How we helped the world's biggest workout tracker expand into Brazil through localized creator campaigns, turning it into their second-largest revenue stream.
Hevy is the world's most popular gym tracking app, with 5M+ users globally and $30M+ in ARR. Their core markets - the US, UK, and Canada - were performing well, but the team identified Brazil as a massive untapped opportunity. Brazil is the world's second-largest fitness market by gym memberships, with a passionate workout culture and rapidly growing smartphone adoption.
The challenge was not just entering a new market - it was entering a market with entirely different cultural norms around fitness content. Brazilian creators communicate differently, use different platforms and trends, and resonate with different hooks and formats. A direct translation of English-language content would not work. Hevy needed a localized approach built from the ground up.
On top of that, Hevy had zero creator relationships in Latin America and no Portuguese-speaking team members to manage creator communications, content approval, and performance tracking.
We built a network of Brazilian fitness creators from scratch. Rather than casting a wide net, we focused on creators who represented the diverse Brazilian fitness culture - from calisthenics and CrossFit to bodybuilding and functional training. Every creator genuinely used Hevy in their own workouts, which was critical for authentic content in a market that is extremely sensitive to obvious advertising.
We did not translate English content formats into Portuguese. Instead, we studied what was already performing in the Brazilian fitness TikTok and Instagram ecosystem and built content formats native to that culture. This included "treino do dia" (workout of the day) content, gym culture skits, and transformation content tailored to Brazilian aesthetics and fitness trends. Read more about international strategies in our app localization guide.
Our team handled all creator communications, content briefs, revision cycles, and performance reporting in Portuguese. We built localized content brief templates, established Brazilian-market-specific KPIs, and created reporting dashboards that showed Hevy's team exactly how the Brazil expansion was performing compared to other markets.
Localization means rebuilding, not translating. The content formats that work in the US rarely translate directly to other markets. Brazil required entirely new content strategies, different hook styles, and creators who understood the local fitness culture. Treating international expansion as a translation exercise is the most common - and most expensive - mistake apps make.
Territory-specific creator recruitment is essential. Finding Brazilian fitness creators who genuinely used Hevy and could create authentic content was the foundation of the entire campaign. Without authentic creators, no amount of budget or content volume would have worked in a market as culturally specific as Brazil. For more on influencer management across regions, see our service page.
International markets can become your biggest growth lever. For apps that have already optimized their core markets, international expansion through localized creator campaigns can unlock entirely new revenue streams. Brazil alone became Hevy's second-largest market - and there are dozens more markets with similar potential.
Ready to expand into new markets? Schedule a free strategy call and we'll map out your international growth path.
