217
To celebrate their 35th anniversary, Equinox is launching their Aliveness campaign, which asks- how alive do we really feel? At the heart of the campaign is The Aliveness Index, a new national study examining what makes people feel truly alive and what gets in the way. The survey, which included Equinox members and non-members nationwide, looked beyond traditional wellness metrics across six dimensions of aliveness: energy, presence, emotional intensity, connection, awe, and desire. Bindu Shah, Equinox’s Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Digital Officer tells The Daily about the inspiration behind the new campaign, what they learned, and what’s ahead as fashion’s favorite gym celebrates their milestone birthday.
Talk to us a little bit about the new campaign. What’s the approach to The Aliveness Index?
We’ve become obsessed with optimizing our health. We track our sleep, steps, heart rate, recovery, and even our biological age. But in our pursuit of living longer, are we losing sight of what it means to truly live? That tension inspired Aliveness, our latest campaign marking Equinox‘s 35th anniversary. We’ve always believed that high performance isn’t an end in itself. It’s what enables us to live richer, fuller lives. We wanted to think beyond what we can measure about our bodies and explore how we actually experience life. So we created the Aliveness Index, an original research study examining six dimensions of vitality: Energy, Presence, Emotional Intensity, Connection, Awe, and Desire. What’s particularly exciting is that the research itself became the creative. Rather than simply making claims about the power of movement, we’re using real human insights and provocative findings to spark a broader cultural conversation about what it means to feel alive.
How did you conduct the survey?
We conducted original research earlier this year surveying 4,000 adults across 13 major US cities, spanning ages from Gen Z to Boomers. The study explored six dimensions of Aliveness: Energy, Presence, Emotional Intensity, Connection, Awe, and Desire. We asked questions that traditional health trackers can’t answer. How often do you wake up energized? When was the last time you felt completely immersed in something? How deeply do you connect with others? How often do you feel joy, desire, or awe? We also compared Equinox members with a demographically similar population to explore how their experiences differed. The goal wasn’t to create another metric to obsess over, but to offer a new lens on wellbeing, one grounded in how we actually feel and experience the world.
What were the biggest surprises from the results?
One of the most fascinating findings challenged the assumption that feeling alive peaks in our youth. Our research found that aliveness doesn’t diminish with age; it evolves. Youth brings more novelty and spontaneity, while age brings deeper, more fulfilling relationships and experiences. What we lose in novelty, we gain in depth. Another interesting tension was that while Americans still experience joy, love, and moments that genuinely move them, exhaustion and distraction are getting in the way. Nearly half wake up tired, and 71% divide their attention with their phones during dinner. We’re not necessarily lacking joy, but we may be missing opportunities to experience it more fully. We also found that movement has a much more expansive relationship with wellbeing than people might expect. Those who gain energy from movement are nearly 3X times more likely to wake up energized, but they also report more joy, desire, and spontaneity, and less sadness and anxiety. Equinox members scored higher across all six dimensions of aliveness, reinforcing our belief that the benefits of movement extend far beyond physical fitness into how we feel, connect, and experience life.
What Inspired the campaign?
There’s a paradox in wellness today. We have more tools, technology, and data to optimize our health than ever before, yet that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re feeling more alive. The industry has become incredibly focused on bio-optimization, longevity, and performance metrics. Those things matter, but they raise a bigger question: What are we optimizing for? At Equinox, we’ve always believed that the purpose of high performance is to unlock more from life, not simply to achieve better metrics. We wanted to bring that belief into the cultural conversation and remind people that vitality isn’t just about how long we live, but how fully we experience the life we have. Aliveness is an invitation to reconsider what progress really looks like.
What do you hope people take away from the campaign?
I hope people start thinking about wellness less as a collection of metrics and more as a means to living a fuller life. One of the most empowering insights from our research is that aliveness isn’t something we have to wait for. It’s something we can actively cultivate. Movement and meaningful human connection consistently emerged as powerful ways to restore our energy, lift our mood, and bring us back into the present. We train for strength, endurance, and longevity. Why not train for aliveness? That’s ultimately the idea we want to leave people with. The goal isn’t simply to add years to our lives. It’s to bring more life to our years.
This campaign isn’t as provocative as what we’ve seen from Equinox in the past. Is that the direction Equinox is going in, or should we expect some of the more controversial campaigns to return?
I would argue that challenging an entire industry’s definition of wellness is provocative in its own right. Equinox has never been provocative simply for the sake of provocation. At our best, we challenge conventions, spark conversation, and offer a distinctive perspective on culture. Aliveness does exactly that, but through a different creative lens. We’re questioning whether the obsession with optimizing our bodies has distracted us from the very experiences that make life worth living. And as for what’s next, you’ll have to wait until January.
What else does Equinox have on tap to celebrate its 35th anniversary?
We’re partnering with American Express to create House of Equinox, an immersive experience in a private Manhattan townhouse from November 12–15. We’re bringing the insights from our Aliveness Index to life through three distinct experiences, each exploring two dimensions of Aliveness: a Recovery Lab featuring advanced recovery technologies to explore Energy and Mental Aliveness; an immersive Eucalyptus Forest with yoga and breathwork to evoke Awe and Connection; and The Sanctuary, combining sound meditation and red-light technology to awaken Desire and Emotional Vitality. It’s a powerful expression of what Equinox has stood for over the past 35 years: high performance isn’t simply about what our bodies can achieve, but about unlocking the energy, connection, and vitality to experience more of life.
You can view the original article HERE.
