DTC marketing strategies—why Headspace is crowdsourcing talent

Welcome to DTC Marketing Wins, a recurring series examining the successful marketing tactics of DTC brands. Each highlights a recent strategy from a brand that can provide a roadmap for other marketers looking to foster consumer connections in innovative ways. The brand Founded in 2010 originally as an events space, Headspace quickly evolved into a meditation app. After steady growth, it skyrocketed to prominence during the pandemic, when anxious consumers under lockdown were desperate for calm and sought out the brand’s soothing stress-relief offerings. Headspace is now offered in 200 countries and has had over 70 million downloads of its app. The Santa Monica, California-based direct-to-consumer brand has branched into brand collaborations with the likes of Sesame Street, Cotopaxi and Nike with products, app integrations and content. Five years ago, Headspace began working with Hyatt Hotels to bring guided meditation and sleep content to employees and customers at the hotel chain’s 800-plus properties. This year, Headspace is highlighting content in what Senior VP of Marketing Connie Chan Wang calls “need states.” For example, the brand is currently focusing on sleep; later this year, it will provide resources for anxiety and then for parenting in August. The idea Ahead of Sleep Awareness Week, March 9-15, Headspace wanted to try something different to promote its brand and also connect with its community. The brand’s social team remembered an August post by TikTok creator Joey Kidney in which he provided an unsolicited audition video to voice content on Headspace. The idea inspired Headspace to crowdsource the voice talent for an upcoming sleep podcast. “All of us have met people who, when we hear their voice, we go, ‘Oh gosh that person has such a soothing voice, I could fall asleep to that,‘” said Wang. “That was the OG insight.” The offer Headspace invited its community to audition for the chance to narrate the next “sleepcast” in a competition called the Headspace Dream Team Contest. The brand offered participating U.S.-based members a guided script and asked them to submit a self-taped video on TikTok or Instagram from March 10 to 23. “This was our first time doing a social media talent search and we weren’t totally sure what to expect,” said Wang. Headspace posted about the contest on its owned channels but put very limited paid media behind the offering. Instead, the social media team created a lo-fi reality show video that went behind the scenes with the Headspace employees involved with the app. The video also gave tips on how narrators should think about being a brand voice. In addition, Headspace partnered with Kidney to further promote the contest and tapped Hyatt to amplify the effort as well. The takeaway The number of auditions exceeded Headspace’s expectations. The brand’s audio team and social team worked as judges to narrow the 400 submissions down to eight top submissions. Then, Headspace asked its social community to vote on their favorites. “People were so creative in their personal stories and personal lives,” Wang said. The brand plans to fly the winner to its Santa Monica offices to record later this month. In May, Headspace will announce the winner and introduce the recorded sleepcast. Wang said the initiative has introduced the possibility of crowdsourcing talent for other programming. “Generally, we want to do more to activate our community,” she said. “Our members are so passionate and loyal about the brand because we meet them in moments of real mental challenges and help solve those challenges.” She pointed to a Headspace Reddit community and a Subreddit dedicated specifically to sleep. “It does start with the fandom and being able to tap into that passion,” Wang said. “Ultimately, it is about that emotional connection to our brand and being able to expand that more broadly to those that haven’t experienced us yet.”

DTC marketing strategies—why Headspace is crowdsourcing talent

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