Trev’s Turtle Club: Reimagining Winter Retention at Rackley Swimming

How I transformed a winter retention brief into a 12-week kids club experience designed to reward every swimmer — not just a handful of competition winners.

After the success of Rackley Swimming’s 2025 winter retention campaign, the challenge for 2026 was to create something bigger, more engaging and fundamentally different.

The previous campaign had successfully used weekly competition prizes to encourage attendance. But there was an opportunity to take the idea further.

What if, instead of only a few families winning, every child who committed to their swimming journey could win something?

That question became the foundation for Trev’s Turtle Club — a 12-week kids club-style winter retention program created for Rackley Swimming, owned by City Venue Management.

And unlike the previous year's campaign, this was a concept I proudly owned from the beginning.

From Brief to Big Idea

My manager came to me with a simple brief:

“Codi, I want to create a kids club-style campaign called Trev's Turtle Club.”

Within two days, I had developed the initial concept for Trev’s Turtle Club.

Within seven days, I had created the rollout for the entire campaign.

From there, I took ownership of the campaign from conception through to execution — developing the customer journey, promotional mechanics, campaign structure, rewards and milestones, marketing rollout, venue activation and supporting campaign materials.

The ambition was to create something that felt less like a traditional promotion and more like a membership club that children & families wanted to be part of.

The result was Trev’s Turtle Club: a 12-week adventure where children were rewarded simply for continuing to show up and progress through their swimming lessons.

The Strategic Shift: Everyone Is a Winner

One of the biggest learnings from the 2025 campaign was that while weekly prize draws created excitement, only a small number of families could ultimately win.

For 2026, I wanted to change the psychology of the campaign.

Instead of: 12 weeks. A handful of winners.

The proposition became: 12 weeks. Every child gets rewarded.

Every participating child received something.

Every milestone unlocked something new.

Every week gave them another reason to attend.

And every child who completed the journey had something tangible to celebrate.

This became the central idea behind Trev’s Turtle Club:

Keep swimming. Keep collecting. Keep progressing.

The 12-Week Adventure

Trev’s Turtle Club launched in May 2026 and ran for 12 weeks through to July.

Families could register their children at reception for a $20 membership fee, with family discounts available for multiple children.

Upon joining, each child received their own Trev’s Turtle Club Collector Book, filled with activities, exclusive offers, vouchers and space to collect their weekly stickers.

Registration was completed via a QR code at reception, allowing customer details to be captured and creating a seamless transition from physical venue activation to the digital campaign journey.

Then the adventure began.

Week 1: Become a Turtle Club Member

Every new member received an exclusive Trev’s Turtle Club T-shirt. This was one of the biggest physical activations of the campaign, with more than 5,000 T-shirts produced for participating children. The T-shirt wasn't just merchandise, it was a visual identifier that made the club feel real.

Children could wear their Turtle Club shirt to their swimming lesson, see other members wearing theirs and feel like they were part of something bigger. It turned the campaign into a community across all our 45 Rackley Swimming venues in QLD & NSW, rather than simply another marketing promotion.

Every Week: Show Up, Collect & Progress

The mechanic was deliberately simple.

Children continued attending their regular weekly swimming lessons.

After completing their lesson, they received a new themed Trev’s Turtle Club sticker to add to their collector book.

Week by week, their book filled up.

The stickers created a visual representation of their commitment and progress — and gave children something tangible to look forward to collecting.

The campaign wasn't asking families to add another activity to their busy schedules.

It simply rewarded them for continuing the swimming journey they were already on.

Week 6: The Halfway Milestone

Rather than making children wait until the end of the 12-week journey to receive a reward, I built milestones throughout the campaign.

At the halfway point, children who reached Week 6 unlocked an exclusive Trev’s Turtle Club keychain.

This was an important part of the retention strategy.

Six weeks is a significant period for a child to maintain a weekly routine, so the halfway reward gave families a reason to celebrate their progress and provided another motivational touchpoint before the final six weeks.

The message was simple: You're halfway there. Keep going.

Week 12: Everyone Gets to Celebrate

The final stage of the journey was designed to make completion feel like an achievement.

After 12 weeks of collecting stickers and attending lessons, Turtle Club members could:

• Receive an exclusive Rackley Swimming towel

• Enter the major prize draw

• Go into the draw to win 12 months of free swimming lessons

• Participate in a Trev’s Turtle Club pool party at their local Rackley Swimming venue

• Complete their sticker collection

• Enter a bonus prize draw by showing their completed sticker collection

The major prize — 12 months of free swimming lessons valued at up to $1,087 — gave the campaign a major incentive, while the guaranteed milestone rewards ensured that the campaign wasn't dependent on winning.

The philosophy was clear:

Everyone who completed the journey had something to take home.

Building a Club for the Whole Family

Trev’s Turtle Club wasn't designed solely around children.

The collector book also contained offers and benefits specifically for parents, creating value for the entire family.

These included:

• A free drink offer

• A family pass to a City Aquatics venue

• 10% off children's birthday parties

• 15% off a BASE Compression voucher through an external retail sponsor

• 20% off Vorgee products - another retail sponsor

This created opportunities to encourage families to explore other City Venue Management experiences and partner businesses while giving parents a reason to engage with the campaign alongside their children.

The result was a campaign that could live beyond the swimming lesson itself.

A Campaign With a Purpose Beyond Swimming

One of the elements I was particularly proud to incorporate into Trev’s Turtle Club was its connection to wildlife conservation. Rackley Swimming proudly supported Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary as a feature sponsor of the campaign.

For every new Trev’s Turtle Club registration, Rackley Swimming donated $5 towards Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's conservation and research programs.

By the conclusion of the campaign, the initiative raised more than $10,000 to support wildlife conservation.

That meant every new membership had a purpose beyond the promotion.

Families weren't simply joining a kids club.

They were helping contribute to conservation projects, wildlife protection, research and fieldwork designed to help keep wildlife wild.

It gave the campaign another layer of meaning:

Every child who joined was helping make a difference.

Making the Collector Book More Than a Sticker Album

The collector book became one of the centrepieces of the entire campaign.

It was designed to give children something they could physically interact with throughout the 12 weeks.

Alongside the weekly stickers, the book featured:

• Activities

• Challenges

• Bonus prizes

• Parent offers

• Vouchers

• Sponsor features

• Campaign information

• Sticker collection pages

• Progress milestones

The book effectively became the child's passport through the 12-week Turtle Club journey.

This was important because it extended engagement beyond the weekly swimming lesson and gave families a physical reminder of the campaign sitting in their home.

Bringing Trev’s Turtle Club to Life In-Venue

The campaign was designed to be highly visible across Rackley Swimming venues.

Marketing assets included:

• Venue posters

• A5 flyers

• Social media tiles

• Launch EDMs

• Registration QR codes

• Staff badges

• Reception activation

• Pool-deck activation

• In-venue promotional materials

• Collector books

• Stickers

• T-shirts

• Keychains

• Towels

• Trev’s Turtle Club pool parties

Staff were encouraged to actively talk to families about the program, celebrate children's milestones and encourage swimmers to collect their stickers each week.

This was particularly important because retention isn't achieved through marketing communications alone.

The campaign had to be experienced by families at the venue.

Turning Staff Into Part of the Campaign

Staff engagement was another important component of the rollout.

Teams were given campaign materials and incentives to encourage participation and help bring the Turtle Club experience to life.

Staff could celebrate children when they reached milestones, encourage them to keep collecting their stickers and help create excitement around the final pool party celebrations.

The campaign became part of the conversation between instructors, reception teams, parents and children.

That meant the customer didn't simply see Trev's Turtle Club on social media.

They experienced it at their swimming lesson every week.

The Social & Digital Campaign

The campaign was supported by a multi-channel marketing strategy designed to drive awareness, registrations and ongoing engagement.

This included:

Social media - Campaign launch content, weekly reminders, milestone communications, prize messaging and Turtle Club storytelling.

Email marketing - Launch EDMs and customer communications to encourage registrations and maintain awareness throughout the 12-week journey.

Venue marketing - Posters, flyers, QR codes, reception collateral and pool-deck activation.

Physical campaign assets - Collector books, stickers, T-shirts, keychains and towels that turned the campaign into an ongoing physical experience.

The campaign therefore operated across multiple touchpoints while maintaining one consistent message: For the next 12 weeks, we're rewarding you for showing up and progressing in your lessons.

Creating a Different Kind of Retention Campaign

Trev’s Turtle Club represented a significant shift from the previous year's winter campaign.

In 2025, the mechanic was centred around:

10 weeks. 10 prizes. 10 winners.

For 2026, I deliberately moved towards:

12 weeks. Multiple milestones. Everyone gets rewarded.

The campaign wasn't about creating one big moment at the end.

It was about creating 12 weeks of reasons to keep coming back.

A new sticker.

A new milestone.

A T-shirt.

A keychain.

A towel.

A major prize opportunity.

A pool party.

A completed collector book.

Each element gave families another reason to remain engaged.

The Campaign's Biggest Achievement

For me, Trev’s Turtle Club represents one of the projects I am most proud of in my marketing career.

Not only because of the scale of the campaign, but because I was able to take a brief and turn it into a complete customer experience in an incredibly short timeframe.

Two days to develop the concept.

Seven days to build the rollout.

12 weeks to bring it to life.

From the initial kids club concept, I owned the campaign journey from start to finish — developing the promotional structure, rewards and milestones, customer experience, campaign rollout and execution across the Rackley Swimming network.

The campaign required coordination across marketing, venues, staff, partnerships, sponsors, physical production, digital communications and customer engagement.

And ultimately, it became something children could see, wear, collect, complete and celebrate.

More Than a Marketing Campaign

The most rewarding part of Trev’s Turtle Club was seeing how the campaign connected marketing with the actual customer experience.

A child arriving at their swimming lesson wasn't just attending another class.

They were:

Putting on their Turtle Club T-shirt.

Adding another sticker to their collector book.

Working towards their next milestone.

Getting closer to completing their adventure.

Helping raise money for wildlife conservation.

And eventually, celebrating their achievement with their swimming community.

That is what I wanted the campaign to achieve.

Not simply more promotion.

Not simply another competition.

But a genuine retention experience that made children excited to continue swimming.

Three Years of National Recognition

Trev’s Turtle Club also continued a significant run of recognition for Rackley Swimming's marketing and communications work.

In 2026, Rackley Swimming achieved the Australian Swim Schools Association (ASSA) National Gold Marketing & Communications Award for the third consecutive year which I claimed on stage myself!

Having been involved in the execution of the previous winter campaign and then taking full ownership of the conception and delivery of Trev’s Turtle Club, achieving this recognition across three consecutive years is a particularly proud career milestone for me.

For me, it reflects the ability to take a strategic business objective, turn it into a compelling customer experience and then execute that idea at scale across a large network of swimming venues.

The Result: A Winter Campaign Built Around Everyone Winning

Trev’s Turtle Club was ultimately built around one simple belief:

Every child deserves to feel like a winner.

By shifting the focus from a traditional competition to a kids club-style retention experience, Rackley Swimming was able to create a campaign that rewarded consistency, celebrated progress and gave families something to look forward to throughout winter.

It combined:

Retention strategy.

Customer experience.

Kids engagement.

Physical marketing.

Digital marketing.

Partnerships.

Community impact.

Staff activation.

And a whole lot of turtles!

Most importantly, it made the act of showing up feel rewarding.

Because swimming isn't just about what happens in the pool.

It's about building confidence, developing skills, creating routines and celebrating progress.

And for 12 weeks in winter 2026, Rackley Swimming gave children another reason to keep showing up.

Welcome to Trev’s Turtle Club.

Where every week counts, every milestone matters, and everyone gets to be a winner.