Our partnership with Amazon goes back more than 10 years and has seen the launch of inventive products and the establishment of new categories. So, when they decided to venture into the very crowded health and wellness space through the release of the Amazon Halo, they turned to us to shape their launch and find a way to stand out among the rest.
- Media Relations
- Thought Leadership
- Brand + Visual Identity
Halo presented its own unique challenge. We had to differentiate their AI-powered mobile app that connects to a lightweight wristband from a packed landscape of wearable fitness devices. Having already successfully navigated the category-creating launches of Kindle and the Amazon Echo, we drew on our experience and expertise to build our strategy. Amazon was going to — yet again — create their own category by shifting the Halo from being another fitness product, to being a health and wellness service.
To correctly position this service, we went back into research to perform a full-spectrum media audit, to determine the top-ranking publications and reporters in the healthcare and wearables space.
By operating from this service-driven insight, we targeted top-tier media to receive a pre-briefing that acted as a catalyst for earned coverage. Securing placements in publications like The Verge, Business Insider, CNET, and CNN led to the generation of 229 new pieces of coverage in the first week.
In tandem with our communications strategy, we worked alongside the Amazon Halo design team and our Creative Studio to create custom-built packages that explored Halo’s approach to health and wellness.
Complete with Halo Band, wellness accessories, and playful guides that highlighted how the service shifts the user’s thinking towards incremental improvements, these were sent out for a review program that came pre-GA in November 2020.
By treating the release of Halo no differently than we would any other innovative Amazon product launch, we were able to remain nimble and pivot to support the product with a strategy built on a unique positioning. When it came time to launch, we saw major success, surpassing our goals for message pull-through and solidifying Amazon’s position in the health and wellness space.
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