Aurora Health & Wellness Center at Norterre is a 65,000-square-foot health and wellness center in a multi-generational community in Kansas City. As with many large projects, Aurora’s construction faced delays that pushed its original summer opening date to the middle of snow and ice season. With members already signed, Aurora needed a solid plan to limit erosion in memberships prior to opening. Strategically cultivating newly registered members while attracting new ones, we leveraged the power of social media and email marketing. Our goal was to create a destination sell for Aurora using vivid imagery to create a reason to want to be part of this best in class fitness environment.

We used video of the fitness trainers to showcase the unique features of the club that made it a one-of-a-kind wellness center worth waiting for. Hashtag marketing was used to create a buzz in advance of opening and to encourage fitness fanatics to wait for a best-in-class environment. By tagging #fitfluentials in the market across all social channels, our hashtag took flight: #noordinarygym. The strategy worked to increase reach and drive loyalists to become our voice for Aurora.

Our social team of fitness warriors and Instagram aficionados knew how to keep the conversation going and feed traffic to the website from Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Playlists were created on YouTube and Spotify to keep the engagement momentum alive and bring Aurora to life. Our content strategy team crafted a continuity campaign of search-friendly and engaging nutrition blogs, healthy recipes, and exercise videos.

The result was posts across every channel three times a day. Using the website as an extension of the gym, we generated excitement by highlighting Aurora’s standout features –– 1100 pieces of curated art, three indoor pools, an indoor walking/running track, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, personal training, and 65 wellness classes offered every week, all included in the membership fee. Social media became our primary way to reach prospects, both organically and through paid programmatic. Despite the delays in construction, the social media campaign resulted in 10,000 followers on Facebook, 2,000 followers on Instagram, and 5,000 Twitter follows. More importantly, our engagement numbers were impressive — with some posts getting 750 responses. Not huge numbers, but for a gym in a zip code of 65,000 people not to open for 18 months, the attraction was powerful enough to gain 6,500 registered members by the time the doors opened.

The strategic use of social media (both organic and paid programmatic) served to drive people to the website and the front door, translating to an unprecedented annual revenue base of $11.2 million exceeding the business goals established and all client expectations.