The client:

1Rebel is a no contract, high intensity, dual studio fitness concept in the City of London offering a fitness experience against a back-drop of curated music playlists and live entertainment.

The brief:

1Rebel’s founders wanted to take their fitness business to the roads in specially designed buses which people could use to commute to work while enjoying fitness classes.

To help get the idea dubbed RIDE2REBEL up and running, they turned to London-based PR and publicity firm, EMERGE. The firm had a budget of £200, with which it hired a student graphic designer to design the CAD mock-up of the 1Rebel spinning bus. It also had labour costs of the EMERGE CEO, Emily Austen, over 5 days, during which it launched the campaign in NYC and London, before amplifying content globally. EMERGE had no advertising budget – only the images and our press release, as well as access to the 1Rebel founders for comment/interview.

The objectives were to create a media imprint to establish 1Rebel as forward thinking, concerned with London, and to test the water for franchise opportunities in new territories globally. 1Rebel also wanted to create a way to boost their database by encouraging people to click through to the purpose built website and register their interest.

The strategy:

The bus was conceptual, so the main asset EMERGE had was two images and a map of the proposed routes through London. Its target audience from a consumer perspective had to be London focused, so there was a legitimate opportunity for it to generate relevant sign ups from potential customers.

The company focused on London publications: Evening Standard, TimeOut, Shortlist, etc., particularly those who syndicate globally. The audience was split into those who would be interested in the story/images as forward thinking content, and those who would actually sign up and pay for the service.

EMERGE had time restrictions, which meant that long lead media was harder to achieve, so our immediate concern was short leads and online titles. It also had a specific list of potential business opportunities, with CNN, Bloomberg and the BBC, in order to generate winning content for the brand investors. EMERGE had waves of outreach, depending on the time zones, and content was pushed out in NYC and London simultaneously. The company created key media lists depending on the angle of the copy, and decided to offer no exclusivity.

EMERGE worked with a dedicated media list, worldwide exclusives, across multiple time zones, with limited imagery. It had a staggered approach in order to hit key Tier 1 media, and also those titles with a likelihood to syndicate elsewhere. In addition, it created specific questions for key media outlets, as well as working on release forms with media channels (TV particularly) globally so that it could appear on Australian, American and Japanese television.

The result:

EMERGE generated more than 500 pieces of international coverage, which led to two franchise conversations for the brand in the UAE and Canada. The website crashed four times during the first week. The RIDE2REBEL website saw 25,000 people sign up for more information regarding the launch.

The social media coverage and sharing on social platforms was the highest since 1Rebel launched, and their engagement increased by 2000%. The brand also received emails and comments from competitors congratulating them for such a successful launch.

There is now also a company in France which has reformatted the idea to have spinning bikes on a boat riding down the Seine.