Gen-X, Millennial Female Opps: WW prepares to launch spring campaign, increased digital spend (Score 33)

WW (formerly Weight Watchers) is wrapping up its winter campaign that focused on promoting the myWW+ program and the addition of celebrity influencer James Corden, per its recent 2020 Q4 earnings report. The company is preparing to launch its spring campaign that will feature Corden in national TV commercials as well as showcase real stories from members. WW is also attempting to reach new audiences, specifically consumers under the age of 45. This makes sense, considering the company has been increasing digital spend, which is typically very effective at reaching younger demographics.  

According to iSpot, WW spent around $36m on national TV ads YTD, a 16% decrease from $41.6m spent during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend increased by 11% from $70.2m in 2019 to $78.3m in 2020. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "This Is Us," "The Resident," "90 Day Fiance," "Prodigal Son" and "The Real." 

Magellan reports WW placed about 170 podcast ads over the last year. 

Per Pathmatics, WW earned 1.5b impressions YTD through desktop video ads (83%), Facebook ads (11%), desktop display ads (3%), Instagram ads (2%) and mobile display ads (1%). It placed the majority (74%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as youtube.com, yahoo.com, facebook.com, hulu.com and instagram.com. It placed the remainder 26%) through a variety of indirect channels onto sites such as yahoo.com, news.yahoo.com, finance.yahoo.com, hulul.com and aol.com. It spent around $15.6m on digital display ads YTD, a significant increase from $4.1m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend jumped 67% from $6.6m in 2019 to $10.9m in 2020. 

Sellers-- WW mainly targets Gen-X and millennial women through national TV and digital display ads. Execs said Q1 spend should be the same as last year; however, it seems the company is shifting dollars from TV to spend on digital ads. It also invests in OOH, print, radio and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Sellers should start reaching out soon to get your share of those spring campaign ad dollars. 

Agency & martech readers-- I believe WW works with Anomaly on creative with media handled by a tag team effort composed of Wunderman Thompson, Neo Media World and Mindshare. Anomaly is approaching the three year average agency tenure in 2021, so consider reaching out offering creative work.