can do anything. Below are some lines for a campaign.
If you can do a double ride, then you can win that pitch.
Do Psycle. Then do anything.
If you can do Deep Burn, you can ask for a payrise.
Do Psycle. Then do anything.
If you can do a ride at 6am, then you can win that promotion.
Do Psycle. Then do anything.
If you can do Reform-x, you can present to a room of CEO’s
Do Psycle. Then do anything.
Content Strategy
During the pandemic, Psycle’s following exploded thanks to the amazing free content they were doing on instagram live. This gave them a global audience and the ability to really create brand love and be able to reach new, exercise-loving audiences and increase consideration.
However, their strategy needed to change. The assumption that everybody knew who they were and what they stand for needed to be reworked and using the channels to drive to sales was no longer having impact. We needed to inspire, educate, be relevant and also, entertain. We also need to tell the world about our best kept secrets - out ‘psy’ stands for psychology and mental resilience and we have more than just ride classes. Here’s how I tackled it…
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A structure and framework that I think is incredibly useful and robust is the brand intelligence engine - where you address why content, who the audience is, where they are and how they are using those platforms, what your editorial direction is, and when - a cultural calendar to lean into culturally relevant conversations. So, this is what I created for Psycle. This allows us to create KPI’s around content, really ensure we understand who we are talking to and create a channel strategy to deliver on these.
This piece of work realigns how everybody uses content and what it means to the brand. It really helps the marketing team as well and means that they aren’t distracted from things that just won’t work.
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Identifying content pillars is such a vital part of the content strategy. As I had done the brand work, I knew exactly what we needed to be speaking to.
Fleshing these out and allowing everybody to understand the objective and purpose and messaging behind each makes content creation so much easier.
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Once all the thinking is done, comes the fun part. Ideating formats and franchises.
Under each content pillar, different formats are ideated delivering on different archetypes - utility, entertainment, inspiration and reactive. I ideated specifically for instagram in this piece - ensuring that we laddered up to the content strategy and created different types of content to lean into all of instagram’s functions and best practice for these.
Once