Brand Refresh Helps Pear Health Labs Engage New Audiences
How the fitness brand shifted from consumer workouts to workplace wellness
Overview
Aaptiv, a product of Pear Health Labs, began as a consumer-targeted, audio-forward fitness app. After issues with music licensing, the brand pivoted toward a B2B audience, offering a personalized approach that could boost the value of employer wellness benefits. Amid this shift, the company approached Walker Sands for support in reaching HR leaders, insurance brokers and Medicare plan decision-makers with an updated, unified narrative.
Aaptiv needed to show HR professionals that it was more than just another fitness app — that its personalized, AI-infused approach, extensive gym network, integrated app experience and flexible offerings could help HR leaders improve their wellness plans and boost employee engagement.
The Ask: How might we elevate Aaptiv’s brand expression to better engage B2B audiences?
As it pivoted from the D2C market and a target audience of millennial women, Aaptiv needed a brand that reflected a more mature, well-rounded offering that was also engaging, bold and playful. Entering the B2B space, it became even more important to highlight Aaptiv’s clear differentiator: personalization.
This transition expanded its audience from one clear demographic to a range that spanned from HR leaders to Medicare plan decision-makers. Across demographics, Aaptiv needed to tell a distinct, high-level story that separated it from other fitness plan options and emphasized its accessibility.
How: Use welcoming, supportive copy and bright, active visuals to position Aaptiv as an encouraging wellness partner for employees at any fitness level.
Focusing on Aaptiv’s key differentiators of personalization and accessibility, Walker Sands developed a brand expression dubbed “Let’s Go” that was centered around encouraging, supportive language and active, warm visuals. Leaning into Aaptiv’s role as a coach, the updated brand emphasizes bright, snappy and energetic copy that motivates the audience to “get moving” — whether that be on wellness goals, employee retention efforts or benefits plan development. Messaging also highlighted Aaptiv’s ease of use for people of all levels, establishing it as an easy addition to any wellness plan.
The Walker Sands team developed the brand to emphasize empathy at every stage, positioning Aaptiv as a source of support that “gets it” and meets users where they are. Visually, the brand comes to life through photography that shows the diverse definitions of wellness enabled by Aaptiv and “hand-drawn” embellishments reminiscent of a coach drawing up plays. The updated design style more closely links Aaptiv’s marketing and the app, emphasizing elements of the interface where possible.
In refreshing the brand colors, Walker Sands aimed to preserve Aaptiv’s existing blue by building a complementary palette around it. This palette was designed to function seamlessly across both marketing materials and the app itself. To ensure versatility, we provided a broad range of colors suitable for in-app elements like illustrations and icons. Finally, we established guidelines for using vibrant, high-contrast colors to create a clear visual hierarchy. The creative direction strikes a balance between a polish that helps the brand speak to business audiences and a warm casualness that reflects Aaptiv’s personality and core differentiators.
What: Aaptiv helps with the “how.” All you have to do is get moving.
Aaptiv is fitness for everyone. In designing elevated brand expressions, the Walker Sands team created elements that highlighted its ease and personalization, including a guide for using photo embellishments, distinct background textures and a library of icons representing its offerings. This visual evolution paired with concise, encouraging copy moved Aaptiv from workout app to wellness coach, adding energy and vibrancy to each brand touchpoint.
The Outcome
Walker Sands worked with Aaptiv’s internal creative team to bring the brand to life across channels, including:
- A comprehensive brand manual
- New website graphics
- Refreshed web copy
Using these assets as tools, Aaptiv is freshly empowered to reach out to prospective B2B customers with messaging and visuals that support their goals of driving engagement through wellness benefits. In other words — they’re free to get moving.
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Senior Director, Content