How we assisted Gymnathlon in Germany to increase interest in its services by 22%.

The success in attracting new participants to Gymnathlon sports courses in Germany is the result of a wellthought-out strategy focused on targeted creation and effective use of B2B development techniques. Thanks to our detailed perception and understanding of Gymnathlon's needs and the specifics of the German market, we have developed a strategy that has delivered even better results than we expected. This quality approach has led to increased interest in the sports courses offered and the successful expansion of the Gymnathlon brand into Germany.

The Gymnathlon brand offers an innovative program focused on sports activities for children aged 2.5 to 11 years. Its main idea and philosophy is to build a lifelong positive relationship with sport in children. Sports courses are focused on allround motoric improvement, maximum playfulness and healthy physical development.

The Gymnathlon brand has been operating on the Czech market since 2017. During this time, more than 22,000 children have taken the courses.The client

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The challenge

After success in the Czech Republic, the owners of the Gymnathlon brand decided to expand their services into foreign markets. In this phase, they focused on the German market. To achieve their goal, they decided to establish B2B partnerships with German sports institutions such as fitness centers, sports halls, schools and gyms, and open sports courses for German children in these selected locations.

However, previous attempts to reach out to partners have not been successful. Gymnathlon's internal team faced inefficiencies in phone communication and failed to reach enough relevant institutions. Therefore, at the beginning of 2024, Gymnathlon approached foreign B2B development specialists at NK Expand with an assignment to propose a structured approach and an effective expansion strategy that would bring the expected results.

The solution

The expansion of the Gymnathlon sports courses was conducted in several phases arising from individual challenges.

1.Phase — Preparation

 

Challenge No. 1: Localization and trustworthiness analysis

 

Gymnathlon wanted to verify that the language versions of the website are correctly localized, correspond to culturallinguistic habits and are fully suitable for mobile devices.

  • Solution: At NK Expand, we conducted a detailed analysis of the Gymnathlon website in five languages (Czech, Slovakian, German, Hungarian and Polish). We also conducted test registrations for sports courses in selected locations.

Challenge No. 2: Tone-of-voice

Gymnathlon demanded that communication when actively reaching out to potential B2B partners be completely in line with the tonality of the Gymnathlon brand, but at the same time be precisely tailored to the institution being communicated with. Calls and email scripts were to be cheerful and friendly, but at the same time professional and also localized to reflect local cultural customs.

  • Solution: Native speakers of NK Expand created email scripts and recorded telephone voicemails. This increased credibility with the institutions addressed and led to the first successfully established contacts in selected locations.

Prepared call scripts respect the friendly tone of the brand while being formal and in line with local customs. Email scripts allow for communication with those institutions that have not responded to phone calls.

Challenge No. 3: Creation of a database of target institutions

The next step was to create a targeted database of German fitness centres and sports halls in selected locations.

  • Solution: We have created a structured database of 60 fitness centers and 20 sports halls in Germany, including finding relevant contact information.

2. Phase — implementation of active calling

Results of the first phase completely met the client's expectations. Sports courses were successfully launched during the summer holidays, and the number of those interested in the courses grew dramatically.

 

Challenge No. 1: Active contacting and establishing partnerships

 

After the previous failure of the internal team, Gymnathlon was in a time crunch. The summer season was approaching, before which it was necessary to secure a sufficient number of sports facilities for courses in selected locations.

  • Solution: We created a structured plan with clearly defined objectives and deadlines, and put together and trained a sufficient number of German operators.
    In a short period of time, we made almost 100 calls, in which we contacted 50 fitness centers. This communication led to 8 partnership agreements and the signing of contracts for the rental of sports facilities.

Challenge No. 2: Expansion of Gymnathlon into other markets

 

The owners of the Gymnathlon brand decided to create a local network of sports courses in Munich and Regensburg.

  • Solution: We expanded the database by 80 more institutions in selected cities (including sports halls, fitness centres and schools). The active calling campaign was extended for another 2 weeks. During this time, we made 120 calls, during which we reached all target contacts.
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From the calls we made, we successfully established 35% more contacts than the originally set target. This gave Gymnathlon the opportunity to choose the most suitable facilities and strengthen the brand's credibility with target groups.

“Thanks to our cooperation with NK Expand, we have seen a significant increase in the number of children enrolled in our sports courses in Germany in a short period of time. This collaboration has played a key role in our success and helped us reach a wider audience. NK Expand's professional approach has enabled us to promote our programmes effectively and therefore we have decided to continue with this company in the further development of our activities.”

Pavlína Marvánková, Specialist for Marketing, Systems, Region

3. Phase — implementation of active calling

 

Challenge No. 1: Social media promotion that works

 

After ensuring sufficient capacity of the sports facilities and checking the credibility of the Gymnathlon website, it was time to actively promote the sports courses online. We used a model that had already proven to be beneficial in the Czech Republic – we found Facebook groups whose themes correspond to potential candidates for sports courses, and we started to promote Gymnathlon services in these groups.

The whole process involved several sub-steps that needed to be completed to achieve the best results:

1. Preparation of a database of FB groups that met the conditions of locality and demographics. To ensure the widest possible portfolio of groups, a specialist with a professional knowledge of German and a specialization in Facebook algorithms worked on this step. Thanks to this, we identified the most promising ones in a large number of FB groups of various qualities – a total of 40 public and private groups and 10 FB pages to further share awareness of the Gymnathlon brand.

While creating the database, we came across a lot of FB groups related to specific social programmes of the German governments. Therefore, we proposed to Gymnathlon a future cooperation with health insurance companies, which offer programmes to help financially disadvantaged families. They also promote the organizations they work with on their websites.

 

2.The next step was to prepare FB posts. The templates used in the Czech Republic were updated with more personal templates based on personal experiences to look less like an advert. Facebook groups in Germany are very sensitive to hidden advertising and often delete promotional posts and block profiles. The newly designed posts were translated into German by NK Expand's native speakers specializing in marketing localization. The translation was carried out in accordance with the tonality of the Gymnathlon brand and the requirement for a natural and personal experience. To achieve the highest eyecatching effect, we have included appropriate photographs and graphics in the posts.

 

3. Effective sharing of posts in interest groups requires a high-quality FB profile. We have selected a suitable German online marketing specialist whose Facebook profile is trustworthy, fits in with the potential interested party and is authentically German at the same time. We briefly analyzed each FB group to select the most suitable post type to reach the maximum number of potential interested people. The entire FB campaign was regularly reported in detail to Gymnathlon representatives. The posts have been a great success. They quickly began to gain likes and some groups even started sharing information about Gymnathlon's services on their own initiative.

In order to increase awareness of the Gymnathlon brand, we also physically distributed printed leaflets offering Gymnathlon sports courses in one of the German cities. The actual effect is difficult to measure for this type of communication, it was more another touch-point for the target group and increase in awareness of the Gymnathlon brand.

Results

  • Increased course enrolment by 17%.
  • The number of applicants waiting for sport courses in specific locations. 
Nürnberg Baby 23
München Junior14 14
München Baby 7
München Baby ADTV 6
München Junior Sendling 11
München Baby Sendling 5
  • Website traffic growth: Active promotion on social networks has increased the visibility and traffic of Gymnahtlon website by 13%.
  • Raising awareness: Promotion in 40 Facebook groups and 10 Facebook pages
  • Successful campaign localization: The posts, which were translated by native speakers and adapted to the German tonality, were successfully submitted to all the local groups in which the sports courses took place.

“The cooperation between Gymnathlon and an external partner proved to be a productive solution.

Our partners from NK Expand did a very good job in the proposed and agreed topics. Initially, we did not expect that someone from the outside would be able to perceive our needs and requirements, but thanks to the fact that supporting businesses in their growth is NK Expand's everyday routine, the cooperation has exceeded our expectations.

The team that worked on the project was proactive, came up with ideas and proposed solutions, was able to describe and justify the procedures that they implemented, was not afraid to communicate “bad news” and effectively gave us feedback from the local market. That is to say, they prepared us for the expectations and wishes of customers, which are different for the German market, and which also differed from our ideas and experiences.”

Radim Sedlář, Finance & Systems

Conclusion

The expansion of the Gymnathlon brand through B2B development has demonstrated the effectiveness of a structured approach, quality localization of communication and the importance of engaging native speakers.

The case study demonstrates that SMEs can also achieve success in expanding into the demanding German market if they have a wellthoughtout strategy and effective approach of B2B marketing specialists.

Are you also interested in expanding into Germany or other foreign markets? Contact us! The specialists at NK Expand are the guides to assist you in achieving your goals abroad.

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