Brief:

• Nestlé this week started a collaboration with With/n, an upcoming lifestyle app that helps people create a customized wellness plan. With/n offers recommendations on healthy eating habits that include the food marketer's Lean Cuisine label of lower-calorie frozen meals, according to an announcement.
• With/n provides daily advice, motivational content and custom nutrition plans that include ready-made meals from brands like Lean Cuisine, as well as meals from local restaurants. The app can also connect users with registered dietitians, nutritionists and health coaches in live sessions.
• With/n's technology adapts to individuals based on their lifestyles to provide more personalized advice on wellness, the announcement said. With/n this month will be available to download from Apple's App Store, while an Android version is planned for fall.

Insight:

Nestlé's collaboration with the soon-to-be-launched With/n lifestyle app aims to connect with the growing number of consumers who use mobile devices, wearables and apps to monitor their health. The partnership is another sign of how the packaged foods giant is developing stronger connections with the technology industry, which is investing heavily in healthcare.

As described in its announcement, Nestlé has a Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost whose team is focused on emerging tech that will shape consumer habits and the company's business worldwide. The group works with startups on prototypes for in-market testing of concepts in areas such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, augmented and virtual reality, food tech and more.

Nineteen percent of U.S. adults currently use an app to track their health statistics, while as much as 45% of people have tried fitness trackers or mobile health apps, a Gallup survey found. Health apps are more popular among young adults, with 25% of people ages 18 to 34 saying they currently track their health on a smartphone or tablet. In working with With/n, Nestlé can potentially court that valuable audience, which has tended to steer away from traditional packaged foods in favor of more natural offerings.

It's too early to tell how popular With/n will be, though the app's website promises a wide range of features, including automatic ordering of groceries for delivery from AmazonFresh and Instacart. Online grocery shopping has surged under the coronavirus pandemic, driving up demand for such services.

The app will also be integrated with Fitbit, the maker of fitness trackers that Google plans to acquire, and Apple HealthKit, the company's development tools for health-related apps that run on its mobile devices and wearables. With many gyms closed and fitness-minded consumers stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns, health and fitness apps have jumped in popularity.

Global downloads of apps in the category grew 47% to 656 million during the first two months of Q2 from a year earlier, easily surpassing the 6.8% growth seen in Q2 2019, researcher Sensor Tower found. Meditation and sleep app Calm was the top-grossing health app worldwide with almost $7.7 million in user spending in May, per a separate Sensor Tower estimate. MyFitnessPal, Strava, Headspace and WW (formerly Weight Watchers) rounded out the top five in revenue for the month.