Weight Watchers fights for relevance in the Ozempic era

Weight Watchers is reinventing itself with hopes of leading the category in a GLP-1 era, according to chief marketing and consumer strategy officer Nina George.

The 63-year-old brand recently unveiled a new app after a mammoth year marked by a bankruptcy filing and financial restructuring.

George, who joined Weight Watchers late last year, said she’s focused on honouring the brand's credibility and legacy that set it apart from competitors.

“We’re bringing in clinicians and board-certified doctors. These are things we think are adding to the toolkit, along with data,” she told AdAge.

“In our new app, there are ways to bring in all of your wearables and device integrations so we can personalise your weekly journey better.

“We also have a specific fitness method, which we’ve unveiled as the Lifted method. Then there’s access to the best-in-class branded GLP-1 medications.”

Nina George

OpenAI partnership

Weight Watchers recently announced a new partnership with OpenAI under the ChatGPT Health umbrella, allowing GLP-1 users to ask for meal-planning advice.

George said the partnership was another way to reach a new audience, adding that the company will be doing a “lot more” with AI.

“The reason OpenAI came out with this is that there’s a lot of interest in users wanting to get answers to health and wellness questions,” she explained.

“We’re a trusted and proven leader in this space, so we want to be at the forefront with both our engaged members and new users, to make sure what we have to offer is seen as quite differentiated.”

The rebrand

Weight Watchers unveiled a new brand identity last month.

George believes it reflects the balance between old and new and was designed to be experienced through every customer touchpoint.

“Mrs&Mr was definitely a big part of the rebrand. We have several agencies of record for several aspects of marketing,” she said.

“We work with Bindery for our commercials, and we have Horizon Media doing all of our media planning on linear, connected TV and a few other channels as well.”

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