The Task: Improve brand salience through enhancing Fitness First’s social media strategy by introducing subtle yet effective branded elements into their organic content, amplifying brand salience while preserving the authentic engagement that made their content successful—proving that strategic brand integration can coexist with customer-centric content to deliver both connection and recognition.

The Client

Fitness First (owned and managed by Fitness & Lifestyle Group) – a national gym brand offering fully-appointed fitness facilities and group workout classes.

Challenge

Prior to this initiative, Fitness First’s organic social content lacked consistent brand visibility and recognition elements. Content was being produced and distributed without strategic brand integration, missing opportunities to reinforce brand identity and increase brand salience across digital touchpoints.

Objective

Develop and implement a comprehensive branded social content strategy that would seamlessly integrate Fitness First’s brand elements into organic social content while supporting established content pillars, enhancing brand recognition without compromising engagement.

Strategic Approach

Discovery & Analysis

  • Conducted audit of existing organic social content performance.
  • Analysed competitor approaches to branded vs. non-branded organic content.
  • Identified opportunities to enhance brand recognition while maintaining authentic engagement.

Strategy Development

I proposed a strategic framework for integrating brand elements into organic social content that would:

  1. Enhance brand recognition and recall through consistent visual cues.
  2. Support existing content pillars established by the Social Manager.
  3. Maintain the authentic nature of organic content that resonates with the community.
  4. Create production efficiencies through templated approaches.
  5. Build brand equity through consistent exposure in high-engagement content.

Key Insight

Through research and analysis, I identified that subtle but consistent brand integration in organic content could significantly increase brand salience and recognition without triggering the audience’s “promotional content” filters that often lead to reduced engagement. This insight is supported by Byron Sharp’s “How Brands Grow” principles on mental availability and distinctive brand assets.

Solution

Customer-Centric Approach

A fundamental principle guided all content development: customer-centricity. Most content was designed to act as a mirror to the customer, with minimal inclusion of staff or business-focused elements. This approach ensured content resonated with the audience’s self-image and aspirations rather than feeling promotional. (This approach aligns with Douglas Holt’s research on authentic brand building in social media contexts.)

Deliverables

1. Strategic Pitch Presentation

Developed a concise strategy and initial visual directions delivered through a pitch presentation deck that effectively:

  • Argued the business case for branded organic content.
  • Demonstrated brand integration principles with visual examples.
  • Outlined integration approaches supporting the Content Manager’s content pillars.
  • Proposed implementation roadmap and measurement framework.

2. Visual Direction Development

Created distinct visual approaches for each of the six content pillars:

  • Brand – Flagship content showcasing Fitness First’s core identity, offerings, facilities, equipment, classes, and staff information through a customer-benefit lens; also includes club maintenance and administrative messaging
  • Community – Content connecting members to the wider health and fitness community, including charities, awareness days, and relevant external events
  • Culture – Content highlighting people living healthy and fit lifestyles, and showcasing places, events, or activities in the real world for people to experience
  • Movement – Exercise demonstrations and fitness education content
  • UGC – Framework for enhancing and leveraging user-generated content
  • Wellbeing – Holistic health and wellness educational content

Each visual direction maintained the content pillar’s unique character while incorporating brand elements at appropriate touchpoints.

3. Multi-Platform Template System

Designed and developed easy-to-implement templates across multiple platforms:

  • Photoshop – Advanced templates for complex, high-production content
  • Figma – Collaborative templates for marketing team content development
  • Canva – Simplified templates for rapid deployment by non-design team members
  • After Effects / Premiere / Resolve – Created motion graphics (mograph) templates, footage editing styles for channel / ratio-specific deliverable (portrait, square, landscape).

These templates ensured brand consistency while providing flexibility to support various content needs and production capabilities.

Implementation

Team Alignment

Presented the strategy and visual directions to the Social Manager and Senior Executive team, highlighting:

  • The business value of increased brand salience
  • How the approach would support rather than disrupt existing content strategy
  • Production efficiencies gained through templated approach
  • Measurement framework to assess impact

Rollout Strategy

Implemented a phased approach:

  1. Initial testing with the Brand pillar content
  2. Progressive implementation across remaining content pillars
  3. Training and enablement for the production team
  4. Continuous optimization based on performance metrics

Key Learnings

The project demonstrated that strategic brand integration in organic social content can:

  1. Enhance brand salience without compromising engagement when implemented thoughtfully (consistent with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s findings on distinctive brand assets).
  2. Create production efficiencies while maintaining creative flexibility.
  3. Support broader marketing objectives through consistent brand touch-points (as outlined in Keller’s Customer-Based Brand Equity Model).
  4. Build stronger connections between content pillars through visual cohesion.

Stage 2 inclusions

  • Development of seasonal variations to maintain freshness while preserving brand consistency.
  • Integration (feedback-loop) with paid social assets to create stronger cross-channel brand recognition (following integrated marketing principles from Binet and Field’s research).