Each year, the Franchise Innovation Awards recognize the franchise brands that are creating and implementing the most original and successful business innovation strategies and tactics in the United States. In addition to taking home Silver for Cause Marketing, and Gold for Local Marketing Leadership, we’re pleased to announce we were awarded with Franchise Update Media’s top honor: the Franchise Marketing Leadership Award.

MARKETING THAT MAKES A SPLASH

To receive the overall award for Franchise Marketing Leadership is truly an honor—one that we share with our dedicated Franchise Support Team, our hardworking franchisees and our loyal members who make the work we do incredibly rewarding and impactful.

Thanks to the leadership of our Vice President of Marketing, Shana Krisan, our approach to franchise marketing has evolved, cementing Goldfish Swim School as a trailblazer within the franchise industry, and learn-to-swim sector.

Through the development of a Local Marketing Consultants (LMC) program, each of our franchisees are able to receive personalized marketing support while benefitting from national brand-building efforts. The creation of this program has also allowed the subject matter experts on our internal marketing team to devote more time and attention to innovation projects, such as water safety partnerships, national PR initiatives and the launch of our first cause marketing campaign—which took silver within the Franchise Innovation Awards Cause Marketing category. 

Other notable marketing enhancements under Shana’s leadership include the development of Digital Marketing Playbooks, which were designed to create a more efficient way of distributing marketing campaign collateral for franchisees to execute on a local level, as well as an inaugural Vendor Partner Summit focused on cultivating innovation among our trusted marketing partners. 

Collectively, these initiatives have allowed each of our schools to make a splash in their local markets and better differentiate themselves from the competition. 

RIPPLES OF INNOVATION

At no other time in recent history has innovation been more necessary than amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this time, we’ve remained focused on meeting the growing need for water safety education, while working hand-in-hand with the CDC to ensure each of our 100+ schools had the tools and resources they needed to successfully operate amidst the pandemic.

Even when schools were closed, our team was quick to adapt, creating ‘Goldfish At Home’ to provide free, virtual dry-land swim exercises to families nationwide, along with a variety of online and interactive water-safety focused initiatives and activities.

While our Safer. Stronger. Together.™ initiative provided the framework for every Goldfish Swim School in North America to reopen, our leadership team continues to lobby for essential business status alongside the Aquatics Coalition so that purpose-driven aquatics programs and learn-to-swim facilities can continue to provide lifesaving swim skills.

While accelerating innovation and providing premier support to our franchisees, we’ve also remained steadfast and focused on growth. This year alone, we celebrated the opening of our 100th location, signed 14 franchise agreements and are on track to surpass last year’s 17 school openings by expanding to open a total of 20 new locations by the end of 2020.

As a growing brand on the fast track to success, we’re honored to have received several other notable accolades from respected institutions in the franchise space. In addition to ranking in the Top 10 on Franchise Times’ Fast & Serious List and No. 28 in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500®, Goldfish Swim School also made an appearance on The Inc. 5000 list for the sixth year in a row, which ranks the fastest growing private companies in the nation.

DIVE IN AND EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES WITH AN AWARD-WINNING FRANCHISE 

As we aim to uphold our position as the industry leader in innovation, member experience, and community goodwill, we’re planning to bring the Golden Experience of Goldfish Swim School to even more communities across North America!

If you’re looking to grow with an award-winning franchise, we invite you to explore our current franchise opportunities, learn about our proven franchise model, and contact us with any questions you have about getting started.