Posted by on Jun 11, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

North American Branding and Marketing Partnerships

In addition to the marketing materials, campaigns, vendors, services, and support we provide to our franchisees, MGE is always striving for impressions and business relationships to strengthen our brand and drive business to your doors. We do this through PR, cross marketing, promotions, and alliances with various consumer marketing programs. We are happy to announce that we have recently completed two new relationships as follows: Entertainment Book- My Gym coupon featured in all hard copy coupon books, available online and through the Entertainment Book App. U.S. and Canada Offer: 1 Free Guest Class, New members only Access Direct- A consumer affinity program with an online portal accessible to their members for discounts and offers – In addition, Access Direct partners with a multitude of companies such as All-State Motors, Affinion, and educational associations throughout the US and Canada for hard copy coupon offerings to their customers. Offer #1- $45 Off Member Fee and Free Guest Class- New members only – Not to be combined with other offers – Participating...

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Posted by on Jun 10, 2014 in Marketing, Products | 0 comments

2015 My Gym Activity Calendar

As per last weeks Back to School Campaign update, now is the time to start planning!  Our 2015 My Gym Activity Calendar will be available for pre-order in late June, with a franchisee cost of $1.50 per piece.  This fantastic giveaway will encourage your members to be healthy with interactive activities, nutrition tips, healthy recipes, exercises, family fitness and self-esteem activities, and more!  This awesome marketing piece brings home the My Gym experience and will live on the walls for 16 months (September 2014 – December 2015)!  We recommend using this item as a giveaway for those who remained registered throughout the summer – as well as for those returning/new during the Back to School Campaign. Additionally, this item can be used throughout the fall and holiday season, either for individual retail sale (suggested retail price of $3.00 each) and/ or as birthday party favors at a discounted rate (suggested price for 10 or more at $2.00 each). Finally, the activity calendars can make great thank you gifts for...

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Posted by on Jun 5, 2014 in Support & Programming | 0 comments

Upselling Webinar

Webinar on Upselling We held a webinar on Upselling this past week.  Thank you to everyone who participated.  Webinars are always a great way to teach, communicate, and learn, not only between MGE and our franchisee family but also between owners and their staffs.  The recorded Upselling webinar can be found on the extranet in the Webinars and Tutorials section.  We encourage all owners and staff members to listen to it in your coming training sessions and meetings.  Click here to view the webinar (password:...

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Posted by on Jun 4, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

Marketing Campaign – August is Back to School!

Millions of kids agree…  Back to school means back to My Gym! Soon it will be time to prepare all of your marketing for August’s Back to School Campaign.  To help you execute the themed campaign in your own gym(s), the following are ready for you to access: In the Print System on the Extranet: Full-page flier Half-page flier Color and black & white versions 4×6 postcard Got Print formatted postcard template also available Poster To be printed locally and hung in lobby/front window Printed ads for placing in local family guides are to be ordered through the Custom Artwork Request form, as sizes vary.  Please select “2014 Back to School Campaign” under “Artwork Type” when placing your order so that artwork will match in style. In Exact Target – Global Emails: Global email (generic email for you to customize with your own message and offer) titled “NCB2S Back to School General Use Email” In the 2014 National Marketing Campaign Folder: My Gym Operations Disc / My Gym Operations / National Marketing and...

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Posted by on May 30, 2014 in General | 0 comments

2014 Convention Update

Just 54 days until we are all together again!  It’s not too late; click here to register for the convention now! Fantastic Team and Management Analysis Tool – Understand Your Team in a New and Powerful Way, Leading You To Become a More Effective Manager with “DiSC” We will have valuable meeting content at the convention this year that will help you analyze and apply the DiSC teachings to your real life gym situation. Every attendee must have taken the online DiSC testing by June 30. Starting the first week in June, emails will be sent to all registered attendees. As most of you know, for some time now, we have been researching new ways for our franchisees to become the most effective managers possible while getting the desired results from their staffs. Thanks, in part, to David Ames (Franchisee – Norwell, MA), we discovered “DiSC.” We would describe DiSC as a personality assessment, for our purpose, to determine the most effective ways to lead your My Gym staff to...

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Posted by on May 30, 2014 in My Gym Foundation | 0 comments

EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE

It’s very simple: when a family member struggles, we all struggle. Please join My Gym Challenged America in a special crusade to support Cougar Clifford, the 15 year old son of much beloved My Gym Chesterfield staff member Colleen Clifford. While playing in the snow, Cougar heartbreakingly landed on his head and shattered the C5 vertebrae in his neck. He spent over two months in the PICU on a ventilator. Cougar was initially paralyzed from the shoulders down. He has regained movement in his arms, and is starting to use his fingers. (Still no feeling in his legs). His spine does have a pulse, which means that with lots and lots of therapy and time, he may be able to walk again. MGCA is asking for donations and moral support for an amazing and inspiring kid with a great spirit and sense of humor. All of us at MGCA are moving Cougar to the top of our list for a gift appropriation this month, (up to $500) but we...

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Posted by on May 29, 2014 in Products | 0 comments

Premium Pullover/Jacket Now Available

  Introducing the new My Gym Premium Pullover/Jacket, a garment we know you will absolutely love.  This is a high-end premium garment that you can wear in the gym and when you’re out and about.  Once you see and wear this, you’ll agree that it’s far superior to other pullovers and jackets, particularly those made of fleece and other fabrics. This garment is from the Pebble Beach Apparel Collection of golf-inspired sportswear.  It features technical fabrics, emphasizes superior design, and offers the ultimate in comfort by utilizing easy care fabrics that keep you warm, dry, and comfortable.  It’s also relatively lightweight, so it can be worn all year round. The embroidery on this garment also has a premium appearance and quality.  The front is embroidered with the My Gym logo, and the back is embroidered with a tree and the Pebble Beach logo.  The logos are low profile, and the thread color is just a shade lighter than the garment color for a subtle and sophisticated look. Product details:...

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Posted by on May 28, 2014 in Products | 0 comments

My Gym Activity Calendar: Too Cute for Words!

We are so excited to share some of the great ways the 2014 My Gym Activity Calendar is being utilized as a tool to “bring My Gym home” and practice healthy lifestyles! We have had gym owners and staff members show us great ways they have been able to motivate their young members by encouraging them to use their calendars every day to instill healthy lifestyles, not just on days they are in the gym! We would love for you to share ways you have enabled the calendar to “live” within your gym! How do you encourage your members to use it? Now is the time to start planning! Our 2015 My Gym Activity Calendar will be available for pre-order in late June, with a franchisee cost of $1.50 per piece. This fantastic giveaway will encourage your members to be healthy with interactive activities, nutrition tips, healthy recipes, exercises, family fitness and self-esteem activities, and more! This awesome marketing piece brings home the My Gym experience and will live...

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Posted by on May 22, 2014 in Products | 0 comments

Get Your My Gym Boot Camp Shirts Now!

ATTEN-TION!  One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four!  My Gym Boot Camp is NOW in session.  So get on your uniforms, starting with the new My Gym Boot Camp T-shirt.  We can outfit the troop in infant, youth, and adult sizes.  This fun shirt features a My Gym Boot Camp “dog tag” logo on the front and the regular My Gym logo on the back.  It’s available in a variety of classic and modern camouflage colors. ShopMyGym is launching this item as a special order product, and then it will be available as a stock item.  Place your order by 10 a.m. PST on Thursday, 5/29, and your order will ship the week of 6/9.  Be sure to let your members know about these fun shirts, and keep them on hand so you have them available for your customers.  Click here to order now.  AT-EASE!...

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Posted by on May 22, 2014 in Technology | 0 comments

What’s new on MGM?

You will soon see some new and exciting enhancements that have been made to the system in both function and design. Functionality Users now have the ability to: Enter and search for a second parent on the Family Account screen Charge families or children a standalone Membership Fee If gyms offer a “Family Membership,” each child added will automatically be set as a Member. If gyms charge a “Per-Child Membership,” each child will be listed with either an “M” or an “$.” The “M” will indicate that the child is a Member. The “$” will allow you to click on the symbol to take a membership payment. Membership Fees will now be listed as a “Transaction Type” on the Transactions screen if the payment was a separate transaction. Customize the Birthday Party Detail screen to accommodate more add-ons, as well as resize and move the pop up screen The party Date and Time fields have been reformatted to allow easier rescheduling. Several other areas including Payments have been recoded...

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Posted by on May 21, 2014 in Products | 0 comments

Get Ready for Camp with My Gym Camp Products

Summer is almost here, so here’s your reminder to gear up for My Gym camp.  ShopMyGym has the following products for this fun summer tradition: *NEW* 2014 My Gym Camp T-Shirt – Featuring the “Get Ready for Summer Fun” marketing campaign logo – Youth and adult sizes My Gym Camp Registration Pack:  Youth 2014 camp shirt, camp tote bag, camp water bottle “Flying High” My Gym Camp T-Shirt (from 2013) – Youth and adult sizes (limited quantity) My Gym Camp Tote Bag My Gym Camp Water Bottle My Gym Beach Ball My Gym Temporary Tattoos My Gym Stickers It’s going to be a great summer!  Click here to order...

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Posted by on May 21, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

Hyland’s Homeopathic Kids Sampling Program, Spring 2014

The Hyland’s Allergy Samples Program has now concluded.  You may donate or completely discard all of the remaining allergy samples as you wish. In June, the final component of this partnership with Hyland’s will commence and feature free “Teething Tablet” samples for your members.  This program, which will run from June 2 – July 1, will be a much smaller one with just two total boxes delivered to the gyms. Please encourage parents who are interested in doing so to take multiple teething tablet samples along with the literature. Upon commencement of the program, please snap a quick picture of the samples and literature and send it to erapada@playnetwork.com or text to 323-712-5500. As a thank you for participation in the Hyland’s program, when submitting a picture, your gym will be entered into a raffle to win one of five $100 Amex Gift Cards.  Please include your gym location/name when submitting the pictures.  Each picture submitted will receive one entry, so please feel free to enter multiple times to...

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Posted by on May 19, 2014 in General | 0 comments

Reminder to register for the 2014 Convention!

It’s not too late to register for the My Gym Convention coming in July. Please do it TODAY! This convention is just too valuable to miss! As a small business owner working hard to stay Number One in our industry, you must attend this important event. You will gain valuable information, learn new skills, find out about exciting new developments for My Gyms, and build camaraderie with the greatest people in the world – your fellow franchisees! CLICK HERE FOR THE REGISTRATION FORM Any questions regarding the convention?  Email Nancy Scott at nscott@mygym.com We still need your photos!  My Gym is ranked the #1 Children’s Fitness Program, and we want to show it!  Please send in a digital photograph showing a clever, unique, or innovative way to depict “#1” with your staff in your gym.  Send to Monique Vranesh by June 1stat mvranesh@mygym.com.  Please include your gym’s location in the body of your email or in the picture label so I know which gym submitted the photo. Convention (formerly known...

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Posted by on May 19, 2014 in Products | 0 comments

Frozen Theme Party Pack Now Available!

Let it go, let it go Get your Frozen party pack Let it go, let it go Order now and don’t look back I sure know What they’re going to say Let the fun begin It’s the best party that you’ll ever throw The Frozen theme party pack is now available on ShopMyGym.com.  This pack includes your party goods conveniently packed in one box, including plates, napkins, balloons, and stickers.  The colorful Frozen plates feature Anna and the Snow Queen, Elsa, as well as a pretty floral design.  The Frozen napkins are really cool and feature Anna in front of the Castle of Arendelle.  We don’t currently have a Frozen centerpiece kit, so we got creative . . . For the centerpiece, you’ll make a bouquet using four pink or purple balloons (not included) tied together, and then you’ll attach the included Frozen foil balloon, which can be inflated by simply blowing air into it; no helium required.  Sprinkle the table with the Frozen stickers (featuring Elsa, Anna, Sven,...

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Posted by on May 19, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

MGE Facebook Posts for Franchisees to Use

  MGE Marketing is excited to take another step forward toward harnessing and maximizing our social media efforts! Our research and meetings with Search Commander, Inc., our Google AdWords and Web marketing consultant, have confirmed that more organic, more relevant Facebook (“FB”) posts are the way to go.  Our goal is to keep My Gym at “top of mind” for our customers – to engage them, to grow our MGE FB page, and to help you grow all of your FB pages!  We want all of our customers sharing, liking, and commenting on our material and yours.  To this end, MGE is committed to providing timely and relevant FB posts for all of our franchises.  Effective immediately, MGE will be using our FB page, “My Gym Children’s Fitness Center – Official Fan Page” – https://www.facebook.com/mygymfun, as the conduit for these posts.  We will be posting 3-5 times a week with appropriate posts for all gyms.  These posts will include a mix of weekly programming, holidays, parenting/fitness articles, funny/fun/contests, MGCA...

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Posted by on May 12, 2014 in Support & Programming | 0 comments

Upselling Webinar: Register Now!

Upselling Techniques We will be holding a 30 to 45-minute webinar on Upselling Techniques.  We will review ways to upsell Birthday Parties, Camps, and Parents’ Night Outs.  This webinar is geared toward all My Gym teachers; therefore, we have scheduled this webinar during the most common weekly meeting times. IMPORTANT NOTES: We make every effort to place these webinars during times we feel will work for most of the My Gym family.  Of course, this is not always possible, so a recorded version of the webinar will be posted in the Tutorials section of the extranet.  This recording is not intended as a replacement for attending the live event.  The recorded webinar should be used only as a reference. We have disabled the mic and speakers function for this webinar; the only way to participate is to call in.  We anticipate that this will make for a smoother webinar experience. Your attendance is appreciated at one of these webinars: Monday, June 2, from 11:00 AM PDT to 12:00 PM PDT...

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Posted by on May 8, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

See you this Friday on Fox and Friends with Huggies!

We are excited to make two big announcements!  This coming Friday (5/9), My Gym will be on FOX News’ Fox and Friends morning show along with Huggies and their fitness expert, NikkiFitness (Nikki Glor).  This National TV appearance will be the kickoff to a great partnership that has Huggies “taking over” five My Gyms across the country during the next several months.  They will be working with our staff to run modified Waddlers classes and a kickoff promotion of their new diaper, Little Movers.  NikkiFitness is a personal trainer who specializes in having Mom work with the baby, and we have jointly built a program around our core Waddlers program!  For more information about NikkiFitness, check out www.nikkifitness.com. We’re excited to announce the five gyms that will be participating:  NYC 83rd Street; Frisco, TX; Eden Prairie, MN; Chicago, IL; and Pasadena, CA! Huggies is going to be rolling out a HUGE national campaign to market their new product, and we’re excited that they have decided to partner with us in doing...

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Posted by on May 7, 2014 in Support & Programming | 0 comments

Urgent Safety Notice

We have experienced a serious accident in a gym and felt it important to remind everyone of a few very important procedures: The Big Deal is always run with one teacher.  This leaves the other teacher to spot the swings for safety.  This includes the Space Flight Big Deal. Swings must never be unattended. The Big Swing is intended for children 3.25 years and younger. The “Ants on a Log” swing is not intended to be swung side by side.  It must be swung forward and back, meaning that, when a child is straddling the bolster and swinging on the swing, the child’s body must be moving forward and back, as if on a normal strap swing or backless swing. Parents must spot their children while they are on the swings, including the Big...

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Posted by on May 6, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

Email Deliverability Issues & Policies Follow-Up

We would like to clarify a few things regarding yesterday’s Exact Target/My Gym email address update. One @mygym.com email address is assigned to each gym and paid for by the marketing fund.  If you were never assigned one or do not remember your email details, please contact Mae Perez at mperez@mygym.com.  Contact SADA Systems ONLY if you need help configuring Outlook after you have already obtained your email information from Mae. If you use your own domain (e.g., info@mygym.com), you may continue using that email address in Exact Target.  The new policy affects only free email accounts. The new policy also affects the Exact Target login process.  If your email address in Exact Target is from a free provider, and you request the Authentication Code in order to log in, it will be rejected the same way and you won’t receive the code. If this happens, please send your IP address to Mae Perez at mperez@mygym.com, and she will add it to the white list, which bypasses the Authentication...

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Posted by on May 5, 2014 in Marketing | 0 comments

IMPORTANT: Email Deliverability Issues & New Policies

It has been brought to our attention that the major email providers (Google/Gmail, Yahoo!, and AOL) have recently enforced a much stricter authentication system.  This is NOT a problem with Exact Target, but rather something that affects other companies as well, including Constant Contact, MailChimp, Get Response, etc. Under the new policies, they will no longer accept mail when it comes from an account on aol.com, gmail.com, yahoo.com, comcast.com…basically any account on a domain that we do not control.  If you are using one of these providers as your “Send From” address, the intended recipients will not receive it because of lack of authentication.  Exact Target explains this new policy here, if you are interested in reading the full technical details.  SpamResource.com also has good information here and here. In order to resolve this issue, everyone must use their @mygym.com email address in Exact Target effective immediately.  If you do not have an @mygym.com email, or have forgotten your password, please contact Mae Perez at mperez@mygym.com. You must switch...

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Posted by on May 1, 2014 in Support & Programming | 0 comments

New Themed Party Programming: Frozen

We are chilled and thrilled to announce that the Frozen Programming is available in the Themed Birthday Party folder in the Operations Manual!  We wanted to provide you with the programming as quickly as possible.  We apologize for the delay but wanted to move forward with getting you the programming.  We are currently experiencing a delay with product because our provider is “Out of Stock.”  We will update you as soon as the product package is available! As always, we are accepting programming submissions for all of our upcoming themed parties (Minnie Mouse, Star Wars, and Elmo and Friends) as well as our currently offered parties!  We love the ideas that you and your staff generate and would love to incorporate them into the programming for use across the globe.  Please submit any themed programming to...

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Posted by on Apr 30, 2014 in General | 0 comments

A Jumpstart on KICKSTARTER!

We at My Gym are always proud when one of our own celebrates a great achievement.  This has never been more so than of Talia Sherman, the talented daughter of My Gym founders, Yacov and Susi Sherman.  Talia, an active My Gymer since birth, has completed production on a powerful motion picture project, “Buttercups,” which will premiere Tuesday, May 6, at 8 PM in Cinespace’s Room 86 in Hollywood, CA. “Buttercups,” both written and directed by Talia, is the story of a young woman and how she copes with the ups and downs of life after a traumatic event. If you’re going to be in L.A. on the 6th, you can show your support by attending this world premiere.  facebook.com/Buttercups.short.film Another way you can lend a hand to this valued My Gym family member is by making a donation to her amazing Kickstarter fundraising program at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/914887442/buttercups-a-short-film, where Talia hopes to raise the necessary funds to take “Buttercups” to many notable film festivals throughout 2014. Congratulations, Talia, on this...

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Posted by on Apr 28, 2014 in Support & Programming | 0 comments

Class Quality Webinar

We held a webinar this past week on Class Quality.  Thank you to everyone who participated.  Your discussion, roleplays, and ideas were great and extremely helpful for many other gyms.  We encourage all owners and staff to listen to the recorded webinar found on the extranet under the Webinars and Tutorials section, or by clicking...

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