Active Overwatch 004

Here’s what we got this week in the business world of health, fitness, & wellness:

🗞️ The Story - Hyrox named F45 an official partner

📈 The Strategy - Liquid IV’s TikTok shop takeover

🛍️ The Product - Elo Smart Nutrition introduced a GLP-1 protein powder

The Story

Hyrox and F45 are partnering to deliver an offering that fits both their current strengths:

1. Hyrox workout popularity
2. F45 in person studio network

The two-year partnership will roll out Hyrox signature workouts to F45 studios weekly, and include some perks for F45 members like Hyrox pre-registration opportunities and exclusive events.

Hyrox has seen a 1,000% increase in participation the last 5 years and over 175,000 people competing in races this year.

But it hasn’t been as bright for F45, who has seen some falloff after growth strategies did not pan out. Including news of restated financials in late 2023 that reported $372M in losses in 2021 & 2022.

At face value, I believe this is a smart play and a partnership that is a win for both parties involved.

F45 is in an effort to revitalize their business, and this gives them a way to leverage the growth and popularity of Hyrox.

While Hyrox gets to take advantage of F45’s in person footprint to expand their reach.

Growth plans stall, pivots happen, periods of decline are inevitable. That’s business. But the reactionary decisions from those things are what make your business last the long haul. And I like what Hyrox and F45 are doing here.

The Strategy

TikTok shop has been buzzing lately, with many brands seeing 6 and 7 figure ROIs by leveraging creators for UGC & affiliate marketing through TikTok shop.

And that includes Liquid IV, who recently decided to join the party, and quickly entered the top 10 seller list on TikTok shop.

Here’s what they did to sell $1.39M worth of product on TikTok shop right away (and this breakdown is from Brian Blum here, credit where credit is due):

1. Seed influencers for affiliate deals. In a custom strategy for TikTok specifically, they seeded influencers that were already top affiliates on the platform.
2. Gave the influencers coordinated talking points for their videos. This way all videos give the same high level message, making consumers hear the message over and over again (nailing the rule of 7 in marketing - on average consumers need to hear about your brand / product 7 times before making a purchase). But at the same time, each influencer could put their own style and personality behind it, which is what they do best.
3. Paired this with an exclusive offer of 20% off & free shipping on TikTok shop ONLY. Leading to more sales directly on TikTok and impulsive purchases because the deal is on that video and if they scroll away they may not see it again.
4. Double down with ad spend. Videos that performed well out the gate, they boosted them with ad dollars. Which resulted in some videos doing north of $100K in revenue.
5. Aftermath network effect. They didn’t just stop when the campaign for the new flavor was over. They had the affiliates keep making videos, just promoting their other original flavors. Keeping their brand top of mind for consumers and leading to more sales.

Here’s my takeaway from all of this:

Seems a lot of brands see the success of others on TikTok shop, and don’t want to miss out on the party.

So they make some basic content and throw it to influencers to promote for affiliate deals - but they don’t see the same results.

And then they chalk up those poor results to the “algorithm”.

Well, this success by Liquid IV was extremely calculated and well thought out.

They had a plan for every step, making it easy for the influencer. And because of that, the influencer had a higher chance of filling their pocket with cash from commission. In turn, making the influencer want to make higher quality content for Liquid IV.

This is a theme for most things in the social and content game. It’s not the algorithm’s fault for your poor performance. It’s most likely that your plan, process, and execution is not quite there for what it takes to reap the reward.

The Product

Elo Smart Nutrition introduced a GLP-1 Protein Powder product to their line of supplements.

And from what I know, this is the first of it’s kind in the supplement world.

GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide), is a hormone produced in the gut that’s released after eating.

It’s main function - suppresses and reduces your appetite.

And just so happens to be the main ingredient in Ozempic… Which is all the rage these days for weight loss.

So Elo’s new GLP-1 Protein Powder aims to both help you build muscle and resist cravings. An attractive duo of effects.

While I don’t know the effectiveness of this product, I think this product can be a HUGE hit.

Ozempic has been the most searched weight loss drug recently, outpacing it’s closest competitor by 300%.

But the way Ozempic is currently prescribed and consumed, it’s not extremely accessible for a large portion of the population.

So by Elo tapping into the main ingredient of Ozempic and changing its form of consumption, it becomes much more attractive and accessible for consumers.

A great lesson on taking a proven product or trend that is exploding, and finding a new way to offer it that serves a different market. Reminds me of Create Creatine Gummies, which I’ve talked about in a past video.