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Background
GymBeam is the fastest-growing sports nutrition brand in Europe, now ranked #1 in the category by 2025 revenue.
About two years into the Italian market, they were ready to make their biggest push yet: a nationwide brand campaign across TV, YouTube, radio, billboards, and social, fronted by Italian fitness influencer Danny Lazzarin.
A campaign at that scale, in a market where awareness was still building, is the kind of bet a marketing team can only place once or twice a year. GymBeam wanted to place it with conviction, not hope.
They brought Behavio in early to pre-test the creative before media spend went live, and to track brand awareness on either side of the campaign. The two studies became the spine of how they ran the launch.
Pain Point
Going big in a new market puts a lot of weight on two questions, and most teams only get to answer the second one.
Before launch: is this creative actually strong enough to carry the investment? Influencer-led ads can score well in the room and fall flat on screen. In a market where GymBeam was still building recognition, a weak ad would have been an expensive way to learn.
After launch: did the campaign move awareness? Without a clean before-and-after read, "it felt like it worked" is the best answer you get. That is not enough to defend the next budget cycle.
GymBeam wanted both questions answered with data they could act on.
"Going big early in a new market is a risk. Behavio showed us it paid off — and now we have a baseline to build on.”
Behavio's Insight
Behavio’s pre-testing showed the creative was a hit, especially among category buyers — the people most likely to convert. Viewers found the concept both original and easy to follow, with the core message (that GymBeam products are “for every sport”) coming through clearly.
The structure of the voiceover played an important role: each supplement was paired with a specific activity, helping anchor the product benefit in real-life use cases. The ad’s humor also landed well, driving a strong emotional response with almost no negative reactions.
Behavio's read was clear: green light the launch, and keep Lazzarin front and center because he was already a recognized face for the audience.
After the campaign wrapped, Behavio tracked brand awareness again. Awareness doubled in a single quarter.
Associations with "quality goods" and "good prices," the two messages GymBeam set out to land, both grew. Lazzarin was the most recalled element of the campaign, named unprompted by a large share of respondents — the same signal the pre-test had pointed to, now confirmed in market.
The two studies told one story. The pre-test said the creative would work and the ambassador would carry. Brand tracking supported both, and gave GymBeam a defensible baseline for the next campaign.
Outcome
GymBeam launched with confidence, not hope. They renewed the partnership with Lazzarin on the back of evidence from two independent studies.
The brand is now entering the next phase of Italian expansion with double the awareness they started with, and a baseline to measure the next push against.
👉 Planning a big campaign in a new market? Book a demo with Behavio.
