March’s best (and weirdest) in fitness branding & marketing
March 2025 | Creatine chaos, HYROX hype, and CrossFit's next chapter
Hey fit friends,
This month’s roundup is jam-packed — a little PR mess, a big week of athlete content, and the sale of a fitness empire. Let’s dive in.
OH and PS - you can expect these roundups monthly moving forward in addition to my weekly drops over on the ‘gram - provided I’m not out of cell service for two weeks climbing a mountain. Annnnd now let’s dive in.
🧪 Campaigns I’m loving
Puresport’s Creatine Campaign
What started as a total disaster… might’ve been marketing genius in disguise? Puresport launched a PR box to hype their new creatine line — and got a little too clever with it. Instead of a standard product send, they filled the box with loose powder, forcing recipients to dig through the mess to find the sachet. The idea was to show how much easier their single-serve packets are. The reality, however, was that creatine exploded everywhere in the mail, leaving creators opening what looked like a biohazard.
But then they fully owned it. The brand made a follow-up post admitted it was a fail, made fun of themselves, and somehow turned it into one of the most entertaining product reveals I’ve seen in a while. Honest, self-aware, and weirdly charming — it’s enough to make me wonder if this entire thing was a stunt.
BPN’s Athlete Week + Lucy Davis Campaign
Honestly, I can’t pick just one move from BPN lately — they’ve been on fire. Last week, they hosted an Athlete Week that brought all 18 of their athletes together for workouts, team bonding, and a whole lot of content. But what stood out? It didn’t feel like a polished marketing stunt — it felt like real investment in their people. Some brands know how to keep the soul of their mission intact while still delivering great marketing, and BPN nails it.
They’ve also been running a mini-campaign spotlighting Lucy Davis as she preps for a HYROX world record attempt in DC. It’s athlete storytelling done right — tapping into their hybrid training ethos and amplifying someone outside of founder Nick Bare. Total fan-to-athlete connection vibes, and a great move to deepen community beyond the core.
Ladder’s “Severance” Style Campaign
The Ladder team does it again with a campaign centered around the tagline: Turn your brain off. What they did here was took real user reviews and pulled keywords around turning your brain off, and then built an ad script entirely from customer data. The finished video was truly solid — but the BTS content ended up getting even more views.
Bandit Running x Renegade LA
Bandit’s teaser ad for their new LA store launch? Chef’s kiss. Their content has traditionally been a bit more artful and serious, so seeing a bit of humor and whismy incorporated is just FUN. Are we having fun with creative again? Bandit and Ladder are telling us, yeah. Yeah we are.
Cadence Cola
I’ll be so real I’m just obsessed with the creative behind this one. The branding is retro. The positioning is fun. And the product is… cola? On the heels of Poppi being acquired by Pepsi, it feels timely. An electrolyte soda feels like the kind of functional weird beverage I can get into.
🗞 In the news
CrossFit is officially for sale. The drama continues.
F45 launched “FIT”, a new parent brand focused on holistic wellness, not just workouts.
Poppi was acquired. Not fitness, but a wellness branding juggernaut worth watching.
Life Time announced a wellness “super app.” Apple Health, but make it luxury gym-core.
HYROX x Centr (Chris Hemsworth) teamed up for a high-performance turf drop.
Garmin added a paid AI subscription. Yep, even your watch wants your money now. (But we knew that.)
Adidas hosted a CrossFit athlete summit. A big signal they’re taking functional fitness seriously.
WHEW what a month — if you spot a campaign worth featuring or want to nerd out on fitness branding, reply and let’s chat.
See ya next month,
Tatum
Founder, Brandt Creative Co. The brand studio for the fitness industry.