Consumers want to feel seen. For marketers, that means the ad’s message has to be more than just about the product, said Mary Beech, Chief Growth Officer at Thorne.
“The consumer was saying to us very clearly, ‘We want to feel seen; we are individual,’” Beech said.
Thorne launched in 1984 and sold its supplements exclusively through healthcare practitioners until 2015. In 2018 it launched its own direct-to-consumer website, and now Thorne also sells its products on Amazon. Plus, healthcare practitioners sell Thorne products directly to consumers, and about 20% of the brand’s sales are from a health care provider referring the customer, Beech said.
After a “great” growth year in 2025, Thorne conducted a large-scale consumer study to gauge how consumers were feeling in the wellness space and surveyed 3,013 U.S. consumers in October 2025.
“It’s a typical exercise that as a chief growth officer I like to do, (but) you’re not always afforded the ability to do that at every brand,” Beech said about the consumer survey. “I feel very lucky that with the brand performing really well, and we were able to make that investment.”
The results came back showing that Thorne needed to change its marketing message, Beech said.
While consumers enjoy talking about health and wellness and are motivated to feel better, they are confused about who to trust, she said. One survey stat that drove this insight home was that 65% of consumers said it’s easier to figure out how to file their taxes than to choose a supplement, Beech said.
“We’re all on an information overload, but it’s hard to craft your path forward,” Beech said. “We sat there and said, ‘Wow, we have this engaged customer base, but they’re confused about who to trust in the space.’”
A Change in Marketing Message
Thorne had previously focused its message all on product launches. For the most part, this worked, she said.
“You want to talk about your new products and make sure that the most people possible can hear about them,” she said.
But the consumer survey revealed that it had the opportunity to message about the brand first seeing the consumer and then following up generally with why they should choose Thorne, not focusing in on a specific product.
‘Now I Know’ Campaign
This led to Thorne’s recently launched campaign and brand anthem “Now I Know” that highlights the “reasons to believe” Thorne is a trustworthy brand with effective products, Beech said. It highlights the brand’s rigor, expertise, guidance and community as Thorne’s points of differentiation.
This message could not all be achieved in one 15-second spot, Beech said, and so the “multi-layered” campaign features 60-second videos down to 6-second videos that run as pre-roll on YouTube and in Meta channels. Each spot highlights one or a few of Thorne’s reasons to believe, such as a piece on rigor showcases the rounds of testing, manufacturing and clinical validation Thorne conducts on each ingredient. For community, Thorne produced a piece with National Basketball Associate player Jrue Holiday about why he chooses the brand for supplements. The campaign also includes stills for performance media as well as an influencer activation.
“We gave those folks a lot of leeway in what was important — we didn’t direct that — but really came back with great content,” Beech said.
For the lower funnel, Thorne did conduct product shoots which highlighted features the brand knows consumers care about, such as their bioavailability and National Sanitation Foundation certification, which Thorne calls its proof points of excellence.
The campaign launched in January — as the brand wanted to capitalize on the New Year energy — and will run through April. Thorne is phasing out its content over the course of this time period.
Campaign Results
The campaign is largely upper-funnel spend, which is harder to gauge for marketers, Beech said. The ultimate campaign goal is customer acquisition, but the steps to get there are awareness, familiarity and then consideration of Thorne in supplements, she said.
While she is still tracking metrics such as web traffic and sales, Thorne is conducting a brand lift study to see how the campaign is increasing the consumer’s mindset about Thorne.
“Even if today you as a consumer weren’t prepared to make a purchase, we want to know that we’ve increased our consideration, we’ve increased our awareness, increased likelihood to visit the site,” she said. “All those are showing positive just six weeks into the campaign.”
Overall Thorne is having a “strong start” to the year, and the campaign and brand anthem have all helped to increase traffic to its site and Amazon web page, Beech said.
Thorne Acquires Customers Through Experimentation
Generally, many consumers discover Throne through Amazon, plus through Google and Meta, Beech said.
“It’s all about experimentation on those channels to ensure you can keep a healthy customer acquisition cost,” Beech said. “We know what our average order value is, we know what we need to turn on a customer. And so we really try to keep that customer acquisition cost at the healthiest place.”
Other channels Thorne experiments with include streaming and linear TV, and Reddit. Many consumers are active on Reddit talking about supplements, and so the brand recently did a “Day Takeover,” which was a great way to engage with consumers, she said.
“We have a very strong customer acquisition pipeline,” she said. “We have a good CAC to LTV ratio that I’m incredibly proud of.”
Thorne Build its Influencer Program to 600
In terms of marketing initiatives for the rest of the year, Beech is excited for its influencer program and new sponsorships, such as with the Ultimate Fighting Championship Performance Institute and Unrivaled, the three-on-three women’s basketball league. Thorne’s goal for 2026 is to land five to10 brand partnerships, Beech said.
Previously, Thorne was more “reactive” to paid influencer opportunities. In the second half of 2025 it stood up a more formal program and is now working with about 600 ambassadors, she said.
Thorne does not necessarily look for ambassadors with millions of followers. The brand often finds that influencers with a few thousand followers (with engaged followings and content that resonates with Thorne’s target audience) perform better than influencers with large followings.
“Today, consumers want your brand talked about by others,” she said. “They don’t just want to hear it from you.”
