WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app
Promote brands like Nike and Expedia in the app for a cut of sales
Works well; Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com and Amazon signed on
Workedad-monetizationaffiliatepartnerships
What they did
WeWard contacted affiliate platforms and brands directly: 'we would love to promote your brands and take commission on the sales we generate.' Brands like it because they pay only on tracked sales. The wellness/fitness setting is part of the pitch, and WeWard turns down brands whose values clash with a healthy lifestyle. Partners include Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com and Amazon.
What happened
Founder says affiliate works well for WeWard; no numbers shared.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How WeWard Hit 20M Users Without Paid Ads — Yves Benchimol, WeWard“we start by reaching some affiliate platform and some brands indirect to say, "Hey, we would love to promote your brands and take commission on the safe we're going to generate it."”
“We have Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com, all of Amazon, it's part of the clients of reward.”
“this is why sometimes we reject to work with some specific brands because we believe that their value and the way they change the way people act is totally opposite to what we are trying to do”
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More from this episode
- WeWard: Pay a PR agency $3-5K a month instead of buying ads300K downloads in 5 minutes from one TV spot; four years with zero ad spend
- WeWard: Take the PR playbook that worked in France to Italy, Spain and the USWorked in Italy and Spain; flopped in the US despite a top agency
- WeWard: Add in-app ads once you see retention hold after a big traffic spikeAds work well thanks to the large audience; says they pay at ~100K daily users
- WeWard: Add a paid plan that removes ads, after ads and affiliate already workStill a small share of revenue but growing fast
- WeWard: A/B test every feature on steps walked, and don't track time in app
- WeWard: Lock TikTok and Instagram until users hit their walking goalUsers of the feature walk 10% more
- WeWard: Give a famous athlete shares to be the app's face and press voiceHelped press, hiring, CAC and retention; founder says hard to quantify
- WeWard: Put the celebrity's face in ads and onboarding so the app feels localFounder says better ad conversion, lower CAC and higher retention; no numbers
- WeWard: Rebuild onboarding to get users to commit and feel somethingBiggest win of the year: retention and LTV up a lot; unlocked more paid UA
- WeWard: Sell companies step challenges for staff, with charity donationsBiggest fail of the year; couldn't make it work
- WeWard: Keep one app everywhere; swap only the rewards and partner brands per countryLive in 29 countries without local teams
- WeWard: Ask users if blockchain matters; switch to plain points when they shrugUsers happier, engineers relieved; scaling and lag problems gone
- WeWard: Add card collecting with your own characters to keep walkers coming backFounder says retention is the highest it has ever been; no numbers
- WeWard: Move the founder to New York to crack the USSlow first two years; now 'becoming a significant app' in the US