How Gymshark Grew Their Brand Through Hero Marketing

There’s one thing that’s taken over the world in 2023…

Influencer marketing.

I mean, it seems to be one of the only things I see on social media nowadays.

TikTok videos, UGC content, promoting someone else’s products in newsletters…

Influencer this, influencers that… blah blah blah.

But you want to know the real reason it’s taken over the marketing world?

It works. And it works well.

I recently came across an article explaining the entire origin story of fitness brand Gymshark (I’ll share it at the end of this email).

And let me tell you… they used some brilliant marketing tactics to go from nothing to a billion dollar apparel company in the span of just a few short years.

But the one main thing that stood out to me more than anything? It wasn’t their influencer marketing campaigns.

No, it was something they call “hero” marketing.

And when I read about it, I couldn’t not break it down for you in this week’s newsletter.

So without further adoo…

Here’s what you’ll learn today:

• Using your heroes to promote your brand

• Why it works so well

• How you can use it

Let’s dive right into this one!

Using Your Heroes to Promote Your Brand 🦸🏼‍♂️

For anyone who’s never heard of the brand Gymshark, let me catch you up to speed:

Gymshark is a fitness apparel company founded in 2012 by (at the time) 19-year-old Ben Francis.

What started as a small supplement brand shipping orders from two college kids’ garage, the company is now one of (if not the) leading fitness apparel brand in the world.

So how did the company go from nothing to something?

Hero marketing.

What can now (kinda) be considered the modern-day equivalent of influencer marketing, Ben and the team would send their early apparel to their fitness and bodybuilding heroes.

Think fanmail. But fanmail in the hopes that those bodybuilders would like (and maybe even promote) Gymshark’s clothing to their own audiences and communities. And in turn, grow the Gymshark brand.

Turns out… that’s exactly what happened.

And that hero marketing is what created the initial momentum needed for Gymshark to become a global fitness powerhouse.

But why exactly did their hero marketing tactic work so well?

Why It Works So Well 🤔 

Well, it worked for a few reasons:

1. Gymshark already had a great product

2. They sent their heroes products without expecting anything in return

3. They leveraged their heroes’ audiences and communities to grow their own

Great product + Leveraging an existing audience = Loads of $$$

And to top it all off?

It was relatively low risk for Gymshark.

They weren’t throwing thousands of dollars at paid ads, hoping and praying that something would stick.

No, instead they only spent a few dollars shipping their products to people they looked up to, expecting nothing in return from them.

But obviously, this marketing tactic worked wonders for the brand.

And although the business world has changed a lot since the early days of Gymshark, it might work wonders for you, too.

Here’s how you can use hero marketing to promote your own brand ↓

How to Use It 📝 

Now, whether you sell clothing like Gymshark, are trying to promote a new book or digital product, or simply offer marketing services for other businesses, you can use hero marketing to promote your own brand.

All you need to do is identify a few brands or individuals you look up to and share your product with them for free, without expecting anything in return.

Yes, if you sell a physical product, it might cost you a few dollars-worth of your marketing budget.

But it’s 100% worth it if it gets people:

• Aware that your product exists

• Excited to buy it themselves

Wouldn’t you agree?

Look, the thing is… people loveeee free stuff. And if it’s something they actually like, they’ll (most likely) promote it to their own audience.

Who will then share it with their own friends. And theirs… and so on and so forth.

So if you recently created a course, send it to you favorite creators and see if they’ll give you a testimonial in exchange.

Or if you own a clothing brand, send a few products to a hero of yours along with a kind message, just because you thought they’d like it.

The worst that could happen is they don’t give you anything in return and you end up losing a few bucks.

But the best that could happen?

Your products spread like wildfire and you build the foundation for a billion-dollar brand.

I don’t know about you, but that’s a chance I’d be willing to take.

Anyways, that’s all for today. Hope ya have a fantastic weekend!

Cheers,

Connor “who’s your hero?” Flynn

This Week’s Hits 🤙🏼

Below is the Gymshark origin story that inspired this newsletter. There are so many marketing gems in here. And I’d highly recommend anyone building a brand take five minutes to give this a read:

As I was diving down the rabbit hole of building a community around your brand, I came across another great article on how to build a successful community, along with a few great examples. You can read more below:

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