Despite gym closures, the UK’s £3.8B fitness industry saw a surge in health & wellness engagement, with brands like Fabletics, Fitbit, Garmin, Peloton, and Gymshark leading the charge. Key to their success were strategic influencer partnerships and data-driven campaigns, resulting in significant boosts in engagement and brand visibility.
Published On: September 9, 2020
The Fitness Industry in the UK alone is worth a whopping £3.8B, but with lockdown leading to the closure of gyms, the industry was expected to suffer. However, consumers adapted. As they shifted to in-home or outdoor workouts, the buzz surrounding health & fitness began to rise. In fact, Wearisma’s data tracked an 84% increase in Engagements for health & wellness related content in Q1 2020. With the help of successful influencer strategies and clever collaborations, brands have managed to capitalize on this growing buzz. Here are 5 health & wellness brands that have dominated online conversations since the beginning of lockdown.
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Co-founded by American actor and fashion entrepreneur Kate Hudson, Fabletics saw a massive peak in Engagements in August. This peak was a result of the #MadelaineXFabletics collection launch, where the brand tapped up mega-influencer and actor Madelaine Petsch (@madelame) to collaborate on a range of new activewear. The collection, designed to marry function with fashion, was a resounding success with audiences; Madelaine’s campaign content generated a 10.7% Engagement Rate (ER), more than 3x the average ER of all other content mentioning Fabletics.
Working with Madelaine to also promote the collection was a great move. With a massive following of over 20M and an average ER 300x the US average, it was a recipe for success. Over the 7 posts she released in August, online awareness for the collection skyrocketed, generating more than 15M Engagements – that’s more than a third of all Engagements generated by Fabletics’ brand-related content this year!
Fitbit has reaped high results this year with sponsored content. Wearisma’s analytics tool reveals that their average ER for sponsored content was 4.35%, over 4x more than the average ER of their organic content. These figures underscore the importance of data-driven influencer selection in order to maximise brand awareness and campaign performance.
A prime example is Sarah Ashcroft, a UK-based YouTuber with an average ER of 23%, 53x the national average. With just one video, Ashcroft generated 50K Engagements for Fitbit, which was 7% of the total Engagements the brand achieved for sponsored content.
UK YouTube mega fitness influencer and professional golfer Ricky Shiels is a brand ambassador for Garmin. He has been key in driving high levels of Engagements for the brand, creating 93 videos this year, with an average ER of 39%, 90x higher than the UK average. These figures are a result of Garmin’s clever strategy to engage in long-term influencer collaborations. Identifying key performers for your brand and maintaining long-lasting partnerships can be a particularly successful strategy.
Shiels’ videos generated a total of 39.5M views, accounting for 83% of Garmin’s total Engagements. A successful influencer strategy does not always require several influencers, but rather the right influencer that is the perfect fit for the brand to help achieve their goals.
Wearima’s discovery tool will help you find high-performing influencers that match your brand’s DNA.
Peloton has performed very well during lockdown with sales of home fitness equipment increasing by 160% by the end of its first month. Peloton’s recent success has also derived from their online classes, which are included with their members’ subscription.
Turning their fitness instructors into their influencers has been the key to both these classes and Peloton’s overall success. Peloton provided the infrastructure to host online classes with their temporarily out of work fitness instructors during the lockdown. The instructors provided their expertise and influence to promote these classes to their online followings, most of which constitute Peloton’s target market. A prime example of this was US Peloton instructor and macro influencer Leanne Hainsby (@leannehainsby), who produced 130 pieces of content this year, which on average generated an ER of 4.15%, 5x higher than the average of all of Peloton’s content.
The UK-based brand Gymshark has had long-standing success through well-chosen brand ambassadors or ‘Gymshark Athletes’. Understanding that their core target markets are in the UK and USA, they’ve chosen influencers with highly engaged audiences in these regions. Wearisma’s Discovery tool also reveals that their chosen influencers have audiences with a high interest in health and fitness content. A notable example is UK fitness influencer and Gymshark Athlete Matt Morsia (@mattdoesfitness) whose content has an ER of 59%, more than 5x the average of Gymshark’s content and more than 136x the UK average!
COVID-19 forced us all to adapt. Workout routines changed, public interest increased, drastically changing online conversations. We’ve seen that strategic collaborations and data-driven influencer selections have produced exceptional results. Intelligent, data-driven decisions enable brands to maximise the performance of their influencer campaigns.
Keep informed with the latest trends, reports, and case studies from the world of influencer marketing.
Both influencer marketing and traditional advertising can achieve broad reach and foster trust—yet they do so with different strengths and challenges. Influencer marketing builds trust through personal, authentic endorsements that resonate with targeted audiences, often leading to higher engagement and a sense of community. Traditional advertising, on the other hand, leverages the credibility of established platforms and can quickly raise brand awareness across a wide audience.
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WeArisma is a specialist in precision earned media and influencer marketing trusted by leading brands and agencies globally. We leverage cutting-edge AI and unparalleled global data and insights to predict creative strategies that drive brand influence, grow communities, and optimize business results—removing guesswork, reducing risk, and ultimately driving real business growth.
