Meet the New Midtown

I Imagine Studio is thrilled to have just kicked off a new six-month long integrated campaign for Midtown Athletic Club Chicago. Featuring direct mail, print ads in multiple publications including Chicago Social and Chicago Tribune, email marketing, and outdoor initiatives including buses and billboards along with email marketing efforts, the campaign aims to generate awareness of the club’s expansion and increase enrollment rates.

Recently, Midtown Athletic Club Chicago has expanded its services and facilities to feature not only a premier tennis program, but also group fitness classes including Pilates and Cycling and a larger cardio and weight training area. To spread the word about the club’s additional amenities, Midtown Chicago partnered with I Imagine Studio.

I Imagine Studio Directs Photo Shoot at Midtown Athletic Club Montreal

This year I Imagine Studio took on the challenge of rejuvenating the Midtown brand. For the past eight months, our team has worked relentlessly to create a new road map for Midtown’s communications. The first step in the process was to devise a new brand foundation by talking to members about their met and unmet needs. In the end, I Imagine honed in on the overarching concept of healthy connections, which reflects the primary finding that members consider Midtown their home away from home.

The next step towards revamping Midtown’s image was to translate the new brand foundation into tangible creative direction. In pursuit of this goal, we developed the big idea for the campaign, “Seize the Moment.” With this concept, intention was to capture authentic Midtown moments to show a place where people come together to engage in fitness, sport, health and community.

What better way to capture real Midtown moments than an onsite photo shoot? Sure, stock photography can tell some of the story, but there’s nothing like photos of the real thing– real people, real staff, real exercise and real location– to convey the true essence of an experience.

To help tell the Midtown story, I Imagine teamed up with Robin Cerutti, an experimental Montreal-based photographer, who also holds a Ph.D. in nanophysics. And with the help of the amazing Midtown Montreal team (Francois Leduc and Stefani Hope, among others), we were able to prepare for the shoot in seven short days – a new record for our agency.

During the intensive four-day photo shoot, we were able to capture the genuine moments and experiences of real Midtown Montreal members and staff. We shot a wide variety of activities, including tennis, yoga, mat Pilates, Pilates reformer, spinning, kickboxing, Zumba, squash, spinning, personal training, swimming, spa visits, and M Café dinning.

One of our biggest concerns prior to the shoot was lighting.

“Lighting is one of the most important aspects of any photograph,” said I Imagine Creative Director, Olga Weiss. “You can have great subject matter and a good story, but it is completely irrelevant unless you have the light to make a great photo. Fortunately, we had the talented Neil Mota, lighting expert and fashion photographer, to help us with lighting every step of the way.”

While we tried our best to follow the storyboard and stay on schedule, remaining flexible and open to new ideas allowed us to stumble upon several inspired shots. Shooting a yoga class using natural light, shooting outside with an outstanding yoga instructor, shooting though the Midtown “M” glass frame, and shooting under water for an aquatic class were all serendipitous ideas that produced some truly beautiful photographs.

The new photography will be featured throughout Midtown’s new website and other marketing materials to showcase the clubs’ unique combination of superior facilities, unparalleled service and warm community atmosphere.