Weight Watchers kicks off 2012 TV ad and social media campaign

Weight Watchers UK kicks off its first TV and social media campaign of 2012, and the timing couldn't have been better as we see in the New Year.   Marketing magazine reported the £28 million video song campaign devised by Saatchi & Saatchi in mid-December 2011, and the campaign has certainly started in earnest.  Introduced to its wider audience with a press release distributed (01 January 2012) at 00:01 GMT it points consumers to a YouTube song and Weight Watcher social channels, in which the dieting brand hopes to inspire audiences from the first day of the year.

Fronted by ex Mis-Teeq MC/singer, Strictly Come Dancing winner and judge Alesha Dixon, the ad featuring 'real men and women' was released on YouTube first on the 19 December.  Its TV debut was on ITV, Channel 4 and other commercial channels as a full three-minute ad between 18.45 and 19:00 today.  The song will also be available to download from iTunes from today, in which 25p from each sale is going to Weight Watchers? chosen charity, Tommy?s.  Described as a pop video style ad, 180 Weight Watchers members lip sync to a song entitled 'Do it our way (play)' in which Dixon wrote and cameos in the video.

With supporting videos about members uploaded to YouTube two weeks ago, it will be interesting to see how how this campaign unfolds and how social media may be integrated further.  You can't beat a real-life story and it's evident this is in the forefront of this activity.  "This ad marks the beginning of a new loud, proud and playful Weight Watchers brand campaign. It blends our members' real life stories and experiences about what losing weight means to them with Alesha's big personality and voice. It's the biggest expression of weight loss success we've ever delivered," comments Andrew Knight, senior vice president of Weight Watchers UK.

The campaign is supported by a Weight Watchers website, presence across Facebook (28,394 fans), Twitter (7,387 followers) and dedicated YouTube pages (seven subscribers and 1,591 video views) and content.  The ad strives to tap into the psyche of the beginning of the year, tuning into resolutions, new starts or maintaining existing positive direction from 2011.  Weight Watchers will be keen to hold onto existing members and indeed sign up new ones, helping them to lose weight and keep it off.   As also reported by Marketing magazine, Weight Watchers has also partnered with LA Fitness in a 12-month deal starting from January 2012, including a joint ?Get Active? campaign, timed to coincide with the run up to the Olympics.  With just over 400 views of the song at the moment, it will be interesting to see the impact of the other channels will have on the video views across YouTube, iTunes download, particularly from the television advertising.  

With plenty of back stories already present in the Play Weight Watchers YouTube channel, the challenge will now be how can the brand will build, sustain and nurture future activity.  Given the budget for the campaign there will be more eyes on this to see how the early start pans out for the brand as many around the UK nurse hangovers.

Although Dixon has many strings to her bow, a reasonable following with 143,224 fans on Facebook, 164,154 followers on Twitter and growing, she's unlikely to achieve a number one with this, but how do you think the overall campaign will fair?  Not only across social media channels, but signing up new members, keeping existing ones and turning a profit.

More recently, Dixon has left Strictly Come Dancing and is set be a a new judge on Britain's Got Talent (BGT) along with Amanda Holden, Simon Cowell (the show's creator) and David Walliams.

Do It Our Way (Play) by Alesha Dixon featuring real members of Weight Watchers

Article first appeared on the Elemental blog.