WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app
Take the PR playbook that worked in France to Italy, Spain and the US
Worked in Italy and Spain; flopped in the US despite a top agency
Mixedpr-launchmarket-selection
What they did
After France, WeWard ran the same press approach in other countries, including remote TV/press appearances in Italy and Spain. On moving to the US, Yves hired one of the most expensive PR agencies. US journalists wanted a story beyond 'one of the biggest apps in France' (a notable investor, something crazy), and the unknown French founder and profitable startup was not enough.
What happened
Worked in Italy and Spain; in the US press did not work, which Yves attributes to a more mature market and nobody knowing him, not to the agency or product.
- Stage
- Growth (international expansion)
- Effort
- one of the most expensive US PR agencies
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How WeWard Hit 20M Users Without Paid Ads — Yves Benchimol, WeWard“we did also that in other countries and it works in some country like Italy, Spain, but in the US, unfortunately, we didn't manage to have this success in press”
“I have money and I took one of the most expensive PR agency, but unfortunately it's way more complex. I think it's not due to the PR agency or due to the product. It's just due to the fact that I'm nobody here in this country.”
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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: 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: Promote brands like Nike and Expedia in the app for a cut of salesWorks well; Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com and Amazon signed on
- 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