“There is a demand for tangible data that helps create an understanding of consumers' needs,” Alana Macfarlane-Kempner, co-founder of The Gut Stuff, told the audience at the recent IPA World Congress + Probiota 2025 held in Copenhagen.
This was in part why a collaboration was formed between the wellness brand focused on gut health, and the biosolutions company Novonesis, at the 2024 iteration of the event held in Milan.
What started as a discussion about the importance of real-world data, led to a partnership that now aims to educate younger audiences through social media, campaigns, and a podcast that quickly rose to #3 on Apple’s charts.
“Over the past year, consumer awareness of gut health has significantly increased, which we see in rising sales and market interest,” said Macfarlane-Kempner.
“However, consumer confusion is still evident, and people are looking for education solutions.”
Designing a gut health app
The Gut Stuff brand adopts a fun, pop-culture aesthetic to capture attention while aiming to maintain a strong focus on the importance of gut microbiome health.
In a similar style, to address consumer confusion, the team has now developed an app that tracks various health metrics and provides a 100-day educational program to help users improve their gut health.
The app, ‘100 Days to Hack Your Gut Health’, includes reminders to take probiotics and collects real-world consumer data to identify trends and enhance product offerings.
It also includes weekly challenges, quizzes, gut-friendly recipes, and an online ‘Gut Gang’ community.
The collaboration with Novonesis has also led to the launch of a pilot project through the app which is designed to deepen understanding of consumers’ experiences.
The project uses data from consenting users to analyze trends in product usage, motivations, health needs, and perceived outcomes among diverse consumer groups.
Health hacking is here to stay
Health hacking is essentially “hacking” one’s body to improve performance and health parameters, commonly by leveraging technology and data analysis.
It often includes strategies like wearing fitness trackers, monitoring biometrics, adjusting diet and lifestyle based on personalized data, and exploring emerging health technologies to improve health outcomes.
As Macfarlane-Kempner explained, consumers are drawn to health hacking because it offers fast, efficient, and often personalized ways to optimize their well-being, as health hacks promise faster gains than traditional methods.
“In general, hacking seems to be a buzzword, but it does make things more engaging,” she said.
“We have certainly embraced that idea with our app, which also rewards users with points they can redeem for products and services.”
Macfarlane-Kempner explained that by gamifying the experience, consumers and app users are more likely to stay engaged and follow through with their health mission.
“Gamifying something makes it more fun and practical, and people feel like they’re taking action for a tangible benefit,” she said.
Past research has shown that by creating friendly competition through wearable technology, sedentary individuals were likely to significantly increase exercise, and also that applications with greater interactivity (connecting both back-end and front-end services) and gamification (group dynamics) were more likely to encourage users to keep using the device.
As Macfarlane-Kempner explained, the industry might not refer to it as ‘hacking’ in the near distant future, but the premise of personalized real-time data informing decision-making will not be going anywhere.
“Will ‘hacking’ still be the buzzword in three years? Who knows—but for now, it’s definitely here to stay.”