One 12 months ago, British broadcaster ITV dug deeper into the ultra-lucrative and swiftly diversifying business of wellbeing with online platform, Woo. Merging retail with a multimedia magazine style format, it follows the 2021 launch of ‘mindful media’ concept Unwind with ITV (ultra-soothing programming for the 4-5am graveyard slot) but is devoted to the especially polycrisis-beleaguered Gen Z and covers categories including travel, sex, and ‘space’ (anything from running routes to private refuge) in its redefining of how young people access, understand and imbibe their wellbeing.
Via a team of 40, that experimental approach to wraparound wellness through an interesting, forward-thinking and sometimes WTF bonkers pop cultural lens has already garnered 208 million monthly impressions across its social and digital channels and 5.4 million video views – based on roughly 250 social media posts and 12-20 editorial stories weekly, plus a few TV-style tentpole shows per quarter and a cluster of celeb-fronted monthly content.
There’s also a digital marketplace of 4300 products via 170 brands and, leaning into the mountain of Gen Z insights its hungrily amassing, Woo Studio – a latest proprietary creative agency and incubator, providing white label content and collabs (Virgin 02 and Latest Balance have already indulged).
With a 12 months in review, here’s the unique rationale, what’s resonating and where it’s going next:
Finding the Feelgood, Redefining Wellbeing for “Generation Anxious”
Helmed by award-winning London-based, Asian-Australian strategic marketing don Stephen Mai, it’s mission to “turn generation anxious into generation zen” by making wellness “discoverable, aspirational and culturally relevant” not only draws on the post-pandemic fetishization of wellness as a type of protection and self-optimisation, but an elasticated understanding of what wellbeing actually means, particularly to young people: an enormous 76% of Gen Z (and in addition millennials) now perceive wellness to be ‘anything that makes you are feeling good’.
In accordance with Mai most approaches to wellness are misaligned with youth culture, “making Woo about taking the rigidity out of wellbeing,” and, somewhat paradoxically considering the semi-cosmic name, “breaking down the barriers to entry which have made it feel alienating, inaccessible or someway ‘Goopified’.” Obviously, Goop it (mostly) is just not – the vibe is so Y2K cyber-psychedelic it’s borderline Dazed Beauty, unsurprisingly considering Mai sees Woo as, “what i-D or Dazed [& Confused] would appear like in the event that they’d been invented today” – but there are a couple of price points that might give Gwyneth a run for her money.
What it does is recognise wellness as being so top of Gen Z minds now that it’s permeated audiences every day pop cultural diets, with the dominant on focus mental, spiritual, sexual and the lesser-discussed points of physical health: “91% of Gen Z are stressed, 23% to unmanageable levels. If the last generation was about adrenaline and large energy, this one is about an lively serenity.”
Stephen Mai: The Man with the Plan
A protracted-time disciple on the coalface of youth culture, Mai has loads of previous in each creating platforms corralling teen cool, and debunking youth stereotypes (“generally I don’t think individuals are good at marketing to young people, because they treat the group like a monolith”). He began his profession at MTV Australia where he excelled at orchestrating client partnerships (he was originally a traffic assistant, inputting TV ads right into a scheduling spreadsheet), before moving onto Vice Media UK, then entertainment media group LADBible where he transformed “a misogynistic, click-bait-centric website” into a web-based publisher celebrated for its influential and irreverent social change campaigns.
Roles at online music broadcaster & club promoter Boiler Room and Bali-based sustainable lifestyle brand Potato Head followed however it was LADBible that proved the youth appetite for social activism done with style (“our UOKM8? Campaign drove the conversation around young people and mental health at scale, shifting media agency conversations”) while the vestiges of Vice-born stress spawned Woo. Affected by burnout, hypnotherapy provided him “with complete clarity,” and a newfound tool “that took away any self-limiting beliefs” – a transformative experience of the type he desired to share with others.
Woo’s first incarnation was as a CBD drink, before Mai realised it necessitated a full media platform to do it justice – a chance that serendipitously presented itself via ITVs latest media incubation hub, Studio 55 Ventures.
People & Formats Reaching Places Other Wellness Brands Cannot
Mai, arguably the master media remixer, has all the time posited Woo as a hub for cutting-edge, cross-genre experimentation – mixing music, filmmaking and unorthodox “wellness talent” to birth exciting yet accessible health regimens (“the wellness rituals which can be designed to assist individuals are rarely accessible to younger generations”).
Key projects include the Higher Frequencies series – ASMR infused music tracks by rising stars Beabadoobee, Vegyn, and Ashnikko where each artist’s track has been integrated with sonic frequencies able to causing specific physiological changes within the listener. Also look to actor Jamie Flatters, star of the Avatar franchise sequels, who is just not only developing a hypnotherapy video for the location but can also be writing, directing, and starring in a series of short movies about Gen Z self-love.
There’s also a transparent opportunity to determine a youth-driven alternative to traditional journalistic thought leadership – a latest vibe for news media, in case you will – evidenced in Woo’s talk show style Youtube TV series No Incorrect Answers. Funny yet incisive, it’s has flavours of Channel 4’s seminal noughties show Pop World with Simon Amstell and Miquita Oliver) and is presented by the superb David Larbi, Callum Mullin and Klaudia Fior. The latter is a young political journalist with a biting street smart edge who’s been extremely vocal about her disdain for the BBC. All were ostensibly solid via TikTok. “We generally need to work with individuals who have strong voices and aren’t classically trained, there may be definitely an appetite to explore different pathways for talent,” says Mai diplomatically.
Formats are ultra-flexible, with Mai confirming that long and short-form content, written and visual, all perform well according to Gen Z’s infamously paradoxical appetites: “do not forget that that is the generation that kick-started binge-watching eight hours of TV, but which also induced a three-second recognition [make it comprehensible at speed or don’t bother] rule.”
The Rules: Inspiration, Optimism
OP, Actual Solutions
While rules may appear anathema to a Gen Z platform founded on what Mai himself deems “a maverick mentality” the difficulty with stretching the parameters of wellbeing to the extent that a feature about The Cat Boosting Polish Tourism (yes, that was an actual piece of content) is that a.) legitimate expertise and a vaguely core focus still matters and b.) the web isn’t exactly wanting cheeky cats. So, what are the principles for keeping Woo’s USP and credibility intact, keeping each audiences and brand partners on the hook?
In accordance with Mai, “Inspiration, optimism and being solutions-focussed” is the in-house mantra. However the Polish cat vid, I maintain, surely wouldn’t have passed the last test? Mai concedes that in these early days there’s a mandatory gaming of the social algorithms, where striking ‘highly trending’ content chords is crucial to leveraging “basic joy triggers – memes or micro bits of creative inspiration bringing people into our ecosystem, particularly those that may not have found us otherwise, but may benefit from what we do”. He refers to such uninterested mass audiences as its “on a regular basis heroes.”
An article on rapper ASAP Rocky watching his partner Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime performance is similarly light on solutions by anyone’s standards, but most stories do offer pragmatic direction, insight, or the solace of some myth-busting. Random finds with promise include ‘Shower Songs: An Intro into the World of Rain Music’ (“a lifesaver for insomniacs and an unusual source of community”), ‘How Young Singles are Avoiding Dating Burnout’ and indie punk rapper Master Peace’s quiz answers discussing his ADHD.
“Gen Z have grown up armed with an awareness of and the language of self-help, talking about triggers, holding space and having the ability to name conditions, but they don’t necessarily the solutions or skills to truly help themselves. If we can provide people tools to handle and improve their wellbeing, then possibly it’s the muse to helping create a more collaborative, less divisive world,” states Mai.
The “Third Reality” Approach: Counter-Narratives Avoid Victimhood or Hopelessness
Mai often refers to Woo as a “third reality” (sometimes it’s the “wooniverse”) in relation to its desire to generate optimism without nixing the cynicism vital to galvanising social change. Or inadvertently invoking a dangerous sense of victimhood; he’s keenly aware of how labelling Gen Z ‘Gen Anxious’ could easily stoke a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“It’s really about making a space between where we’re and we would like to be – a form of third reality that neither denies what’s happening on the earth but nor does it labour probably the most difficult, distressing elements to the extent we fuel a way of helpfulness,” says Mai, acknowledging relatively modern phenomena equivalent to Eco Anxiety – paralysis within the face of climate crisis – impacting teens. “We aren’t attempting to be the voice of a generation but culture does drive motion and alter. We work really hard to not make the issues feel so big that folks can’t engage anymore. We wish to influence people subconsciously.”
No matter the way it’s branded, it smells like meta-modernism, the term coined by Dutch cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker to explain the shift in contemporary culture to a hopeful type of realism (“oscillating between sincerity and irony”) and is most poignantly delivered via what Mai calls its “counter-narratives” – stories that positively reframe talking points or groups of individuals subject to contention, mystery, or marginalisation.
Key examples include a photograph story showing the enjoyment of being transgender (“trans people how they need to be seen”) young photographer Joe Puxley’s enchanting images capturing the emotional tumult of adolescence and the documentary series Life in Love – an unusual exploration of sex, sexuality, and intimacy “where supposedly salacious relationships, equivalent to the hetero couple into kink were revealed in a way more tender, authentic, nuanced way, subverting preconceptions.”
The Latest Anxieties: Woo’s Most-Wanted Trends & Topics
With a 12 months’s price of knowledge under its belt, that are the most popular trends, most queried ideas, or resonant topics? Mai reveals it’s currently sobriety, particularly ‘how one can club sober’, sex, identity (accurate representation of oneself and one’s community perceived as a key tenet of wellbeing) and sleep.
Many dovetail with its aforementioned concentrate on counter-narratives (“we did a complete series of sex diaries which were essentially about dispelling the notion that everyone seems to be having more sex than you”) while Mai says, “there may be also conversation around menstrual health that should be had and the way it affects women and maybe how beneficial it could be for relationships if men had a greater understanding of it.”
The Woo Shop: Products, Price Points & Collabs
Shopping the ‘Wooniverse’
ITV / Woo
Considered “the physical manifestation of the location,” retail has underwritten Woo from day one (“too many individuals do something interesting after which attempt to monetize it later, we desired to create a totally integrated model from the beginning”) but shall be ramping up significantly, as “the important thing revenue driver for our media proposition”. At first glance, it’s more Goop than Boots, however the figures reveal that 37% of products sit within the £21-£50 ($26-$62) price range, 15% are under £20 ($24) and a few go as little as £2 ($2.50).
Regardless, the complete marketplace is wrapped in a consciously soft sell (“no purchase mandatory” is an over-slogan) based on the belief those that can, will. Brands include natural supplements and healing remedies manufacturer Ross J. Barr, sex toy label So Divine, Moonbird handheld breath coaching tech and Veja sneakers.
It’s currently exploring proprietary products based on site insights and collaborative ranges, more than likely in (Mai’s favourite) category streetwear, engineered by its specialist marketplace and consumer products team.
Woo at Large? Mai Eyes IRL Wellness Ideas
Where Woo hasn’t gone as yet is near the socialisation of self-care; there’s no community as such beyond a swelling fanbase of people. Beyond a fleeting mention of the metaverse (potentially ideal for Woo, due to its multisensory canvas and cross-sector history) it’s a premise Mai moots most strong via a discussion of sauna culture, which he considers a key vehicle for bringing body positivity out of the relative confines of representation and into the actual world.
Citing the Vibali sauna in Berlin he says, “I believe we want some form of mainstream movement for destigmatising on a regular basis shame related to the body, particularly as regards British attitudes towards nudity. Body neutrality and positivity is a wellness trend I’d wish to see come to fruition as an evolution of popular culture. For the longer term of Woo, I see value in creating physical wellness spaces on the intersections of art, music and culture – resorts representing that ‘wooniverse’ or third reality – with which individuals have the identical affinity as festivals. The goal is to make wellness a subculture like music or fashion that gets people to integrate every part from meditation to sound healing into their lives with ease.”
Woo promoting large on the streets of London
ITV / Woo
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