Issue No. 372 of Fitt Insider zoomed in on healthcare's new main stage: the Super Bowl. Per the issue, consumer health brands treated the Big Game as a battleground for brand awareness, spending eye-watering sums to reach a national audience as patients become shoppers.
The takeaway for any fitness brand is uncomfortable but clarifying. When care is sold, not just delivered, attention is the product — and attention is getting brutally expensive. Cadoo offers a different path to reach: your own members, marketing you for free.
The cost of attention is spiraling
The issue lays out the arms race. Per Fitt Insider, Hims & Hers teased a provocative spot arguing preventative care shouldn't be a luxury good, while Ro tapped Serena Williams for a debut ad reportedly costing up to $20M. Not to be outdone, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly spent nearly $500M and $214M respectively advertising GLP-1s through the first nine months of 2025, per the issue.
That's the paid-media treadmill: rented reach that stops the moment you stop paying. Most fitness brands can't outspend pharma. But they can out-authenticate it — because a friend's real workout video beats a celebrity ad every time.
Trusted reach is shifting to real people
The issue also flagged where genuine influence is heading. Luffu, from Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman, launched a family-care platform built on shared, social health data, per Fitt Insider. And Sekra raised to scale wellness apartments built around in-person community and social experiences, per the issue.
The signal underneath both: people increasingly trust their circle over institutions. Peloton's own renter research, cited in the issue, shows how much consumers now value fitness as a shared lifestyle. Word of mouth, not ad spend, is the durable channel.
Cadoo turns every workout into branded content
Cadoo makes members your marketing team without them even trying. They bet money with friends on reaching fitness goals, and every completed challenge can produce a skinned, shareable video — carrying your brand into their group chats and feeds. That's better-ROI marketing: earned reach from people your prospects already trust.
It's credible because it's verified. Cadoo-verified workouts confirm the effort: the camera counts reps only. Steps and distance come from Apple Health or Google Health Connect. So the content isn't a staged ad — it's a real, competitive workout, made fun and shareable.
Reach that compounds instead of resetting
The issue's framing is that brand awareness and willingness to pay increasingly shape decisions. Paid spots buy a spike. Member-made videos buy a flywheel: each challenge produces new branded clips, each clip pulls in new players, and each new player generates more clips. Reach compounds instead of resetting when the invoice ends.
On our roadmap (not live yet), winnings could convert into credit or perks at your brand, deepening the loyalty that shareable wins already build. Explore it at cadoo.games/brands or reach the team at Tim@cadoo.io.
Frequently asked questions
Why is paid advertising a losing game for most fitness brands?
As Fitt Insider's Issue No. 372 detailed, health brands are spending hundreds of millions to win attention, and rented reach stops when the spend does. Cadoo gives fitness brands earned reach instead — real member workout videos that keep circulating for free.
How do Cadoo shareables market my brand?
Every completed challenge can produce a skinned, branded video that members share to their feeds and group chats. Prospects see a friend's real, verified workout carrying your brand, which is far more persuasive and far cheaper than a paid ad.
Are the shared videos of real workouts?
Yes. The camera counts reps for supported movements, and steps and distance come from Apple Health or Google Health Connect. The shareable is built from a genuine, verified challenge, not a staged advertisement.
Can members redeem winnings at my brand?
Redeeming winnings for credit or perks at a partner brand is on our roadmap and not live yet. Today, Cadoo's value is authentic, member-generated marketing plus stronger engagement and retention.
