WeWard Doubles Revenue of Hyperengaged Users

In 2019 Tanguy de La Villegeorges, Nicolas Hardy, and Yves Benchimol sought to develop an app that would motivate users to leave their office desks and spend more time outdoors.

This is where the concept of WeWard was developed. The app motivates users to take more steps daily by offering them cashback for visiting partner shops or museums in their local area.

Based on the steps a user has taken and location purchases, they then receive rewards, which they can then cash out. Today, WeWard is one of the most used apps in France.

The pandemic restrictions of 2020 limited the scope of  WeWard’s walking and brick-and-mortar redemption model.

WeWard therefore decided to expand its revenue streams to include more in-app earning experiences. After evaluating its opportunities, Tanguy believed adjoe’s Playtime to be a perfect experience to complement WeWard’s core step-counting business.

In order to boost revenue, WeWard added adjoe’s time-based and event-based rewarded ad unit Playtime.

Similar to rewarding users for their step count, Playtime offers users continuous rewards for their daily mobile engagement while playing third-party mobile games.

This gives WeWard users the chance to transform their habitual mobile behavior into a stable new revenue stream – while getting their daily steps in.

WeWard’s decision to incorporate Playtime into its user experience resulted in a significant increase in revenue. adjoe’s Playtime became the single-largest revenue stream outside the publisher’s core business, making up 30% of overall revenue.

Tanguy and Yves didn’t want to deviate from WeWard’s original mission of encouraging users to venture outside. But they found that by integrating mobile games into their app they did not have to compromise.

WeWard found that Playtime did not cannibalize its original business – instead, it gave its active users (approximately 15% of its user base) another chance to boost their rewards. WeWard found that this subset of users has been driving the significant revenue increase delivered by Playtime. Founder Tanguy describes those who engage with Playtime as some of the strongest and most active users in the app.

Playtime’s toast notifications also drives additional app opens, as users re-engage with WeWard’s offerings. The Playtime integration resulted in a 10% uplift in app opens and engagement from hyperengaged users who are ready to earn more rewards.

As WeWard continues to be one of France’s top-used apps, Tanguy and Yves look to how they can grow beyond their core French and Belgian user base into new countries.

adjoe and WeWard plan to continue growing together as the app launches in new countries – such as Spain, the UK, and Germany – before expanding into more global markets.