Founded | 2017

Headquarters | West Jordan, UT

Top Executives |
David Brown, CEO & Chairman
Ryan Thompson, President & Co-Founder

Product Category | Health & Wellness

Outside of Mexico, the United States is home to the most Spanish speakers in the world—more than Spain or any country in either Central or South America. If there are nearly 330 million people living in the US and more than 50 million of them speak Spanish, the potential for direct sellers to attract both Spanish-speaking customers and prospective entrepreneurs is tremendous.

The Vision

When ACTIVZ opened its doors in 2017, the Utah- based company defied convention and chose to focus exclusively on the Hispanic market by launching in Mexico. Founders David Brown and Ryan Thompson joined forces again after working together before to successfully build a large direct selling company. They knew that prioritizing Latin America rather than going global later was the right choice for their new company. But their story begins over a decade before, when ACTIVZ was still just a dream in the making.

Ryan had worked in direct selling throughout his career, focusing on Latin American markets for much of the last 30 years. Fluent in Spanish, he’d built strong relationships across Latin America as well as co-founding and leading other successful direct selling companies since starting in 1995.

David, a self-proclaimed “recovering lawyer,” worked in international corporate law, then successfully ran companies in the retail channel before entering the marketing world. As CEO and VP of Sales respectively at LifeVantage, David and Ryan successfully took that company out of retail and into direct selling. Later, they turned to their dream of creating their own direct selling company.

“We were on the same wavelength about a lot of things, mostly in our approach to wanting to make people better, wanting to better their lives,” David shared. “That’s been one of our clarion calls. We didn’t make you, but we’re going to make you better, and we’re going to help you get activated. That’s where the name ACTIVZ comes from. We’re going to help you to activate things that you have control over, and we’re going to provide you with the tools necessary to do that.”

Working with a team of formulator scientists, the founders developed a line of epigenetic products designed to improve health from the inside out. Currently, ACTIVZ offers LINQ to strengthen the gut-brain connection; AIRO to boost energy and improve metabolism; Optimend for inflammation; and a line of anti-aging skincare products.

“We focus on epigenetics, which a lot of people don’t understand, but it’s a term that refers to outside influences upon a gene,” David explained. “Scientists now know that virtually everything from the food that we eat; the things that we drink; our very thoughts influence our genes and whether they express correctly or not. And so all our products are scientifically proven, patented and developed by scientists and researchers to have specific epigenetic effects in terms of anti-inflammation, pain relief, gut-brain health and oxidative stress among other things.”

Armed with validated products, a shared vision of what ACTIVZ could be and how they wanted to bring their dream to life, David and Ryan were ready to share the company with the world. Where they would share ACTIVZ first would even further distinguish the company within the health and wellness space.

The Launch

While most American companies work to expand beyond the English-speaking world over time, the ACTIVZ team strategically chose to serve the Spanish-speaking market first. The 2017 corporate launch in Mexico was in line with everything David and Ryan had envisioned for ACTIVZ.

“There’s a real strong semblance of traditional values, old values there,” Ryan explained. “For a company like ours, having well-articulated values— entrepreneurship, financial independence, personal responsibility—all the tenants of direct selling, those are all qualities emblematic of the Latin community as a general rule. So, it worked really well for us to launch there and for that to be our focus.”

Beyond the clear alignment of values, the Mexico launch was grounded in language data from around the world.

“Colombia has 50 million people,” Ryan explained. “Peru has 30 million. Bolivia, there’s about 12 million people there. Ecuador, 18 million. Country by country, they’re all smaller than the US Hispanic market. To think that the US is not also a Spanish-speaking market isn’t correct. It’s a market I’ve worked with for years, in multiple other companies. It tends to be very entrepreneurial, resilient, less adverse to risk in business and generally open to all types of entrepreneurial ventures.”

Ryan’s strong relationships in both the US and Latin America empowered the ACTIVZ launch, led in large part by his old friends and leaders with teams primarily in Mexico. While there was no formal US launch, several team members in the States kicked off their businesses in tandem with the Mexico launch, but with a focus on Spanish-speakers. Since 2017, ACTIVZ has grown its field of distributors across Latin America and the United States, adding 30,000 distributors last year alone.

“We’ve got really strong relationships with all the top leaders which in some cases goes back decades,” Ryan added. “Both the top distributors and many members of the management team are old friends and families. This is a family business. In Spanish, everybody refers to this as ‘la familia ACTIVZ.’ We’re the ACTIVZ family. I wasn’t the first one to say it—it was our distributors. This is reflective of our foundation and the intentional values that we wanted to have when we started ACTIVZ.”

The Strategy

The term “omnichannel” is used by more and more direct selling companies and has evolved to mean many things. The team at ACTIVZ believes their omnichannel strategy pre-dates these changing definitions and has simply been the way they’ve done business since their inception.

“I’m always surprised to hear that term used more and more,” Ryan laughed. “It reminds me of when I was in fifth grade, and I thought that I invented the boombox that had an attachable Walkman that could snap out of it. Then I discovered someone had already invented it when I saw it in the Sears catalog. That said, our omnichannel approach is quite different than anything I’ve seen and is very simple. We sell through a variety of omnichannel outlets at a much higher omnichannel price, so we don’t compete with the retail price that our distributors sell the product for. We then contribute the full commissionable value of the omnichannel sale into a global pool that is paid out monthly to our distributors. This is essentially a very aggressive revenue-share model that is also attracting influencers and affiliates, allowing them to earn more money as the overall company grows.”

“We want to meet people where we find them,” David said. “We have our products. We have tons of studies on pubmed.gov. We’ve got patents, but it doesn’t really matter to some people. You could hit them over the head with all the science, and yet once they hear the words multilevel marketing or network marketing, they become totally closed-minded. Whereas for some reason, they’ll believe anything they see on Amazon or Instagram. And that’s fine. We’ll meet you where you’re at, and we’re going to do it in a way that benefits those who are really driving the business.”

Omnichannel and multinational, ACTIVZ is growing rapidly. While formally operating in Mexico, the United States, Peru and Japan, the company’s reach extends around the world through a program they call Global Connect that allows distributors to sell in over 220 countries and territories. And they’re just getting started.

“We’ve had double-digit growth every year of our existence,” David shared. “We hit a real inflection point about November of last year after which we’ve more than doubled the size of the company. And it’s been tremendously exciting. It’s exciting for the corporate team, and it’s exciting for the distributors. They see the stories. They see all the people joining. They see the meeting size increases. They see their checks increase. It’s just exciting to see what else is going to be accomplished. One of the big things that I get excited about is making other people say, ‘who are those guys?’ And I think it’s going to be fun answering that question.”

From the November 2023 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post ACTIVZ: Multinational from the Start first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Building a smart international expansion strategy means looking for momentum-building markets with untapped growth potential. In 2024, that indisputably includes the Hispanic and Latino markets.

In Mexico alone, the direct selling market is projected to surge to $19.48 billion by 2028. That staggering number doesn’t include the more than 60 million Latinos living and working within the US, or the fact that direct selling is already a staple for the Latin American population, where a quarter of beauty and personal care sales take place through a direct selling relationship (compared to eight percent globally).

“Latinos in the United States represent a larger consumption market than the entire economy of nations like Italy, Canada or Russia,” shared Judith Sanchez Lopez, PM-International General Manager, Latin America. “If Latinos living in the United States were an independent country, the US Latino GDP would be the fifth largest GDP in the world, larger than the GDPs of India, the United Kingdom or France.”

There are a number of direct selling companies who have already captivated the Hispanic and Latino markets and are thriving. There are two distinct scenarios at play here: US-based companies that are dominating in Hispanic markets and foreign-based companies doing the same.

DSN 2023 Bravo Growth Award winner Princess House successfully serves this corner of the US market. Other examples include 4Life, Hy Cite, Immunotec and relative newcomer ACTIVZ. These companies are also strong in other Spanish-speaking markets.

Betterware de Mexico and Omnilife are based in Mexico and making huge strides in that market and throughout the region.

It could be tempting to assume that the same strategies and approaches that work for US customers would be a fit for the Hispanic population living within the US, or even the neighboring Latin American populations, but that assumption is a sure-fire way to fail. Ignoring the unique communication styles of each individual market is not only ineffective, it’s disrespectful. There are cultural sensitivities that should be honored; product preferences that need to be prioritized; and local talent that deserve to be elevated to leadership.

“Companies that want to be successful need to stop making Latin American countries an extension of their current market,” said Mauricio Domenzain, Immunotec Chief Executive Officer. “By that, I mean you really need to commit to the market. We can’t simply send one manager to Latin America now and then wait to see if it’s going to work or not. It’s a full commitment, not just the addition of another flag on your wall or your website. You have to truly become part of that market to understand the cultural needs.”

Copy and Paste Isn’t a Strategy

What works in the United States doesn’t automatically translate to success on a global scale. That goes for products, but it’s also a good rule to live by when it comes to communication, marketing materials and events. For companies founded in the US or who predominantly operate within the US, expanding to include Spanish-speaking consumers is not as simple as hiring a translator or relying on Google Translate. These translations are often choppy, with no regard for local idioms or speaking rhythms.

Solving for this pain point has been a game changer for brands like 4Life, who overhauled their communication process to treat Spanish as its own first language rather than relying entirely on English. The company now enlists two separate content creator teams, one who is primarily English-speaking and one who is primarily Spanish-speaking, to design materials. The end result prevents poor translations that damage credibility.

“If you go to our convention, we are 80-85 percent Hispanic,” said Brian Gill, 4Life Chief Marketing Officer. “Five years ago, out of respect, we stopped translating English to Spanish. It’s not enough to have great translators. A Hispanic whose primary language is Spanish should be the one creating our materials. It’s about empowering the affiliate to share the brand, and a poor translation is not a credible connection they are proud to share.”

Homogenous, hand-me-down resources communicate the message that international markets are inferior, less valuable and unappreciated. Conversely, when companies allocate the resources and staff necessary to maintain and develop a culturally relevant, localized brand with tools that take local language, lifestyle and history into consideration, customers and distributors take note. A successful entry into Hispanic and Latino markets is one that allows the population to embrace entrepreneurial opportunity while preserving its own cultural DNA.

“Entering the Hispanic market was not secondary or an afterthought; it was our primary thought,” said David Brown, ACTIVZ Chief Executive Officer. “Our Spanish-speaking distributors are constantly amazed that they get new products and materials first and that they weren’t translated from English. Everyone responds well to attention and responsiveness, and that’s probably the secret to our success.”

Honor Culture Past and Present

Family is a core value for the Hispanic and Latin American markets, and consumers in these demographics typically have great reverence for their parents and their tightly-knit communities. The US ethos of independent, self-made success doesn’t land the same within these cultures, so even well-intentioned corporate leaders commissioned from the company’s US headquarters could get off on the wrong foot without realizing it.

“It’s not only the language, but it’s also the culture that you need to understand,” explained Domenzain. “You need to have people on the ground—people directly from those markets—who understand and can serve that market the correct way.”

Leaders also need to consider how each new generation brings their own energy and inspiration to the foundational values of the Hispanic and Latin American cultures. From a corporate standpoint, that means being willing to adjust the speed and style of work. Omnilife addressed this generational evolution by implementing a shift from graphic design to a focus on social media, leaving behind big format printing in favor of video and digital formats and encouraging all of its departments to embrace the Gen Z style of work, which is quick to adapt to change.

“We are integrating younger generations into our corporate team, and that has helped make us relevant,” said Eduardo Ros, Omnilife Marketing Manager. “Our communications and packaging have become younger. We have received testimonies from people in Ecuador and Peru who tell us that working with second- and third-generation distributors who are younger has helped them see how best to take advantage of this opportunity and approach the business differently.”

Recognize the Uniqueness of Each Market

Each country and community has its own unique traditions and habits, and the Latin American market is no exception. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that would respectfully reach this vast audience, and it’s important to remember that there are distinctions among the adjectives often used to describe this diverse group of cultures within and outside of the US. The word Hispanic describes Spanish speakers, including those living within the US and Spain, while Latinos is reserved for those living within Latin America, including Brazil, where Portuguese is the official national language.

“Hispanics in the US are not a monolith,” Sanchez Lopez said. “They are a combination of countries, cultures, slang, levels of acculturation and generations. You need to decide who you want to target, understand what sets them apart and then ask yourself if your company is communicating and interacting in a way that respects their cultural differences and strongest drivers.”

For companies with a broad footprint across countries with similar but distinct cultures, discovering what makes each market tick is critical to securing healthy, welcomed growth among distributors and potential customers. Hy Cite, for example, courts Latinos in eight different countries, including the US and Brazil. Efficiency is incredibly important, so the company harmonizes its content, but it also takes care to modify even the smallest details to communicate that each individual market matters.

“The way we present our products changes depending on the audience,” said Paulo Moledo, Hy Cite President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our recipes used on social media, for instance, feature arepas in Colombia and tacos in Mexico. We also pay attention to our call center services. We learned the hard way that the agent accent speaking to customers from different markets is an important variable.”

Moledo also emphasizes the significance of making sure corporate expresses with actions that they value distributors’ wellbeing just as much as their earning opportunity. For Hy Cite, that means facilitating a close relationship between executives and top leaders; leaning into recognition; and designing ways for distributors and customers to voice their opinions and experiences.

“Latinos, more than most, need to feel heard,” Moledo said. “As fast as we could after the pandemic, we started having events, conventions and meetings with independent distributors, and the attendance has been outstanding. We invest more today in events than we did pre-pandemic, but the return on that personal, face-to-face touch is great.”

Operating with inclusion and respect as the highest priorities is non-negotiable. It’s imperative that companies take the extra steps to ensure the opportunity they are presenting is tailor-made for the audience receiving it, and that their presence improves the quality of life for the people who call that country home. When diversity of backgrounds and ways of doing business are treated with dignity and honor, executives who have successfully built bridges into the Latino and Hispanic cultures say there is a shared entrepreneurial spirit that transcends language barriers and countries of origin.

“It doesn’t matter what language you speak or what country you’re in, everyone is looking for the same thing,” Domenzain said. “To be a part of something bigger than yourself.”

From the November 2023 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post Hispanic Market is booming first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Brown employs a strenuous training schedule and relies on a variety of AdvoCare products in his daily nutrition routine.

“David is a very successful, record-breaking runner and AdvoCare is delighted to have him as a partner,” stated Joshua Watts, AdvoCare director of Sponsorships. “We are proud to know that such an inspiring champion athlete uses our products to enhance his training routine.”

Brown competed on the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Paralympic track & field teams. He earned a gold medal in the 2016 Paralympic Games 100-meter race. Brown’s record makes him the world’s fastest, totally blind athlete and the only blind person to run 100 meters in under 11 seconds. Additionally, Brown has won several U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Championships and Para Athletics World Championships.

“For both my health and my career, I must be very cautious about the products I use,” said Brown. “With AdvoCare products like Spark, AdvoCare Rehydrate and AdvoCare Catalyst, as well as their Informed-Choice testing program, I have found a partner that takes health and safety as seriously as I do.”

Brown is currently training to compete in the 2019 World Para Athletic Championships in Dubai and the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

The post Paralympic Gold Medalist David Brown Partners with AdvoCare first appeared on Direct Selling News.