In the summer of 2013, we started work on fall membership. On the heels of the success of the Myth campaign, we created the Gain campaign.

The concept behind the Gain campaign for the Canada Games Centre (CGC) was to demonstrate the benefits of joining the CGC – from the words of our current members.  The Gain campaign was a play on words. Most fitness marketing tactics focus on what you “lose” in inches and pounds but the CGC, being a community recreation and fitness centre, is focused on the whole person and what you “gain” can vary. Gain could be the number of new friends you met at Aquasize, or how you gained confidence, or how you gained strength after a serious accident…you get the picture. A membership at the CGC will have more gains than losses.

This clever campaign focused on our four new membership categories and featured some of our favourite members (there are so many!)

The Gain campaign used a combination of in-kind and paid media in the fall of 2013:

• Print: The Chronicle Herald, Metro, OptiMYz Magazine, Our Children
• Online ads: The Chronicle Herald, The Weather Network (leaderboard and big box)
• Dedicated web page (URL tracking)
• Radio (NewCap and Bell Media)
• Facebook ads and Facebook Page posts
• Internal Digital Signage (7 screens throughout CGC)
• Presentations to potential corporate members
• Monthly E-newsletter

Effectiveness / Meeting Objectives:

This fall membership campaign resulted in a 40% increase in membership inquiries and a 62% increase in campaign page visits (compared to campaign year previous). Online ads were placed on new The Chronicle Herald’s website and app which resulted in a 35% increase in web visits (tracking codes were placed on ads). We thought we’d experiment with The Weather Network and results weren’t as strong as we had hoped, however we learned a lot – such as the difference in click-throughs from desktop vs mobile.