How TV Advertising Propelled Ro’s Revolutionary Weight Loss Program

Ro is a leading direct-to-patient healthcare company that has used Tatari’s platform for many years. Ro exists to help patients achieve their health goals. Most recently, Ro launched the Body Program, a comprehensive weight loss program that combines revolutionary weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy with coaching, care, and lifestyle changes to help individuals lose weight. Drawing on positive experiences of scaling acquisition with TV ads, Ro made the decision to launch a campaign early on for the Body Program to unlock growth.

Tatari’s team helps with creative approval and optimization 

The Body Program addresses treatment for obesity which has a long history of bias and social stigma. Consequently, the program's advertising campaigns push boundaries and require close collaboration with networks to ensure compliance with message content and clinical substantiation. Tatari’s team facilitated communication between Ro's team and the TV networks to land the right messaging approach for their ad creative.

The Body Program campaign utilized two creatives. Their first creative featured Ro’s CEO and his father, a physician who lost weight with GLP-1s, speaking to the camera. They then supplemented the first ad with a more product-focused creative (below), aimed to be more informative and connect with women (one of their target demographics).

Building a data-driven media plan

To identify the most efficient audience segments, Ro’s growth team collaborated with Tatari to run campaigns on streaming publishers with content catering to women over 35. They also built a media plan consisting of premium linear networks with a female-leaning demographic (e.g. Food Network, HGTV, TLC, and Bravo). This included broader premium placements on shows such as The Bachelor, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Drew Barrymore, The View, and Dr. Phil. Ro rapidly optimized their media plan around both top funnel (Cost per Visitor) and down funnel (Cost per Acquisition) KPIs.

Ro’s results: website conversions, streaming success, and improved search volume

In a mere three months, the initial campaign drove a 50% weekly increase in new patients interested in weight loss treatment through the Body Program. 

Ro's previous products and services skew toward an older demographic (average age of 46) and have seen more success with campaigns on linear TV. Ro’s growth team was pleasantly surprised to see success with this campaign on streaming TV with higher-income viewers who are more likely to match the “early adopter” profile. This unexpected outcome demonstrates the power of leveraging real-time data to inform media plan optimizations rather than relying solely on intuition or past campaign results.

Last but not least, the Ro team also saw a strong halo effect across their digital channels. With the launch of their TV campaign, Google search volume doubled, and there was a 75% increase in the conversion rate from search traffic - evidence that brand awareness was growing too.

Looking forward: TV is a critical component of the overall marketing mix

Armed with invaluable insights from their TV advertising journey, Ro’s team recognizes the indispensable role of TV advertising in amplifying awareness and fostering the adoption of its groundbreaking weight loss treatments. In the future, they will continue to leverage TV as part of their broader marketing strategy and hope to drive even further growth.

“The prescription weight loss category is new and growing quickly.  We were thrilled to see how adding TV into the marketing mix could help drive new patient interest, quickly expanding access to necessary care,” says Neil Walker, Director of Growth Marketing at Ro. “Given the market's potential size, we expect to utilize TV as a key marketing channel.”