Saved in platform and services costs in the first year
Case Study
How Crunch Fitness Improved Efficiencies and Rebuilt Its Martech Stack for Growth
$300,000+
Crunch Fitness had momentum. New locations, strong membership growth, and aggressive paid marketing were all fueling expansion. But behind the scenes, the systems supporting that growth were feeling the weight of that rapid growth.
The tech stack had evolved in a piecemeal fashion; one platform at a time, one integration at a time. Now it was holding the business back in three critical areas:
- Ad Performance
Crunch relies heavily on paid digital channels to drive memberships. But it had become increasingly challenging to accurately attribute leads or evaluate campaign ROI, to tell which ads were working and which should be sunset.
- Member Retention
Behavioral data like class attendance, membership tier, and visit frequency was stored in Azure, but marketing automation ran through HubSpot. With no clean bridge between them, Crunch was limited in available personalized campaign triggers or in flagging at-risk members.
- Customer Visibility
Crunch’s in-house middleware had limited capability to unify customer profiles. Members who visit different locations may show up as entirely different people, breaking the ability to track engagement or behavior across the brand.
Rather than continue down the path of complex or manual workarounds, Crunch committed to evolve and fix its stack challenges once and for all.
Running the Diagnostic: A Tech Stack Health Check
Crunch engaged McGaw to take a fresh look at the architecture and diagnose the root causes.
McGaw used its Stack Builder tool to conduct a Tech Stack Health Check, a comprehensive diagnostic of Crunch’s stack, including:
- A complete audit of all current tools and integrations
- A full map of data flows and sync timings
- Identification of redundant platforms and missing functionality
- Alignment of tools to business goals like retention, attribution, and campaign performance
The findings were clear. Middleware sync delays, siloed behavioral data, and overlapping tools were introducing friction and suboptimizing budgets.
The Fix: Choosing the Right CDP
With the real issues surfaced, McGaw guided Crunch through a structured Customer Data Platform (CDP) evaluation.
Crunch considered three CDP solutions, but only one fit their needs without inflating costs. Segment stood out for its ability to:
- Resolve identities in real time across platforms and locations
- Deliver behavioral data straight into campaign tools like HubSpot
- Operate without expensive professional services or long implementation cycles
- Save over $300,000 in platform and services costs in the first year
Choosing Segment gave Crunch a strong core to anchor the stack they already had, without the cost or disruption of starting over.
Choosing Segment gave Crunch a strong core to anchor the stack they already had, without the cost or disruption of starting over.
The Results: A Stack That Supports Scale
Even before full rollout, the impact was clear:
Smarter Ad Spend
Crunch can link spend to new member joins and optimize budget allocations based on real attribution.
Improved Retention
Behavioral triggers powering re-engagement campaigns tailored to member habits and preferences.
Cleaner Architecture
Redundant tools were eliminated, data flows smoothed out, and teams had one reliable source of truth to work from.
Want to see what’s slowing your growth?
Run your stack through Stack Builder for a clear view of what’s working—and what’s in the way.
