DNAfit
.
Creating a brighter health outlook for millions of people
Genetic testing for health and wellness
DNAfit is a genetics company focused on helping people understand how their body responds to exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress. STANCE founder, Simon Dean, worked as VP Brand at DNAfit from 2018 to 2020, right before the start of COVID.
Working at DNAfit would prove to be perfect the blend of fusing a passion for exercise, health and wellness with a careers' worth of branding and marketing expertise.
testimonial
Brand strategy for DNAfit
Before any work could start on evolving the visual identity, we would need to think carefully about the role DNAfit could play in people's lives. Coming from a sports performance background, we saw the opportunity as becoming more mainstream. Obesity and metabolic diseases are on the increase globally, and we wanted to play a part in educating the market that many everyday illnesses are preventable.
Belief statement
Your body knows best.
Mission statement
To use genetic science and technology to help millions of people live longer, healthier and happier lives.
Did you know?
Evidence has shown that the NHS spends around £10 billion a year on diabetes.
Exploring visual identity solutions
When it came to the rebrand, we were on a budget. The design resource at DNAfit was based in South Africa, and I enlisted a pal, Neil Southwell, to fly out there with me for two weeks to ideate around the identity and find a solution.
Below were the final two routes that we presented to the DNAfit leadership team. The first (on the left), felt more aligned to the mission of bringing health and wellness to millions of people. With the final identity solution chosen, we continued with the brand roll out that would cover everything from website to portal, from packaging to posters, from Instagram to emails... We managed to do it all in three months from start to finish.
Brand launch and comms
Paid Social was a key channel for DNAfit with a high spend every month. The rebrand photoshoot offered a good chance to create some new content for our digital campaigns, for which you can see a draft below.
Woven into the brand launch was a new set of genetic reports concerning sleep and stress, adding on to the existing topics of exercise and nutrition. To mark the product evolution we coined the campaign: Eat fit, Train fit, Feel fit - as shown in the video at the top of the page.
Product marketing and brand architecture
Prior to the rebrand, the products had names like:
—Diet Pro
—Diet Fitness 360
The rebrand offered the chance to align the products behind a simplified and more straightforward nomenclature:
—Diet Fit
—Health Fit
—Pro Fit
The first two being consumer products and the latter being for personal trainers and such. In order to make each offering stand out, we fully examined the genetic trait archive in order to surface genetic intelligence that would be relevant to each audience. For example, we were able to release a new report for Bone Mineral Density that would speak to Health Professionals, looking to sell the product on to their trainees.
Product education
As the portfolio expanded, we realised that we could do more to explain the features of each product. We also faced a headwind in that other competitors had more genetic reports to offer than us. However, in our view, more was not more—what mattered to us was the integrity of the information available.
As such, we made a variety of videos to bring to life each genetic report, especially where we had some IP to share. Below you can see an explanation of the DNAfit Power/Endurance algorithm, a real crowd favourite when it came to genetic results.
Black Friday
As a DTC company, Black Friday was a key date in the diary. In fact, Black Friday into Christmas into New Year was the most important time of the year for us.
For Black Friday 2019, we created a simple set with a local film studio to showcase the product on a selection of pink plinths. Each product was photographed separately and we also created a selection of gifs for use in social and in email. The campaign delivered 1.75x more revenue than Black Friday 2018—a real win!
Key result:
1.75x more revenue in 2019 vs. 2018
DNAfit transitioning to Circle
Towards the end of Simon's time at DNAfit, the UK was tasked with launching Hong Kong's most successful genetic test: CircleDNA. In the UK, we had little control over the branding and only a small budget to work with. However, thanks to the DNAfit CEO's connections, we were able to pull in some VIP friends and create some impactful launch materials.
For Simon, this meant more adventures to South Africa, this time to film rugby legend Bryan Habana to create case study content and b-roll for ads. We also worked with PR agency EMERGE to conduct an influencer campaign and host a launch event at the Science Museum. A great end to a great chapter at DNAfit.
That's a wrap
Simon left DNAfit to set up STANCE, which has manifested in this very website. The relationship with DNAfit would prove to be a lasting one—as COVID hit, Prenetics, the company behind DNAfit would pivot to COVID testing. STANCE would lead on many creative deliverables, from a COVID testing website to testing pods, to creating animations for advertising to brand horse shows!
Read more on Prenetics here.
Thank you DNAfit.
Andrew Steel — Head of Product, DNAfit
