Hashtag Social Media – Musings from Brafton’s Social Team – The Rethinking ‘New Year, New You’ Edition

Brafton’s monthly newsletter from the social team

Hello 2023! Here’s to New Year’s resolution, reinvention, revival.
In this month’s newsletter, we will focus on the intersection of fitness and social media.

In this month’s edition you will find…

• How Equinox Ditched “New Year, New You” Instead of a Controversial Marketing Campaign…
• How #Fitspo and other “motivation” hashtags can actually scare you away from health…
• And a spotlight on a fitness apparel brand with their amazing organic growth!

#OMG

Equinox, an upscale chain of gyms, rang in the new year with a controversial yet brave exercise in divisive social media content.

While this approach to acquiring new membership at what can be seen as the time to do this is somewhat exclusionary, from a marketing perspective it is a standout.

On Instagramthe post has over 5,000 likes and a plethora of comments exclaiming how negative this approach is.

Talk to The DrumWill Mayer, the brand’s executive creative director said that “Equinox doesn’t buy into the whole wishful thinking culture of feel-good decisions.”

“Equinox exemplifies the belief that life is forged at the extremes, and being for people who constantly push themselves to those extremes, we cannot in good conscience support the ‘new year, new me’ movement which takes place every January.”

And yet, people still talk about it. What do you think? Advertising genius, or a swing and a miss?

#DYK

Did you know that social posts using #fitspiration or #fitspo can...