The Customer
Building a professional marketing function to support a global children’s brand
Gymboree Play & Music is a global leader in early childhood development classes, delivering award-winning programmes that help babies, toddlers and pre-school children learn, develop and have fun through music, movement, sensory exploration and imaginative play.
The UK business operates across a network of centres, supporting hundreds of families through weekly classes, birthday parties and special events.
As an established global brand with ambitious growth plans, Gymboree Play & Music UK recognised the need to strengthen its marketing infrastructure and create a more joined-up approach across the business.
The Challenge
Creating the marketing foundations for future growth
The challenge wasn’t simply delivering more marketing activity.
The business needed experienced marketing leadership to bring together strategy, systems, technology and communications to support both national growth and local franchise success.
Their ambitions included:
- Creating a stronger digital presence through a new website optimised for search engines
- Introducing a new CRM system to improve customer management and reporting
- Developing stronger partnership opportunities with aligned brands
- Creating consistent national marketing campaigns across digital channels
- Improving advertising performance through better use of technology and data
- Supporting franchisees with stronger marketing tools and resources
They needed a marketing partner who could understand the complexity of a franchise business model and provide both strategic direction and practical delivery.
The Approach
Becoming an extension of the Gymboree Play & Music Team
Fruit Marketing’s relationship with Gymboree Play & Music UK began when Rachel joined the business as Head of Marketing & Technology.
Rather than replacing this role, Fruit created a flexible outsourced marketing model that allowed Gymboree Play & Music to retain senior marketing leadership while accessing the wider expertise of the Fruit team.
This meant the client gained:
- Senior strategic marketing expertise
- A wider team of specialists across digital marketing, content, advertising and technology
- Flexible support that adapted around business priorities
- A trusted partner embedded within the organisation
Today, all three members of the Fruit team support Gymboree Play & Music UK on a monthly basis, working alongside the leadership team to make strategic decisions and deliver marketing activity.
We operate as an extension of their business — not an external supplier.
"Fruit has become an integral part of our business. They provide us with the strategic marketing expertise, practical support and flexibility we need to continue growing.
They understand our franchise model, our customers and our ambitions, and they have helped us transform the way we approach marketing.
From developing our website and CRM systems to delivering campaigns, managing our digital channels and supporting our franchisees, Fruit feels like an extension of our own team."
The Process
Building the systems, strategy and structure for sustainable marketing
When Rachel first joined Gymboree Play & Music UK, the focus was on understanding the business, its franchise network and its opportunities for improvement.
The first 90 days included:
Understanding the business and customer journey
We benchmarked available data, visited centres across the UK, met franchisees and experienced the classes first-hand to understand the customer experience and the needs of the network.
Strengthening the marketing infrastructure
We reviewed existing systems, suppliers and processes to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reporting and customer communication.
This included researching CRM platforms, implementing Microsoft 365 across the business and improving internal organisation and collaboration.
Improving compliance and customer data management
As a business managing customer information across a franchise network, GDPR compliance was a key priority.
We sourced appropriate training, improved technology platforms, developed compliance policies and delivered customer communications to strengthen data management practices.
Creating opportunities for growth
We immediately developed partnership marketing opportunities, creating collaborations designed to increase brand awareness, reach new audiences and generate enquiries.
The Outcome
A stronger marketing engine built for growth
Since partnering with Fruit in 2019, Gymboree Play & Music UK has transformed the way marketing operates across the business.
Key achievements include:
A connected digital ecosystem
A new website was developed with real-time CRM integration and improved email marketing capability, creating a stronger customer journey from first interaction through to ongoing engagement.
Improved customer insight and reporting
A new CRM system was rolled out across the franchise network, improving customer management, reporting capabilities and the ability to make informed marketing decisions.
Stronger brand visibility
Social media infrastructure was consolidated, ensuring brand ownership, consistency and improved management across the network.
Ongoing SEO activity has strengthened search visibility, helping more families discover Gymboree Play & Music online.
Successful partnerships and campaigns
Strategic partnerships with recognised brands including Joe Wicks and Eurocamp generated significant increases in audience engagement, followers and enquiries.
More effective advertising
New digital advertising campaigns have delivered strong performance, combining improved targeting with efficient cost management.
A trusted marketing partner at leadership level
Perhaps the biggest impact has been the confidence Gymboree Play & Music now has in its marketing function.
Fruit provides the experience, structure and expertise needed to make informed decisions, prioritise opportunities and continue building a strong brand for the future.
