Hims' $800M Marketing Success

A breakdown of how Hims, a men's wellness company, grew from launch to $800M in revenue through aggressive marketing and unique branding approaches.

"They launched at the very end of 2017. In 2018, their first full year, they did $27M in revenue with $27M in ad spend - so they spent 100% of revenue on ads and burned a bunch of money. In 2019, they went from $27M to $83M and spent $50M on ads. 2020 they were forecasting about $140M. Then check out this revenue growth - it's pretty insane. 2021 they did $270M, 2022 they did $540M, and 2023 they're projecting to finish at $800M in revenue.

They figured out how to advertise on Facebook with a taboo product. They would show pictures of a cactus that was limp and then another one standing up, implying 'with Hims you don't have this problem.' They were very clever with their marketing.

They also created new ad inventory. Instead of spending $400,000 to get on stadium jumbotrons, they went to facility managers and said 'How much for the urinal space?' They'd get 30 seconds of guys' focus time while they're looking at their ad. They created new ad inventory that didn't even exist before, trying to figure out how to spend $100M in the most efficient way possible.

From day one, they branded themselves the opposite of every other male wellness product. While others used blue, they went with neutral colors and lowercase fonts. They made it subtle because there's a stigma and taboo around these products - they wanted to be able to give you the package in a discreet way."