GNC, WebMD ink multi-year partnership

PITTSBURGH GNC on Wednesday announced a multi-year marketing partnership with WebMD that is expected to help increase consumer awareness and understanding of the importance of vitamins and supplements to improve overall health and wellness.

“Given the strong leadership and commitment of our two companies to promote personal health and wellness, there is tremendous synergy in leveraging the strengths of two brand leaders to provide consumers with the personalized information that can help them live healthier lives,” stated Wayne Gattinella, chief executive officer and president, WebMD.

Under the terms of the agreement, a new “Live Well Topic Center” will be hosted on GNC.com and on WebMD, giving users access to WebMD content on health and wellness as well as direct links to GNC.com. Consumer education and product information will be distributed across GNC’s 4,900 U.S. retail locations in addition to the WebMD network of more than 50 million unique monthly users and GNC.com.

GNC will be featured in targeted areas on WebMD where consumers go most often for information on personal health, diet and nutrition information, including search, home page, and other highly visited healthy lifestyle areas. In addition, an interactive, personal health assessment will be available to help consumers easily establish their health goals and identify the nutritional supplements that would be most beneficial for them. GNC information and interactive tools will be featured across the WebMD network and GNC.com site. The partnership also allows GNC to license WebMD’s interactive tools as well as its content for use in GNC’s domestic retail network of 4,900 locations, including 978 franchise and 1,358 Rite Aid store-within-a-store locations.