Case study: Marketing activities for Grand prix Osijek 2015 Žito Challenge cup!

Main goal: Make a mainstream gymnastics event and build a hype around it

Overtime arranged 17 main media partnerships for Grand prix Osijek 2015 Žito Challenge Cup while providing journalists interesting topics and information from the Gymnastics world. We also created promotional banners for media partners. 

Everything begins with name 

  ,,Nomen ist omen” said the old Latins, so we spend a lot of time creating the name of a Facebook page. We wanted catchy and persuadive name, that sounds local and global at the same time and after hours of brainstorming we came up with OSjeti gimnstiku (feel the gymnastics). With that name we wanted to say: Gymnastics is fabulous, feel its magic by following us and visiting Gradski vrt hall. To give it local touch, we put the capital OS in word OSjeti (symbolises Osijek’s vehicle registration).

Gymi: the narrator, person, showman, friend… everything

At the beginning of our work on this project, we found out that this competition has a mascot – Gymi who is the Slavonian marten.

We were thrilled with the fact that the marten, which is the symbol of the region, also symbolises the its biggest sport event,  so we decided to base most of the communication on Gymi.

For us, Gymi couldn’t be just a mascot, so we gave him lot of human characteristics.   Long story short, Gymi became the soul of this campaign.

New web site

We made a modern-designed web site and ”filled” it with an interesting information. On our web site people could read about all the Grand prix series competitions in 2015, the greatest successes of Croatian gymnasts, trivias about countries that participated in competition and interesting news about Grand prix Osijek.  

Facebook page – the center of the campaign

Facebook page OSjeti gimnastiku was launched on the 1st of May and with Gymi’s ‘’help’’ we posted a lot of interesting content. Here is the list of the best stories that were told on the Facebook:

Gymi’s strolls

Gymi wasn’t active only on the Internet, he also strolled down the streets of Osijek.  During his strolls, he also invited people to come to Gradski vrt during Grand prix Osijek,  danced with high school seniors,  shared leaflets…  Everywhere he went he became a huge attraction, everyone wanted to take a photo with him.

Gymnastics strolls

To show people that gymnastics is everywhere, we brought young and talented gymnasts to the streets of Osijek. Gymnasts did the hand walk and turned everything on their way into gymnastics apparatus. Pavement became floor, bench became beam, fountain parallel bars and little pillars pommel horse.

We recorded their ”routines”, shared it on Facebook and they went viral

1st video:  11378 views, 287 likes

2nd video: 7925 views, 87 likes

Fun facts and interesting visuals make a great couple

We were not just fun, we tried to share some informative content. For example, we shared visuals with interesting records at Grand prix Osijek (number of participating countries, medal winners, gymnasts who won the greatest number of medals).

Synergy with athletes from other sports

To show that Osijek is the real capital of gymnastics we made a synergy with sport clubs from Osijek. Athletes from Futsal club Osijek Kelme, Volleyball club Osijek 06, Basketball club Vrijednosnice Osijek, Football club Osijek and Club American football Osijek Cannons became gymnast for one day and invited citizens of Osijek to come to Gradski vrt.

We have shown that the whole world is coming to Osijek

To make this event as global I as it can be we invited gymnasts from all over the world to say that they’re coming to Osijek. 23 gymnasts from 10 countries sent us 22 fabulous videos in which they said I am coming to Osijek as well in fluent Croatian and amazed everyone.

Selfie time 

Official training was definitely a moment to remember, so we decided to memorize it with the biggest gymnastics selfie. Gymi stood on the floor, called the gymnasts and the rest is history.

We felt gymnastics on Instagram, too

We didn’t only use Facebook to share cool content, Instagram helped us to share awesome moments, too. Hashtag #OSjetiGimnastiku became popular during the competition, so we were happy to see that visitors and gymnasts shared their memories on Instagram with us.

Double show in a Hall

Since we are aware that just sport is not enough to make a spectacle,  we created lot of additional content. Prize giveaways, promotional stands and  cool content on the video wall (best of moments of campaign) kept the audience interested even during pauses. We hid the free taxi ride coupons under the seat so it was interesting to see the pursuit after speaker announced the giveaway.

We also made a synergy with other athletes during the event (together with HOO – Croatian Olympic Committee). Croatian athletes Damir Martin, Mario Vekić, David Šain and the most popular athlete in Osijek Donna Vekić gave our event ”the final touch’’

To sum up

Overtime team was feeling, breathing, eating, sleeping, living gymnastics for almost half a year,

And when we read these comments, we know that all our efforts paid off.

Greetings from cameraman from Croatian radio television… It was great!

Lota is ready, she’s impatient to see her dear colleagues gymnasts, especially her friend Gymi

It was nice to be a part of everything… I look forward to next year

All praises to organisers of this spectacle in our town. It was an honour to be a part of this! It was spectacular!

Every morning I must look at your mascote to make my day better. He’s excellent and I’ll write it frequently.

It was too good, and on the gymnastics playground too, I spent two days there and it was cool