The impact of authentic content

While Simplyhealth had strong reach and brand awareness via The Great Run sponsorship, they needed a way to land their message to deliver a real business impact. They sought meaningful and engaging content to deepen understanding of their relevance for the everyday runner and drive brand favourability. 

The Insight

There is nothing worse for runners and athletes than missing the mark on their personal fitness goals due to a lack of knowledge of how to best approach and achieve their particular challenges. Every runner wants credible, accessible and relatable support and guidance on their individual paths to success.

The Big Idea

Working across Hearst's leading health and fitness brands - Runner’s World, Women’s Health and Men’s Health - we developed Simplyhealth's first-ever content partnership; a content plan packed with a wealth of motivational and practical training advice, effectively utilising our context and authority.

Throughout the content we integrated messaging designed to showcase how Simplyhealth services are there to support runners, ensuring they are in the best position to stay fit and healthy throughout their training. 

The content journey was built around 3 genuine goals for 3 Hearst editorial ambassadors, each of whom was actually facing these challenges. Showing real people and their personal experiences as they prepared for their running events by following Simplyhealth support plans, provided an authenticity that runners could relate to.

Content focused on social videos with tips and tricks tailored specifically to our audience’s needs. The real-life ups, downs and needs our editorial team experienced on their own journeys made for compelling, shareable content.

Hearst’s digital targeting solutions ensured strong delivery to a running audience, optimising the best performing creative.   

The content exceeded all expectations, positioning Simplyhealth as a champion of everyday runners, and proving that authentic content has the power to create engagement and understanding.

Furthermore, the success of this partnership became the catalyst for Simplyhealth launching a new product directly targeted at runners  - The Simplyhealth Active plan - which was developed with input and feedback from our influential editors.