The global health and wellness industry is on the fast track to growth, and upstart publisher Well+Good is reaping the benefits.
Well+Good began in April 2010 with only 69 subscribers and today, its reach is well over 10 million uniques across digital, social and email, according to Tyler Del Vento, SVP of sales and marketing for Well+Good.
“We’ve seen a big cultural shift where the wellness business is carrying conventional categories,” she said. “If you look at retail, numbers for active wear and clean beauty are up over regular retail.”
The publisher has found its sweet spot creating co-branded sponsorships for some of the biggest brands in the space, including Reebok, Athleta and Just Salad.
Well+Good’s niche readers ensure that sports and fitness brands – as well as mainstream brands looking to capitalize on the health and wellness craze – reach a precise audience in the right context.
“Well+Good has an audience targeted around boutique fitness in New York and LA and a very similar mission to us, which is to help people become the best version of themselves,” said Steve Robaire, director of instructor engagement and global events for Reebok.
Reebok just concluded a three-month co-branded campaign with Well+Good to promote its “America’s Most Inspiring Trainer” contest. The trainer with the most votes from Well+Good readers throughout the campaign will be awarded a yearlong contract with Reebok.
Well+Good also wanted to drum up more members for ReebokOne, Reebok’s community of fitness instructors and trainers.
So, in addition to native content that was housed on Well+Good’s site and amplified through social, Reebok turned email capture into a new media marketing opportunity.
Well+Good created a custom home page takeover for ReebokOne that included a custom API integration with the publisher’s email database. Reebok was the first brand that built a custom API into Well+Good’s home page.
Users who signed up for Well+Good’s newsletter were automatically registered for ReebokOne, essentially exchanging their emails in return for exclusive content.
The brand liked that Well+Good was nimble, even willing to alter its site taxonomy to meet its campaign goals.
“We often have a bigger database than our media partners – our ReebokOne network is at over 150,000 trainers globally – but we’re always trying to reach new niches within the fitness world,” Robaire said.
The co-branded activation delivered 7 million impressions while adding more than 50,000 new email signups for ReebokOne, according to Del Vento.
Although Reebok measured success of this campaign with traditional media metrics such as impressions, it also considered engagement, Robaire said.
The retailer received more than 1,200 nominations for “America’s Most Inspiring Trainer” after Well+Good distributed a dedicated email to 780,000 email subscribers.
Reebok also sought to drive more brand awareness for its instructor community.
“We’re trying to strike between immediate success metrics that are concrete and easy to define and more long-term or difficult-to-define success metrics,” said Matt Blonder, head of global digital brand commerce for Reebok. “We’re not anchoring to one so doggedly that we’re losing sight of another, but we want to maintain a healthy balance.”
Branded content like the Reebok campaign is the bread and butter of Well+Good’s business.
In another campaign, Just Salad customized a Cobb salad in a content collaboration with the publisher, while Juice Generation invented a limited edition Well+Good juice that tied into a “99 Days of Summer” feature.
Well+Good also creates custom surveys and brand studies on behalf of clients tapping into emerging health and wellness trends.
“We have a full content studio with a dedicated team of editors, writers and a video team, and have really made an effort to make it feel organic and seamless,” Del Vento said. “At the end of the day, people come to our properties for a takeaway, [whether that’s through] an article format or a video.
“We make sure branded content is additive, and that it doesn’t dumb down or cheapen our editorial.”
