‘Covid has made us more important than ever to the government’: The transformation of Weight Watchers

Leaving a job after almost 20 years can be an emotional experience, but Anna Hill has never really been “a sentimental person”.

She left her role as vice-president and chief marketing officer at the Walt Disney Company UK, Ireland and Nordics in August last year after 19 years to take on the role of UK general manager at WW (formerly Weight Watchers), and she hasn’t looked back.

Hill tells The Independent: “I was told [by recruiters] that I’d be less hireable if I had done 20 years within a company and I was over 50 years old. It was hard but useful advice. I was 48, and it gave me the push I needed. I still have incredible relationships at Disney, but I was really excited about a new challenge.

“At the time, I was very fortunate to be part of the Marketing Academy fellowship – it was a brilliant network. You would meet people from Unilever, Warner Brothers and other global brands. I suddenly saw that there was a life outside Disney.”

Hill joined WW at a pivotal time for the company, just a year after it had gone through a rebrand and dropped “weight” from its name. “As a marketeer at heart, coming to a business that needed transformation was super-exciting,” she explains.

During its 57-year history, the firm has focused mainly on weight loss, but Hill argues that the new name reflects the brand's development to overall health and wellness, which is particularly relevant today.

“We were relevant anyway, because there’s been a discussion about health and fitness going on for a while, but this pandemic has put more of a laser focus on it. Our proposition is needed now more than ever,” she says.

Tackling obesity has long been a priority for the UK, but the coronavirus virus has added a new sense of urgency. According to a Public Health England report, having a BMI of 35 to 40 may increase the risk of death from Covid-19 by 40 per cent, while a BMI of over 40 could increase the risk by 90 per cent.

For Hill, it’s clear that the government and stretched local authorities are going to need private businesses such as WW now more than ever to rise to this challenge.

“We know that people have put on weight during lockdown by living more sedentary lifestyles, and we’re now looking at how we can support them and reverse that trend. Of course, it’s not about fad or restrictive diets, but about creating healthy habits.

“We’ve got a big role to play in this, and we want to make sure people know that we’re a solution that is accessible to everyone.”

The organisation has been working with the NHS for years, and people who are obese or at risk of developing diabetes can access WW free through their doctor.

“My big focus now is to look at how we – as the private sector with a lot of experience in this space – can help the government on this journey. We are a science-backed business that has data, studies and patterns that we’re happy to share.

“We’ve made contact with the government over the last few weeks, and I’m getting a very good response. I’m really hoping we can do more, and I don’t mean just us, but other organisations out there too, to help solve this huge problem.”

Another person might have been overwhelmed by the task, but Hill says her optimism and determination always kept her going. “I was always a positive kid, growing up, and that hasn’t gone away, to be honest with you.”

She arrived in London in the early 1990s after graduating with a degree in marketing from De Montfort University in Leicester and got a job in a marketing team for a publisher before moving on to the ad agency world.

“I really enjoyed it and worked my way up on the account-management side of things. It could be massively frustrating at times – when the client wants one thing and the creatives want another. But I became a good mediator.”

Chaotic hours and her desire to start a family eventually prompted her to leave to join the Walt Disney Company. She became marketing manager in the Disney channel business, and was excited to be part of “a global organisation”.

“I joined when shows like Hannah Montana and High School Musical were very popular. It was an awesome experience, and I was very fortunate to have a lot of supporters along the way. Things just gradually got added to my role and I worked my way up to become the CMO of Disney business in the UK, Ireland and Nordics.”

Her biggest achievement from her time there is the brand partnerships she formed, she says. “We worked for six years with Public Health England on the Change4Life campaign to encourage children to be more active over the summer holidays, and it made a massive change. Disney was always good at telling stories, and in this case at finding imaginative ways to encourage children to be active.”

Her understanding of how global structures work, as well as her “positive attitude” helped her lead WW through the pandemic.

“No one expected this [lockdown], and it was a real challenge for me, as relatively new leader in the company. But I had WW's support from a global perspective.”

All of WW’s workforce started working remotely, while users needed much more digital support, and coaches had to train to deliver workshops through Zoom.

“For the first few weeks, our user numbers dropped. People were more concerned about getting food into their home than about exercising or eating healthily,” Hill says.

“But three to four weeks into lockdown, we saw the trend change and members started to focus on using their time to look after themselves. We saw a huge increase in people subscribing to the app because they wanted that support. From a business perspective, it’s been very positive period in terms of the number of people now subscribing to the app compared to last year.”

The brand is now focused on its digital offering and supporting users through challenging times.

“I want to continue to have positive conversations with people about how we can do more to help them with their health and wellness. As a brand, we are going to focus on our digital offering, like our app, because it’s a tool that is easily accessible to everyone.”

Although the national lockdown was a difficult experience for many, Hill admits it allowed her to spend more time with her family – she shares her home with her husband and her two children, aged 18 and 16 – and it has not affected her negatively.

“I’m quite a determined person and I like my routine. I do three activities a week, and I've absolutely kept that up.

“Family time during lockdown has also been phenomenal. Teenagers are usually always out and about, and the fact that we knew where they were and that they were safe with us, was great. I think lockdown was much easier for those lucky enough to have a family than for those living on their own.”

Hill also says providing support is a part of her job she loves the most.

“I mentor quite a lot of people. It’s a tough time out there – for friends and colleagues. Many people are out of work, and I think I am quite good at networking and encouraging people who need it.

“My advice to young women starting out today is: be yourself, be confident and be kind, particularly to other women. Sometimes you feel something but you don’t always say it. If someone did something well, you should tell them. Everyone loves to hear great things but we don’t say it enough to each other.”