Virgin Active

After a 4 month process of tests, ideas, brainstorming meetings, approvals, costings and pitches, Virgin Active South Africa approved one of the biggest project shoots of my career. The Virgin Active Stories Shoot aimed to answer one essential question, ‘What Moves Me?’ Part documentary, part market research, part advertising, and part investigative photojournalism. We wanted to find and tell the members’ stories through great shots. I remember the Virgin Active Head of Marketing briefing me with: “Andrew we want you to shoot gyms as they’ve never been shot before”.

Some stats from the trip. 11,499 km’s of local flights. 280gb of photo data. Approximately 43 gogi-berry’s (thats like a petrol tank of Gogi) 115.5 cups of Coffee ( I didn’t finish the wimpy coffee, it was too much to ask ). And more than 120 strawberry flavoured jungle bars. God I love strawberry flavoured jungle bars. I took up the the challenge of 8 weeks of flying, driving, hoteling and gogi-berrying my way around every corner of South Africa, discovering what people have to say about being active. I shot in 45 clubs, from Bloemfontein to Polekwane, Paarl to Pietermaritzburg, Potchefstroom and even in Windhoek in Namibia. Interviewing and shooting hundreds of Virgin members, right where I found them in their favourite clubs. You can’t imagine how big the Virgin Active community is in this country.

A bit of background to the idea. We originally thought this campaign work by creating ‘typical stories’ of why people love to exercise and cast according to those typical gym types. But I pushed for some real stories, and after doing a test shoot in some Cape Town clubs, we found that the real stories have far more emotional impact. You couldn’t make this campaign up by sitting behind a desk. Doing a project like this relies heavily on chance, luck, fate. It’s a huge experiment and we were lucky to tap into the Virgin Active community and find stories that really make you smile. The marketing team at Virgin Active have an amazing way of working with creative talent, and they really create an atmosphere in which you can push yourself to do your best work. I hope you fall in love with the moving people of South Africa as the campaign rolls out. Maybe it even gets you moving.

Some images from the campaign are in a gallery here and the campaign is currently running Nationwide through print, outdoor, in clubs and on the Virgin Active website.

The very talented marketing team at Virgin Active are: Head of Marketing: Richard Lamb-Hughes

Art Director: Isabeau Joubert

Copywriters: Astrid Sacks and Nick Clarivette

Studio Head and Chief twitterer: Gio Ghignone

Production Co-ordinator: Courtney Ellis

Virgin Active is one of South Africa’s most interactive brands. I recommend following them on X: @virginactivesa