Athletic Greens - the company that sponsored so many influencers that it resulted in a new category of videos where unsponsored creators reviewed the Athletic Greens AG1 product for free. This ability to translate your ad spend into a viral piece of organic content is the influencer marketing dream!

This ability to translate your ad spend into a viral piece of organic content is the influencer marketing dream!

I crawled the internet to build a deeper understanding of what Athletic Greens did to make their influencer marketing campaigns a viral hit. Read on as I share the types of YouTube channels they sponsored, the formats of their ads with each content creator, and what made their campaigns so successful!

Brand Description

Athletic Greens is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce company that specializes in selling nutritional goods. Their main product is called AG1, which promises an array of health benefits packaged in a daily scoop of green powder.

Athletic Greens AG1 Product Benefits

Influencer Portfolio

As a frequent YouTube consumer, Athletic Greens was one of the first companies that came to mind for this case study. Even though they sponsor some of my favorite YouTubers, I was still surprised by how diverse their portfolio of content creators really is. Below are examples of content creators they sponsored grouped by content category.

Fitness

Barbend: Barbend's focus on strength training, weightlifting, and nutrition aligns well with Athletic Greens' brand as a health and fitness company.

SanneVloet: Lifestyle channel about health, fitness, and the fashion industry. Sanne being a former model often shares nutrition and fitness tips with her audience.

Sports

WatchMomentum: Content on baseball and trick shots that likely attracts a male audience segment that enjoys sports.

EricKarlsson: EricKarlsson’s audience of rock climbers and fitness enthusiasts is all about recovery and AG1 messaging is well-aligned. This audience is extremely loyal and likely to convert.

Film and Animation

DanMurrellMovies: Content on movie reviews and analysis. This one surprised me, but it’s clear that his audience is valuable based on audience loyalty, consistent viewership, and engagement rates.

Science

hubermanlab: Andrew Huberman’s content focuses on medical education, sports medicine, neuroscience, and brain health. At over 3m subscribers, this is the largest - and likely most expensive - channel in this list, but Huberman’s reach is vast.

BrainSuttererMD: BrainSuttererMD's content on sports medicine and rehabilitation can provide valuable insights to Athletic Greens' target audience of health-conscious individuals.

Finance

SolvingTheMoneyProblem: SolvingTheMoneyProblem's content on personal finance and investing will likely attract an individual that priorities their health and being in-shape.

Self-Improvement

TomBilyeu: AKA Impact Theory, their content on self-improvement, mindset, and motivation can resonate with Athletic Greens' target audience interested in personal growth and wellness.

Outdoors

HeavyDSparks: HeavyDSparks' content on automotive and off-road adventures may not directly align with Athletic Greens' brand, but he has an extremely engaged and loyal audience.

StoneyRidgeFarmer: StoneyRidgeFarmer's content on farming, homesteading, and outdoor living can be relevant to Athletic Greens' audience interested in natural and sustainable living.

News

dollemore: Dollemore's content on news, politics, and current events would likely be a campaign focused on brand awareness rather than high conversion rates.

ASMR and Relaxation

TiptoeTingles: TiptoeTingles' content on ASMR relaxation videos can provide a unique and calming experience for viewers, and the large channel size with high engagement rates indicates a dedicated following that may have an interest in health and wellness products like Athletic Greens.

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Based on the products they sell, seeing categories like health, fitness, and nutrition was to be expected. What I didn’t expect was their focus on categories like film, ASMR, and political news!

When launching campaigns across a wide array of categories, it is common to have different objectives across the different categories. Partnerships on content around news and film are likely optimizing for brand awareness, while channels on fitness, sports, and science are optimized for conversion and ROAS ($$$).

Besides the diversity in content categories, I also found the range in channel size to be interesting. Athletic Greens sponsored a ton of micro-influencers that weren't mentioned here, but they also know when to shell out the big bucks for channels like Andrew Huberman’s.

What I didn’t expect was their focus on categories like film, ASMR, and political news!

Ad Format

Athletic Greens utilized a consistent ad format for their YouTube campaigns, delivering a targeted message around their AG1 product, typically at the beginning of the video.

Working closely with content creators, Athletic Greens developed ad reads that felt natural and seamlessly integrated with the content. Each creator received a product gift box that contained the product and branded cups to showcase the product. The video descriptions included an ad link to athleticgreens.com with a channel-specific discount code to help accommodate performance tracking.

By taking this hands-on, natural approach it’s impressive to see how much user-generated content (UGC) they were able to acquire. All of the ad reads can now be repurposed across social platforms and other ad channels.

Key Success Factors

There are several key success factors that have contributed to Athletic Greens' effective influencer marketing campaigns on YouTube:

1. Diverse Range of Partnerships: Athletic Greens has partnered with YouTube channels that cover a diverse range of niches, interests, and demographics. This has allowed them to reach a wider audience and tap into different markets, including fitness, lifestyle, travel, automotive, personal development, and education. Within these niches, they discovered influencers that have a strong, loyal audience.
2. Relevance and Value for Target Audience: Another key success factor is in how they enabled creators to showcase the product in the way they believed was most effective for their audience. Whether it's fitness enthusiasts, ASMR lovers, lifestyle travelers, off-roading adventurers, or personal development seekers, the ad read highlights how Athletic Greens products can benefit their specific audience. This ensures that the promotion is relevant and valuable to the viewers, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion, even while experimenting with unconventional categories.
3. Integration into Content: Athletic Greens' influencer marketing campaigns on YouTube are successful because the brand's products are seamlessly integrated into the content of the partnered channels. There is a consistent gift box that the creators receive which contains not only the AG1 product, but also branded vessels to help showcase the product. The influencers do not force the promotion, but rather naturally incorporate Athletic Greens products into their videos in a non-intrusive way.

Closing Thoughts

Athletic Greens' approach to influencer marketing is super impressive! From discovering YouTube content creators, to launching campaigns across a wide-variety of niches, and even rolling out channel-specific discount codes for advanced performance tracking, these are all great examples to follow for other brands. By effectively targeting different audiences and developing a vast wealth of user-generated content, they have created a marketing machine that maximizes both brand awareness and conversion!

Building such an effective influencer portfolio requires careful planning, selection, and management. This is one of many areas that Dreamwell can help you. Our platform can automate the process of building an influencer roster tailored to your brand's specific needs, helping you save time and money through smart recommendations and pricing algorithms.

Check out Dreamwell and schedule a demo, today.‍