Chief Marketing Officer at Oura: Doug Sweeny

• The Oura Ring is a wearable health technology device designed to track various aspects of the user's health, including sleep patterns, activity levels, and physiological signals such as heart rate and body temperature.
• One of the key features of the Oura Ring is its advanced sleep tracking capabilities. It uses a combination of sensors to monitor sleep stages (deep, light, REM), sleep latency, sleep efficiency, and disruptions during the night. This data is then analyzed to provide insights into the quality of the user's sleep.
• Oura Health, the company behind the Oura Ring, has raised significant funding to support its development and growth. As of my last update in January 2022, Oura Health has conducted several funding rounds. Notably, in April 2021, Oura Health raised $100 million in Series C funding led by The Chernin Group, with participation from Elysian Park Ventures, Temasek, JAZZ Venture Partners, and others. This brought the total funding raised by Oura Health to over $148 million.
• Oura Ring has been used in various scientific studies and research projects to validate its accuracy and effectiveness in monitoring health metrics, including sleep and activity patterns.

In this podcast, Kyriakos talks with Doug Sweeny, the Chief Marketing Officer at Oura, Doug talk’s about health tracking in this digital revolution and what's new with the innovative improvements surrounding the Oura Ring and its potential future developments.

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Doug’s career history: companies that have a positive impact on the world

Kyriakos: Great. So what if we start with a bit of a historical view of what have you done in the past before you joined?

Doug : For sure. So I guess some of the things that just make me tick, what gets me excited, it's really, it starts for me working on mission-based companies, companies that have a positive impact on the world. I mean, that's what really gets me excited and gets me really fired up day to day. I mean, I started, you know, spent about 15 years on the agency side of the business. So working in creative agencies, brands like Adidas and... EV1, the first electric vehicle. And I pivoted into a client side role at Levi's. That was my first client side role. It was very much akin to what Adidas was trying to do at the time, which reinvent the brand, this great historical brand within denim and sportswear to a younger audience. There was a lot of similarities in the strategies at that time. And really I ran marketing for Levi's for roughly four or five years. Brand, men's and women's globally for the company. I really had, living in being in the Bay Area, which I know you are now too, I really wanted to go work for a technology company. I was like, I'm sitting in the sort of center of technology and I really wanted to get that experience. And I had the good fortune to meet Tony Fidel, back in 2012 when Nest was an early stage startup. It had just launched the Nest learning thermostat. You know, Tony, the creator of the iPod and then first number of generations of the iPhone. And the company's mission was very focused on sustainability. It was this idea that these heating and cooling systems and thermostats have technology rooted in the 1980s. Can't program them. 50% of our heating and cooling comes through this device. And it was really about reinventing and bringing the sort of smart home technology to these really outdated and unloved products called thermostats. And bringing a consumer lens to them, which I just was incredibly excited about. So I joined, I jumped on board when it was 40 or 50 people roughly. And over the course of six years, we really expanded the internet of things, the category of connected home across smoke alarms, across cameras and security. And again, the overarching strategy was about energy consumption within the home, but was about consumerizing those. Go ahead.

Choosing companies to work with

Kyriakos:What I wanted to ask you is those are very significant companies that you worked at that had a very big impact around the world. And the first question that comes to mind is how did you choose? What are your criteria?

Doug : Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think I, one, I think I have to have passion and be a fan of the brand and their products. I mean, in the case of Levi's, I wore Levi's, I still do today. That was my brand of choice. Or Adidas. I was an Adidas kid, not a Nike kid. The idea of home design and bringing an impact and experience into people's homes and taking care of the people inside the home and, and then being focused on the world around it. It's sort of an environment. I was, or those are, those are passion points for me. They were, they were really, these are things that I, it just get, get me really excited and I, and I feel like that for me as a precursor to, if I can get excited about it and help tell that story to more and more people around the world, um, it can, it can help, help that company grow at its most, most basic form. Um, I do a lot of due diligence on that. I think the decision-making, which I think is something that you're asking about, is really understanding where the company is and its journey is really important to me. Ness was an earlier stage company. It was early stage. I had confidence in Tony and the leadership team that he had brought on board. He was a proven leader. You just look at what he did under Steve at Apple was profound. In the case of One Medical and Oura, I spent a lot of time with the leadership, the board, the investors before I made a decision about wanting to join the company and really understand the trajectory and again where the company could go. Use within Oura as an example, we had historically been a direct to consumer business. We have a commercial business that is a great and aggressively growing business. But we were primarily on the consumer side of direct to consumer business. I saw a huge opportunity to grow the brand globally within both direct to consumer membership and within, within our retail business as an example.

Differences in Marketing Across Various Stages of Company Growth

Kyriakos: Before I start asking questions about what I wanted to also see, what are the real differences in terms of marketing and in terms of your role between the different stages of these companies?

Doug : It's a great question. I think one big piece is the, the audience in the segmentation, uh, the sort of archetype that you're talking to definitely changes. Um, so I'll use, I can use Oura or Nest either example is, is kind of similar in that in the earlier stages, Oura a couple of years ago was, you know, more of a biohacker, more, a little bit more male-skewed consumer. Uh, Oura is now moving is scaling and becoming a more mass brand, right? It's being, you see it worn by more and more people around the world. Um, both men and women are women's business through our, um, you know, through the incredible, um, women's health apps, um, that we've connected in through flow, glow, clue, um, natural cycles has, has really, really grown. We're now available on Amazon and at Best Buy and global retailers as well. That consumer, if you think about the adoption curve, is changing. We're moving to a... The media mix in our go-to-market very much has to change alongside of that. We start to think about different targeted media in streaming. Dungeon Digital out of home, but you think about even the profile within performance media, within meta, and within Google, the targeting and the profiling of those messages changes. The messaging changes too as you move to a more mass audience. So we're really very much thinking through the life cycle and really painting a picture of those segmentations and who those audiences are. That's one of the most clear differences as you start to scale.

Why Are Partnerships and Collaborations Important for Oura?

Kyriakos: I wanted to understand, like, there is that some sort of association brand to brand, but why do you think that these things work for my marketing perspective?

Doug : Yeah, great question. I think Gucci allowed us to do a couple of things. I think one, it gives us fashion cred credibility in the space. I think that's one. If you thought wearables may or may not be right for you, Gucci sort of created a whole different story for Oura. Um, especially within men and women who, who love fashion. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a device that tells you all these amazing things about your body and what's going on. But it's also a piece of jewelry. I mean, it sits on your finger, right? It, um, even more so than, than a watch wearable. It is jewelry. So, so you see, I mean, we've, we've introduced on our own things like brushed titanium or rose gold or these other. other colors and statements which speak to everybody's personality. But Gucci was another reason to believe within the brand that spoke to a whole new audience. I mean, we were sold in 100 plus Gucci stores around the world. Gucci was sort of our distribution partner, if you will. But it opened us up to a whole new audience. We got a lot of amazing feedback on this. Similarly with Equinox, Equinox is very similar. Like it's a like-minded audience, but it also is a different audience. It's introducing Oura to a whole new subset. Within Equinox, we created protective ring covers that when you're an Equinox member and you're in their weightlifting, we wanted to offer something that was really applicable and appropriate for their consumer target. And one of the things we heard from from Equinox members and from within our own was when I'm out and I'm working out or doing anything, I would like to have something that actually protects the ring. So we created this special rest and recovery kit for Equinox, for Equinox members that had those covers and was appropriate for that audience. So it allows us to get some energy and heat within a new consumer segment. But again, we're trying to create something that's very special and appropriate for that audience. And in each of those cases, they were very much doing that. What does the Gucci consumer want? What does Oura bring to the table? And then the same with Equinox. What does the Equinox member want? And then how can Oura fit in? It's very much figuring out that right and appropriate blend for those.

Kyriakos: For companies that are considering doing that, how can you find the right partner? Or maybe how can you find, is it based on the audience or the type of customer of the other brand or any reason about it?

Doug : Yeah. So, I mean, there is, I'd say there's an art and science to this. Like there are, there are brands that, that family really well together. You know, in the Equinox example, our audiences are, fall right in line. I mean, we're very consistent in the way we, so I think the thing one is just like, do you see these two brands familying together? Does it, does it, does it make sense? Does it, does it feel like there's, one plus one equals three, right? That you're really getting something really special there. I mean, we did spend a lot of time looking at their audience and their member data. Like what it, because there is a give it back and forth, right? You wanna be, as you're having conversations about partnerships, what is the value that we can bring to the Equinox member and then the Oura member or a new member? So you're thinking about that geographically, demographically. what do they look like? Psychographically, what do they really look like, those members? In the case of Equinox, they're very urban, heavily New York weighted and Los Angeles coastal brand. And they have an exceptional product. Like they're a premium, high-quality product that very much fit in with the quality, the level of quality that we demand of ourselves at Oura too. So there's very much, It was very much a meeting of the minds. And then, then you're going through the process of, you know, best back to my best fly conversation are the leadership teams, uh, needs aligned, right? In terms of what we want to do, what did they, what did they want to do? What is, what is important to Equinox leadership? What is important to Oura? Um, so I do think, you know, that these things, they, they take time. They're not, you know, it can be years in development, just given the amount of product development work. or strategy work on the customer side. That's really important. For sure.

The Evolution of the Membership Model at Oura

Kyriakos: I wanted to ask you about membership and what are the learnings there since you launched the membership?

Doug : Yeah. The membership, we are all about adding value to this membership and continually evolving and making the product better and better. And you see that with an Oura. I mean, you see, we launched the resilience feature. We launched daytime stress last year. Resilience was in January. We launched Pregnancy Insights. You know, we're launching next week, we're launching Oura Labs, which is a sort of a beta program, if you will. We have a product in there called Symptom Radar that is exceptional. I mean, I've used it myself personally multiple times. It gives you a heads up if your body temperature is rising that you could be coming down with something. I had a COVID and a flu vaccine and it gave me a heads up. You know, your body temperature rose last night. You may want to go into rest mode. Um, so what the membership one allows us to do is it allows us to create an incredibly rich software experience. That just continues to get better and better and better over time. And I think over the last year, you know, we've just, we continue every other, every month, every six, eight weeks, we're producing new software updates. within the experience. So, Oura Labs is next week. And then beyond that, when you start to look into May, June, and July and the rest of the year, we have a whole other really exciting roadmap on the software side. That's thing one. I think two, it's a community. Like Oura, I mean, the membership is... We have an incredibly active, engaged community. And the membership is as much about that as it is anything. I mean, it's a community of like-minded people who are helping each other along this health journey, which I think is really, really key.

Kyriakos: You know what I'm wondering? The, a few years ago when I came for the first time in, uh, in the Bay, I've noticed that every single investor around, uh, the area was wearing, uh, an honor and then a lot of the founders too. And I'm wondering what, what went right.

Doug : What's going on there? What's going on? Well one they're smart people Let's just say that they're there. They have good taste of product so I think you know when  you when you think about venture firms or Silicon Valley or the Bay Area You have the birthplace of lots and lots of technology. I mean a lot of technology In the US and around the world it is born here in San Francisco the Bay Area And it travels, you know, East and around the world. Um, so I think, I think back to that, the conversation about segmentation, I think the earliest or users were. Athletes and celebrities and icons and business leaders and people who were, um, really on top of what's new and exciting, what's happening in the world of, of technology or healthcare. And, and they were trying out the product. I think the other thing is that the. We talked about the community and membership. Our word of mouth is exceptional. People, I mean, the top introduction, when we ask people, how were you introduced to Oura, by and away the top thing that they mention is, I heard it from a family member, a friend told me. So what happens is that CEO, venture leader, business leader, icon, et cetera, on their own buying the product, and then they're telling friends and so on. So within their own community. So I think that's what has been happening. And back to the point about segmentation, that's kind of where we started, and that's the genesis of like people are really proactive about health and leaders and people like that. And then it's now growing outside of those. But I think that's why you're seeing it is the word of mouth data that we have says that Folks love the product and what it does and the benefits and they tell their friends, what is that on your hand? Is that an ordering? Oh, have I talked to you about my, have you seen my sleep scores? My readiness score today is, I mean, it's a really powerful tool that they wanna spread to their friends.

Kyriakos: Yeah. Same, I learned about Oura through word of mouth. And what I'm wondering is from your perspective, what do you do to enhance this? Like, you know that a lot of people speak about Oura, but then if you want to really increase the amount of people that speak about it, what do you do?

Doug : Yeah. So, I mean, there's some tactical things we do. Like, I'll give you one example. Like, we have a refer a friend program where we curate products. We designed a sleep mask with a partner. We had a yoga mat we developed with Aloe, with blue black glasses for sleeping. We created, over a period of time, we ask folks within the app, do you, you know, if you refer a friend, we gift these products to people. So we are, it's back to the community piece that we know our members are sharing the information with friends and family, and we should be giving them something as a brand, as a thank you, they're Oura fans. So that's probably the most potent example. The others is just, is member storytelling. Like we do a lot of storytelling in, in life cycle, in the digital space, blogs, video content, you know, is really, is really an area that we focus a lot of energy on. There's stories within all age ranges and then within all these different use cases, women's health, heart health, sleep, you know, We talked about resilience within stress and like being able to tell those members stories and people resonate with them is really, is a way for us to, to sort of fuel the conversation. I mean, we want to enable them and give them the tools that they can share, share with friends. Um, and it really powerful people. I mean, people also just share their sleep scores, you know, on their own in their digital feed with their, with their partner spouse. Um, they do it frequently. So it's really enabling that to, um, in terms of the community at large.

Looking back 100 years from now 

Kyriakos: I ask all of the guests, if we go 100 years into the future and we look backwards, what things in the space are we going to be considering as wrong? So maybe in the wearable space, what would you say that is definitely going to change in the future and maybe in the healthcare space, what's really wrong today?

Doug: What's, and you said what's wrong today? I mean, I think a hundred years in the future, I think what's clearly happened in the last five years under the veil of COVID is consumers have realized they have to get into the driver's seat on their health. I mean, if we learned anything in that window, I mean, there are two, I think there's two profound things that happened in COVID.

One, work changed fundamentally, which, I mean, there's like no going back, right? That's just a big fundamental change about virtual versus we were always in person all the time, that was a big ways of working that was, you know, in terms of work around the world over the centuries is huge. And I think on the healthcare side, and this is where Aura can play a really key role is that we are now wanting to be more in control of our health than ever. That there is not, yes, we all may have a primary care doctor or other care around us to support us in our health journey, but ultimately we have to drive it ourselves. And devices like Aura are giving us more and more information where we can be into the driver's seat. I think that's gonna continue to happen over the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years as these wearables become more insightful and intelligence about, about what's happening in our body. And, and we're going to have to rely, you know, less and less on, um, you know, the, the care, because we're going to have all the information or that, or that doctor provider or that professional is going to be more informed about what's going on the ride, because we're going to have the information or so I think that's the thing that's really powerful and profound.

Kyriakos: Doug, that's been a super insightful discussion. Thank you so much.

Doug: It's really great talking to you.