Bringing HYROX to the Philippines, with a fitness category to launch behind it.

A gym launch, a sport launch, and a category nobody had heard of.

HYROX is the fastest-growing fitness sport in the world, drawing crowds from Taipei to Bangkok. In the Philippines, almost no one had run a race. So this was not just a gym launch: it was a category launch, with a fitness category that needed explaining before the gym could be sold.

The launch needed a story sportswriters and fitness editors could file fast, an athlete the press already knew, and enough explanation to make HYROX make sense to a reader who'd never heard of it.

A live media demo, a national athlete, and a trend story behind the launch story.

I framed the launch around two angles, not one. The first was the brand story: Gold's Gym × Metcon opening the country's first dedicated HYROX training club. The second was the category story: "HYROX is here, and here's why Manila should care," with the GRIN Method coaches running the H-700 challenge live in front of writers.

Head Coach Justin Hernandez, the first Filipino male CrossFit Games athlete and four-time CrossFit Open National Champion, gave the sports desks an athlete they already wrote about. Owner Edmundo Vega was on the record for the business of fitness story. Lifestyle desks got celebrity follow-ups, including Kathryn Bernardo training at the gym for TFC's Are You G?.

• A live H-700 demo for media instead of a static press conference
• Two parallel angles: brand launch and category explainer
• A national-team athlete (Justin Hernandez) as the on-camera face
• Sustained second-wave coverage with celebrity training drop-ins (Kathryn Bernardo on TFC)

GMA, Philstar, Manila Times, BusinessWorld and TFC's Kathryn Bernardo episode.

The launch ran in GMA Network ("Common fitness mistakes and how to avoid them, according to gym coaches"), Philstar.com ("Gym franchise opens HYROX training facility"), The Manila Times, BusinessWorld ("Gold's Gym × Metcon introduces Hyrox training"), Daily Tribune ("Finding your inner Hyrox babe"), Spin.ph ("HYROX finds home in Manila at newly opened Gold's Gym × Metcon"), Lifestyle Inquirer ("Hone your Hyrox game at the sport's newest training hub in Manila") and Esquire Philippines (online plus an Instagram feature).

Broadcast and video added Philstar News on YouTube and an episode of TFC's Are You G? with Kathryn Bernardo (615K YouTube subscribers, 182K views). 8.59M of audience, 262K views, max DA of 89, all measured by CoverageBook.