Photographing Anytime Fitness Farnham for their own photos!
Anytime Fitness Farnham
POST EDITED 29/06/2023 John has now sold Anytime Fitness Farnham.
I met John Quin at a local networking lunch. John at that time was about to open as a franchisee of Anytime Fitness, a global franchise gym with 2911 gyms worldwide and 57 gyms in the UK at the time of this post. For John this was a new venture and exciting times having spent about 2 years looking for the right location. His chosen premises in East Street, Farnham was a newly built building awaiting occupation. I think originally conceived as a possible restaurant the building was at odds with its location for such and many locals had wondered for what it was best suited. Anytime Fitness fits like a hand in a glove. It’s perfect.
I had already become a member before John asked me to look at producing some promotional photos and I couldn’t have been happier to get involved. Chatting it through with John I was keen to explore a range of imagery so we loosely arranged a 3 or 4 phase plan starting with photos of just the gym, vacant of people. I cheated a bit as I managed to grab a few shots of resident PT Jason Chewins as he was himself working out, a few test photos really for the ‘model’ phase to come.
As a case study this is good. Anytime Fitness is a large franchise and it is naturally tempting for a franchisee to make use of the promotional material from the franchisor and overlook one really vital truth. Although an Anytime Fitness membership at any gym provides access to every gym (yes, join Farnham and you can just walk into an Anytime Fitness gym in Los Angeles at no cost) most of the members will be local. So, do promotional photos depicting stock models in a generic gym set up, possibly shot abroad really speak to local people?
By my thinking no; to speak to local people you need photos of the gym itself and ideally local people featured in the photos. This is a classic example of not building your identity with stock photos. Obviously, being a franchisee it is important John uses Anytime Fitness material, but it should be balanced with the local feel. So the first aim was to put together photos of the Farnham gym and initially this was decided to be photos of just the gym, devoid of members. I started early, about 7am when it was quiet so as to work around the people working out. I had to time shots as people moved out of view, only occasionally did I ask someone to pause a moment just out of frame. The thing with Anytime Fitness is just that, it’s open 24/7 365 days a year. The gym is over 18’s (edit: reduced to 16) only and offers a clean, fresh and modern environment to take your workout seriously, combining traditional free weights with up to date muscle targeting machines.
Cardio certainly is well catered for with treadmills, cross-trainers, various spinning bikes, rowing and stepmills. The gym has also been fitted with some great air conditioning and filtering so it doesn’t get that ‘gym smell’, it’s always fresh and members are encouraged to use the provided anti-bacterial cleaning wipes as they go from station to station. Nobody likes to sit in someone else’s sweat!
The gym also offers a dance room with projector and screen running fitness classes which can be used by members on their own, in groups or organised classes.
John has at his disposal a lot of photos providing him with is own ‘stock’ library and this is really where I am coming from. It doesn’t matter what your business is, you don’t want to be building your business identity on stock photos. These photos are of the Anytime Fitness in Farnham, not Los Angeles. I havn’t cheated or used anything clever or gone for overly stylised images; business promotion is about truthfully showcasing what you do, what you offer and who you are, you want to turn up to this Gym and feel deja vu.The next phase will involve living breathing people, hopefully actual members local to the area but for now I’ll leave you with a few of Jason Chewins. Jason is a PT and you can book him by the hour. He looks the part, he is the part and knows how to make the most of your workouts.
If you are reading this and you own your own business or are enthusiastic about promoting the business you work for you know, you must know that the photos you are using are affecting your bottom line. Whenever I speak with people about their photography use, everyone agrees that photos are important. Nobody argues that really rubbish photos are actually benefiting their business. So why do so many people either use rubbish photos or rely on anonymous stock?I do know why, I’ve spoken to enough people and have been doing this long enough to know but that debate or re-education is for another post. All I ask you to do here is think about what you are doing. Whilst I’d love everyone to commission me the message is find your photographer and work with him or her on really sorting out good, punchy photos of you and your business , and keep doing it, even when you don’t think you need photos. Because you will and when you start using your own you will be chuffed.
Anytime Fitness Farnham 31-32 East Street, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7SW. Tel: 01252 279247