Honored for Outstanding Social Media Strategy for its Execution of Vi Bites^™ Product Launch

Los Angeles, CA – December 15, 2014 – ViSalus’ strategic social media campaign launching Vi Bites in September created big buzz with real results from pre-announcement engagement to the post-launch social interaction. TrackMaven bestows Vi with a 2014 Social Strategy Excellence Honor for outstanding execution of creative social media promotion.

TrackMaven, a premier digital marketing tracking firm, which monitors all web-based promotions and campaigns, recognized the extremely successful results of Vi’s product launch endeavors and honored ViSalus’ outstanding social media strategy with an Excellence Award.

Vi Bites, the new wholesome and nutritious snack line from ViSalus, was officially launched at ViSalus’ annual global event, Vitality 2014. For two weeks leading up to the annual event, ViSalus’ social media team utilized Instagram to build excitement for Vi Bites by unveiling image-based clues for its followers.

Wanting to tease the product without mentioning the Vi Bites name, ViSalus had to think outside the box to develop the #whatsinthebox mystery product clue campaign, which spilled into other social media platforms due to the high amount of followers’ curiosity.
From beginning to end, the results of the successful campaign established much more than big buzz—Vi had quantifiable results. By utilizing TrackMaven’s social media platform, results were not only visible but also trackable throughout the entire campaign. Within the first two days of the product launch, all the Vi Bites products on site were completely sold out, which included over 10,000 boxes. The campaign exceeded the projected monthly sales, and ViSalus increased their Instagram followers by over 1,500 within the first 2 weeks and grew their total Instagram following by over 46%.

“We needed to create enough social media buzz to tease the product before the launch, without revealing too many details, like the product name,” said Ziad Stephan, ViSalus Social Media Marketing Manager. “We had to think of something creative and socially engaging to keep our consumers captivated; so, we set them on a fun digital hunt.” Stephan, who was chosen as a guest speaker at TrackMaven’s National Social Media Summit in New York this October, also stated, “Social media has proven to not only be a powerful way to engage consumers, but also a proven method of directly impacting sales.”

Building off the momentum of the #whatsinthebox, Vi initiated its post-launch promotion called “It’s not you, it’s #vibites,” where consumers create “break-up” videos ending their relationship with unhealthy snacks for their “new love”, Vi Bites. On launch day, 100 break-up videos were created and uploaded, and an additional 380 videos were created throughout the month of the launch.

“It’s great to be recognized for our social media efforts as the Vi Community’s engagement is a reflection of ViSalus and The Challenge,” said Blake Mallen, Vi Co-Founder and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer. “We want to transform Life, Health and Prosperity while creating a strong community culture.”

About ViSalus

ViSalus, Inc. is a healthy lifestyle company that is dedicated to Challenging the World… 10 lbs. at a Time. Founded in 2005, ViSalus develops high-quality weight-management products and nutritional supplements that it markets and sells direct-to-consumers through an international sales force of independent promoters. ViSalus markets its products in North America under the ViSalus^® brand and in Europe under the Vi^™ brand, through the Body by Vi Challenge^®. ViSalus is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and Troy, Michigan. For more information about ViSalus, please visit Vi.com and follow the Vi-Community on Facebook (Facebook.com/Vi) and Twitter (@ViSalus).