The best brands build communities. Here’s how they do it

[Alisha Marie] Perfect, we are recording.

[Gail Tifford] Okay.

[Music]

[Alisha Marie] Hey, my name is Alisha Marie. I am a

[Alisha Marie] professional

[Alisha Marie] Youtuber, influencer, content creator.

[Gail Tifford] Hi everybody. I'm Gail Tifford, the Chief

[Gail Tifford] Brand

[Gail Tifford] Officer at WW, formerly Weight Watchers,

[Gail Tifford] and

[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie] I'm so excited to be here. I'm so honoured

[Alisha Marie] that I'm

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] able to be here with Gail. She said it

[Gail Tifford] great. Should I just go in?

[Music]

[Alisha Marie] Thank you so much for being here. I'm

[Alisha Marie] curious what you think about the term

[Alisha Marie] health and wellness?

[Alisha Marie] It sounds so broad and it means

[Alisha Marie] something completely different to

[Alisha Marie] everyone. What does it

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] necessarily mean to you? For me, what

[Gail Tifford] wellness means is really my

[Gail Tifford] mind, body, and soul kind of all working

[Gail Tifford] together. We've banned the words ‘before’

Gail Tifford] and ‘after’

[Gail Tifford] because we feel like it’s kind of dirty. So

[Gail Tifford] we talk about it as ‘now’ and ‘then.’

[Alisha Marie] For a fitness and health brand to say,

[Alisha Marie] “Hey, you're beautiful no matter what size

[Alisha Marie] you are,” no one's doing that. I love this

[Alisha Marie] wave of body positivity,

[Alisha Marie] of people showing that, and showing

[Alisha Marie] stretch marks, and showing real before

[Alisha Marie] and afters, where

[Alisha Marie] you have your leggings and you pose

[Alisha Marie] like a fitness pose, but then you put

[Alisha Marie] them down and show that. I think

[Alisha Marie] that's what people are missing in the

[Alisha Marie] health and fitness

[Alisha Marie] industry, and I love that you guys are

[Alisha Marie] really tapping into that when not a lot

[Alisha Marie] of other people

[Alisha Marie] are. To see a brand doing it because they

[Alisha Marie] actually believe, that I think speaks

[Alisha Marie] volumes.

[Gail Tifford] We're really focused on, as we talk to

[Gail Tifford] new audiences,

[Gail Tifford] really coming right out to bust those

[Gail Tifford] myths head on.

[Gail Tifford] When I look at your community, they're

[Gail Tifford] rallying around you, but they're also

[Gail Tifford] rallying around

[Gail Tifford] your point of view around health and

[Gail Tifford] wellness.

[Alisha Marie] I think honestly trust is the biggest

[Alisha Marie] thing. I think getting, like you said, a

[Alisha Marie] more diverse audience, you know, people

[Alisha Marie] who are

[Alisha Marie] super into fitness, as well as people who

[Alisha Marie] have never worked out in their life to

[Alisha Marie] show them how

[Alisha Marie] it is for everyone. Again, there's just so

[Alisha Marie] much

[Alisha Marie] noise and so many articles and different

[Alisha Marie] things being thrown at everyone

[Alisha Marie] all the time, so people are just looking

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] for honesty. You talked about trust and

[Gail Tifford] that is

[Gail Tifford] at the core of what our brand is, and I

[Gail Tifford] think it's really important that

[Gail Tifford] in this day and age brands are

[Gail Tifford] transparent. I think the thing about

[Gail Tifford] YouTube and the video format of

[Gail Tifford] storytelling

[Gail Tifford] you can't photoshop videos. That is what

[Gail Tifford] is

[Gail Tifford] so compelling about the platform

[Gail Tifford] is that authenticity and just

[Gail Tifford] you know people really being able to see

[Gail Tifford] you, versus a perfectly photoshopped,

[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie] you know, edited photo. Thinking back to

[Alisha Marie] the 90s for instance, that would have

[Alisha Marie] been a brand's worst nightmare is

[Alisha Marie] getting video footage of what it's

[Alisha Marie] really like.

[Alisha Marie] However, now it's the complete opposite

[Alisha Marie] and using that to your advantage to show

[Alisha Marie] ‘Hey, this is real results.’ Watch this

[Alisha Marie] video, it's not photoshop.

[Gail Tifford] We're learning a lot from our members,

[Gail Tifford] but we're also learning a lot from your

[Gail Tifford] generation

[Gail Tifford] I mean with your subscribers growing, how

[Gail Tifford] do you

[Gail Tifford] use them as a feedback tool? Like are you

[Gail Tifford] constantly

[Gail Tifford] hearing what they have to say and then

[Gail Tifford] using them to generate

[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie] ideas around content? I've learned so

[Alisha Marie] much from my viewers over the years,

[Alisha Marie] and I think one of the number one things

[Alisha Marie] is that they love being included.

[Alisha Marie] Whether it's using the same hashtag.

[Alisha Marie] Whether it's even you just being active

[Alisha Marie] and liking, or even just asking them, ‘Hey

[Alisha Marie] guys,

[Alisha Marie] I'm really torn. Which song do you like

[Alisha Marie] better?’ What do you like?

[Alisha Marie] They love that so

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] much. When we were

[Gail Tifford] moving from Weight Watchers to WW, we

[Gail Tifford] actually

[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie] did the same thing. Oh my god!

[Gail Tifford] We started with our community.

[Alisha Marie] They're the ones who are telling their

[Alisha Marie] friends about me. They're the ones who

[Alisha Marie] are

[Alisha Marie] giving me video ideas and telling me, ‘Hey,

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] you should do this.’ Overwhelmingly, our

[Gail Tifford] members were like

[Gail Tifford] we think this is so much more than just

[Gail Tifford] weight. This is about,

[Gail Tifford] you know, our overall wellness and it's

[Gail Tifford] about what you put into your body, but

[Gail Tifford] how you move your body, and how your mind

[Gail Tifford] supports that.

[Gail Tifford] What we see happening is that health and

[Gail Tifford] wellness has become a necessity. It's not

[Gail Tifford] a luxury anymore,

[Gail Tifford] and people need to take care of

[Gail Tifford] themselves so that they can take care of

[Gail Tifford] the people around them.

[Music]

[Alisha Marie] I actually would love to hear your

[Alisha Marie] perspective on

[Alisha Marie] having an app, and what you envision

[Alisha Marie] obviously that app and tool to do

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] with your brand? The brand started out

[Gail Tifford] like a real,

[Gail Tifford] in real life community. And then, when we

[Gail Tifford] launched the app,

[Gail Tifford] because of the fact that those communities are really

[Gail Tifford] in the DNA of the brand,

[Gail Tifford] it was really critical that we create

[Gail Tifford] some sort of community within

[Gail Tifford] the apps, a virtual community. I can imagine

[Gail Tifford] it's pretty similar to

[Gail Tifford] to the community you have with your

[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie] followers. The number one thing I love so

[Alisha Marie] much

[Alisha Marie] is finding out that fans have become

[Alisha Marie] best friends because of me. Like they met

[Alisha Marie] online because of

[Alisha Marie] my videos, and now they're best friends.

[Alisha Marie] And I can only imagine it being the

[Alisha Marie] exact same way for WW, and I think

[Alisha Marie] that's

[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford] such an awesome tool. You know it

[Gail Tifford] keeps them going and it

[Gail Tifford] is, you know, you feed off the energy

[Gail Tifford] and the support

[Gail Tifford] of people who are on the exact same

[Gail Tifford] journey with you.

[Alisha Marie] I learned so much today. I think Gail is

[Alisha Marie] such a boss

[Alisha Marie] lady, and I love how transparent she was.

[Alisha Marie] Seeing how she's been able to come

[Alisha Marie] and completely turn a brand around for

[Alisha Marie] the better, and

[Alisha Marie] is just so open and honest with

[Alisha Marie] everything, I'm really excited just

[Alisha Marie] to see where WW goes.

[Gail Tifford] I loved speaking to Alisha today. I love

[Gail Tifford] how she continues

[Gail Tifford] to reinvent herself with her audience

[Gail Tifford] and how they are

[Gail Tifford] so welcoming and appreciating. I can

[Gail Tifford] understand why millions of people

[Gail Tifford] follow her every day, and I think that I

[Gail Tifford] am probably going to be her number one

[Gail Tifford] biggest fan from now on.

[Gail Tifford] Well this is the reason why you heard

[Gail Tifford] all of the noise

[Gail Tifford] in the background so you can thank

[Gail Tifford] Baby Kanga for that.