Awesome Advertising

Several months have past by and who would have thought that my most successful article would be about the Jabbawockeez and Branding. I still think Jabbawockeez are doing a fantastic job branding their company. From gigs around the world to the Gatorade advertising campaign their featured in. They’re doing a fantastic job. Another company doing a great job advertising as of lately is none other than Gatorade.  Between the Primer, During and Recovery beverages, their advertising spots, and their tremendous web work; they are leading the charge in current trend advertising.

I, however, don’t want to spend the entire time talking about advertising or branding. This blog is about strength training. Therefore, let’s digest some current strength training trends or brands that are absolutely tearing it up. P90x & Insanity.

While I have never done P90x or Insanity I do have friends who love both. Tony Horton (P90x) and Insanity (Shaun T) and two reputable name brand people now – thanks to their programs. However, ask any civilian or house mom, or even casual fitness enthusiast who the head strength and conditioning coach of University of Michigan, the head strength coach of Michigan State University, or any other different college; the answer will be that THEY DON’T KNOW.

The P90X Program

This is a shame because there are so many GREAT strength and conditioning coaches out there in the trenches that SHOULD have their name known. These coaches are the driving forces of the industry. They are the ones in the gyms, on the fields, courts, and arenas, training athletes nonstop. There is a serious disconnect from those in the field to those out there looking to consume information.

Now you may refute my statements by saying “Adam, these strength coaches don’t serve the average house mom or the fitness enthusiast, they serve THE ATHLETE”. I couldn’t agree more with you! I agree that strength coaches don’t need to reach this market, but guess who is listening to these pundits? – The Athletes! I’ve had several athletes in my time tell me they want to do Tony Horton’s “Muscle Confusion” or Ramp up the Intensity like Shaun T.

As an industry, we need to do a better job reaching out and setting a standard of training in a mass market, or even make the information accessible to those out there. Why? Because if we don’t, an advertising, marketing wizard will sell an item that will convince our athletes that our programs are lesser than the “well known” P90X or Insanity. It’s time we step up and begin the market and brand ourselves, our industry, and our style of strength and conditioning before somebody else does.

We all have a guilty pleasures that we’re not proud of nor want others to know about. However, this is what makes life so great. It’s the hardcore powerlifter who loves teacup puppies or the yoga-vegetarian who absolutely loves listening to SlipKnot. It’s crazy & bizarre, but I love it. Now, I’d be crazy not write all of this and fail to mention what my guilty pleasure is. What kind of person would write an article about this topic and not mention his own pleasure.

Mine stems from long hours working. I wake up in the morning to hit cardio & the gym, then it’s off to class & then working 40 hours a week on top of that in the strength & conditioning department. It makes for one hell of a busy day. This is all on top of an hour or two of reading Shirley Sahrmann or McGill’s work & books. Needless to say, when I get home to my lovely fiancée, I want to shut the brain off – And this moment is precisely where my favorite guilty pleasure comes on – MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC) What What!!

Yesterday just so happened to be a day where I had off and I used it to watch a marathon of Season 2 with the season winners, Jabbawockeez. If you know nothing about Jabbawockeez, Google their name and you’ll find out why they won – they’re amazing. Nonetheless, while watching the first few episodes I noticed a reoccurring trend coming from the Jabbawockeez that absolutely NO OTHER crew was doing. It wasn’t a sick b-boy moves or crazy flips or anything like that. No, rather it was their entire business approach!

Once a week each crew it brought on television to battle to earn their spot to survive. Most crews dressed up in themes and battled their way through the tournament. However, Jabbawockeez did a tremendous job branding their selves right out of the gate. Whether it was a T-shirt with “Jabbawockeez” wrote on it, or their signature “White Masks”, they took advantage of the television exposure to publicly market their selves and their brand, “Jabbawockeez”. If you lined up every crew from Season 1-3, I bet you would have a hard time naming ANY crew, (unless you’re a diehard ABDC fan like myself), however, with the Jabbawockeez it is easy… Look for their signature t-shirt and white masks.

Now before you start saying “how does any of this apply to strength & conditioning or personal training?” I beg you to think about it for a moment? How much personal branding are you doing? Your Business? Hell, do you even have a logo or a name? I ask this because the Jabbawockeez won the show but EVEN IF THEY DIDN’T, their brand won through all the national exposure. Without stepping on Ryan Lee’s toes here, (Who is unremarkably probably one of the geniuses with business & marketing) think about facets of your own business and look for room and chances to “brand” yourself. Do you have T-shirts that you can hand out to clients or wear yourself? Chances are you go grocery shopping once a week, right? You have 56 opportunities to wear your personal branded t-shirt for the hour your shopping and potentially expose your business to 100+ people. People would LOVE to have 5200 chances for potential customers to view their brand. That gives you an edge! 

What I’m saying is this. The Jabbawockeez did an amazing job on the show branding their selves. They did this while nobody else in show was doing it. Use that same philosophy and apply it to your own business. Find areas where you can brand your business and exposure new potential customers to what you’re doing. Whether it means hiring a designer to make you a company logo, a slogan, or a website – Do It! Hey, it worked for the Jabbawockeez right? They’re on tour; they are featured in magazines and Gatorade commercials. What are we featured in?

We all have a guilty pleasures that we’re not proud of nor want others to know about. However, this is what makes life so great. It’s the hardcore powerlifter who loves teacup puppies or the yoga-vegetarian who absolutely loves listening to SlipKnot. It’s crazy & bizarre, but I love it. Now, I’d be crazy not write all of this and fail to mention what my guilty pleasure is. What kind of person would write an article about this topic and not mention his own pleasure.

Mine stems from long hours working. I wake up in the morning to hit cardio & the gym, then it’s off to class & then working 40 hours a week on top of that in the strength & conditioning department. It makes for one hell of a busy day. This is all on top of an hour or two of reading Shirley Sahrmann or McGill’s work & books. Needless to say, when I get home to my lovely fiancée, I want to shut the brain off – And this moment is precisely where my favorite guilty pleasure comes on – MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC) What What!!

Yesterday just so happened to be a day where I had off and I used it to watch a marathon of Season 2 with the season winners, Jabbawockeez. If you know nothing about Jabbawockeez, Google their name and you’ll find out why they won – they’re amazing. Nonetheless, while watching the first few episodes I noticed a reoccurring trend coming from the Jabbawockeez that absolutely NO OTHER crew was doing. It wasn’t a sick b-boy moves or crazy flips or anything like that. No, rather it was their entire business approach!

ABDC'S "Jabbawockeez" Branding

Once a week each crew it brought on television to battle to earn their spot to survive. Most crews dressed up in themes and battled their way through the tournament. However, Jabbawockeez did a tremendous job branding their selves right out of the gate. Whether it was a T-shirt with “Jabbawockeez” wrote on it, or their signature “White Masks”, they took advantage of the television exposure to publicly market their selves and their brand, “Jabbawockeez”. If you lined up every crew from Season 1-3, I bet you would have a hard time naming ANY crew, (unless you’re a diehard ABDC fan like myself), however, with the Jabbawockeez it is easy… Look for their signature t-shirt and white masks.

Now before you start saying “how does any of this apply to strength & conditioning or personal training?” I beg you to think about it for a moment? How much personal branding are you doing? Your Business? Hell, do you even have a logo or a name? I ask this because the Jabbawockeez won the show but EVEN IF THEY DIDN’T, their brand won through all the national exposure. Without stepping on Ryan Lee’s toes here, (Who is unremarkably probably one of the geniuses with business & marketing) think about facets of your own business and look for room and chances to “brand” yourself. Do you have T-shirts that you can hand out to clients or wear yourself? Chances are you go grocery shopping once a week, right? You have 56 opportunities to wear your personal branded t-shirt for the hour your shopping and potentially expose your business to 100+ people. People would LOVE to have 5200 chances for potential customers to view their brand. That gives you an edge! 

What I’m saying is this. The Jabbawockeez did an amazing job on the show branding their selves. They did this while nobody else in show was doing it. Use that same philosophy and apply it to your own business. Find areas where you can brand your business and exposure new potential customers to what you’re doing. Whether it means hiring a designer to make you a company logo, a slogan, or a website – Do It! Hey, it worked for the Jabbawockeez right? They’re on tour; they are featured in magazines and Gatorade commercials. What are we featured in?