Food for Content Thought: Les Mills vs Lululemon

I kicked off the Food for Content Thought section with a focus on Powershop. This week I’ve decided to mix it up a little and am going to do a head to head battle – #contentmarketingbattle if you will.

And in true fighting style I’ve gone with two fitness heavyweights here in New Zealand – Les Mills and Lululemon. Yes they run in different sectors, one’s New Zealand born and bred and one’s a powerful recent import, but the principles remain the same and no doubt they are targeting a lot of the same customers.

Just so you guys know (sneak peak into my life here) I am a karate buff…yes I get to jet set around the world beating people up. As a result Les Mills has been my gym of choice for quite a few years now and I love it – but I promise to stay impartial. 

So let’s put them to the test…

Round 1 – The blog

As mentioned, I’ve been a fan and member of Les Mills for a while now. I go to their site regularly to check up on timetables and other happenings, interact on social media every now and then and receive their emails. And surprisingly not once did I know about or go to their Lifestyle section – essentially their blog.

However, their blog does have a lot of content, and good content at that. They have some key outsider contributors as well as their own trainers. But I think they could take it up a notch. Here are two things I think could improve it:

1 – More content, more promotion. The share numbers on the articles themselves are quite high (despite the lack of likes and shares on social – see below) so the content is obviously liked. The answer then is do more of it, and get it out there. Give your customers even more reason to come back to your site and to engage with you. Make them believe you are the go-to for health and fitness advice and not any other gym or health magazine.

2 – Video, video, video (and visual). I’m going to talk more about this below but so many areas of the Lifestyle section could incorporate short videos to bolster the stickiness of the content. Think of using video for exercise demos instead of one image. And many of the articles are long scrolls of text. They are crying out to be broken up with relevant imagery and visuals.

From Lululemon’s perspective, there were a few things that sung out at me that both attracted me to their blogs but also put me off. The thing that attracted me was the design and the use of visual content. Their blog and their imagery is sleek and modern and very inline with their brand image. It makes it easy to read and draws you in.

The one thing that put me off though, and for me it was quite a big one, was the lack of local content. Yes there are some highlights on the New Zealand and Australian markets but the majority of it seemed to be content gleaned from overseas. Sure some of it works anyway but by making it local it puts the company in the everyday lives of the reader. It makes them feel as if they are local themselves, makes them even more relatable, which I think is key for a foreign competitor. They are great at humanising their brand so they should do it more with the New Zealand and Australian markets, even if it is just taking the overseas blogs, tweaking them to the local market and repurposing them.

You may disagree but Round 1 narrowly goes to Les Mills. Whilst Lululemon is the type of blog I want to come back to, Les Mills slightly edges it on content. And as we know content is king.

Round 2 – Video

Video is a great way to show off your company and it’s products and services, as we know. So why aren’t Les Mills doing it more? Lululemon and Les Mills both feature video content but Lululemon definitely seems to be using it more and it more varied ways. From highlighting products to showing off company culture in their Careers section, they are capturing customers more with their video and letting you into the Lululemon world in the process.

Les Mills on the other hand should be smashing out video content – they should have content to burn. Their main offering of videos comes in the Exercise Options area, where you can get a look at the different classes and some of the moves. And whilst many replicate the high intensity, vibrant culture a few seem a tad outdated and the tone doesn’t align to the cool nature of the clubs – check out the Body Attack “Learn the Moves” intro as an example.

So, where else can Les Mills harness the power of video? One area is in the Lifestyle section as mentioned. With trainers at their fingertips, exercise hints, tips, and directions on using certain machines or how to do certain exercises could all be done in video form. It wouldn’t be too costly to produce either as you could do a lot of them in one sitting. Here’s a good example from Lululemon that’s simple and effective.

Another is through customer testimonials and case studies. They have so many people transforming their lives right before them; they need to use these people to advocate the brand. They even have scholarship programmes where customers are using the gyms to achieve extraordinary goals. These are they types of people that should be used in video content. Of course the goal is gym membership at the end of the day and video can be a great tool to help them spread the word in order to gain more customers.

Lastly, Les Mills could use video more to humanise their brand and let customers see more of who they are and what they are up to. Again with so many employees and gyms, they need to let customers meet them through video, perhaps in the Personal Trainers section, let them tour the clubs instead of using photos and generally give them updates and announcements within each club using the very people the customers have come to recognise around the gym.

Round 2 goes to Lululemon for their variety and willingness to use video. But Les Mills could easily snatch it back in time.

Round 3 – Social 

Both Les Mills and Lululemon have a good number of followers on their social platforms and the content seems upbeat and inline with their respective brands. Les Mills also have individual social media pages set up for their different clubs too which is great as they are delivering tailored content to suit specific audiences.

Without knowing what their reach is like, their engagement numbers aren’t that high for shares, likes, retweets etc. So something isn’t clicking there. They both probably need to take a step back and see what is really working, what garners the most traction and stick to the key deliverables that relate to their overall content strategy.

Both do a great job at incorporating visuals, although Les Mills do have some that aren’t really visuals at all, they are all words. They probably need to look at what visuals they are posting and really using them to support the message/post. Lululemon’s visuals again are very modern and really highlight the products well.

Round 3 by the narrowest of margins goes to Lululemon for their cool imagery.

The winner = Lululemon

Whilst Lululemon have taken it out, they both have some areas of their content strategy that I think could be improved (as always it’s just my opinion). Les Mills especially could really take off if they focus on it more and really run with it.

Got an opinion or need any help with your content then feel free to comment below or get in touch (especially if you’re Les Mills or Lululemon).