The thinking behind our latest Tube campaign and manifesto.

We started Urban with a simple goal. We wanted to make it easier for people living in cities to get a massage at home. And we wanted to offer massage therapists a new, fair, and supported way of doing business.

Last year, we expanded our offering beyond massage. Our mission naturally became broader. We dropped ‘massage’ from our name and became Urban: an on-demand app for osteopathy, manicures, facials and massage. We knew what we did, and how. But it was a good time to re-examine our why.

So, we did some soul-searching. We talked to the Urban practitioner community, our customers and our employees.

Here’s what we discovered:

Wellness means something different for everyone

Everyone has a thing that makes them feel well. Your ‘thing’ might be a haircut. Or a weekly massage. It could be as simple as an evening tea, or as complex as a solo mountain climb. It doesn’t matter.

But the benefits are universal

When you prioritise the things that make you feel well, magical things happen. You shake off stress, you stop checking your phone every five minutes, and you actually want to exercise. The life you dreamed of living suddenly seems possible.

City life can get in the way

Our always-on city lives are supposed to make us more productive. We’re told if we work harder, we can reward ourselves with wellness later. But in reality, never taking a break makes us vulnerable to low energy, stress, and burnout.

Urban empowers you to put wellness first

We see it in our office. And we see it in our practitioners. When they’re well, they’re more energetic, more confident, and more relaxed. They pass that feeling on to everyone they see. And that’s the core of what we do: we empower people to prioritise wellness, so they can be the best versions of themselves.

When wellness is routine, rather than reward, it unlocks your potential. When you put your wellness first, suddenly you’re that person. Someone smiling as they commute through central London at 8am on a Tuesday. And it feels…great. 11/10.

That’s the power of well.

Passing ‘well’ on

For us at Urban, the 11/10 feeling starts with the practitioners we partner with. We design products in collaboration with them, like better travel bags for massage tables. And crucially, we make sure they get a fair cut of every treatment fee: 72%. We do all of that because we know that when practitioners are empowered, they’re empowered to pass the feeling on to their clients, too.

Bringing it to life

The Power of Well is our new tagline, manifesto, and guiding philosophy. It stands for everything we believe about wellness and empowerment. And it’s something we’re proud to bring to life in our latest London Underground advertising campaign:

We wanted to convey how Urban treatments can be the catalyst for a whole new outlook on life. How something as simple as an at-home facial can lead to stepping out of your comfort zone. How an Urban at-home manicure can give you the pen-clicking confidence to nail a job interview, even post-hen do. And how, for someone like Clive, the only thing that could make a nine-hour car drive with the in-laws (and their pet parrot) slightly bearable, would be starting the day with an Urban massage.

Beyond our new ads, The Power of Well is a philosophy which informs our decisions as a company. We’ll ask ourselves if proposed changes will ultimately help you – or practitioners – feel well. If the answer’s no, we won’t do it. So, here’s to a future where it’s easy for anyone to access the things that make them feel well. To embracing the best of city life, and feeling good while you do. Here’s to the power of well, and where it will take us next.

Discover the power of well for yourself – download the Urban app today.