Content strategy, distribution & replayability
My role
As the sole Lead Product Manager at Holodia, I led the strategy and execution of initiatives focused on increasing long-term engagement and subscription value.
I worked closely with founders, engineering, and design to redesign how content was released, experienced, and rewarded, with the goal of improving retention and lifetime value in a subscription-based product.
Product
Holofit is a VR fitness application built around immersive environments and gamified workouts, monetised through a monthly subscription. Sustained engagement is critical to the business model, as long-term usage directly drives customer lifetime value.
Business & Problem Definition
While Holofit attracted users through immersive environments, data analysis and user research revealed a major engagement risk. Most users treated environments as one-off experiences:
- Users explored a new world once or twice and then disengaged.
- Content novelty wore off quickly.
- Progression felt shallow.
- There were limited incentives to return to previously completed experiences.
As a result, usage patterns showed declining session frequency over time, limiting the long-term value of subscriptions.
From a business perspective, this created three risks:
- Reduced perceived value of the subscription.
- Lower long-term engagement.
- Higher likelihood of churn once novelty faded.
To scale sustainably, Holofit needed to transform content from “single-use experiences” into long-term engagement loops.
Strategy
My objective was to increase content replayability and progression depth without significantly increasing production costs. The strategy focused on three pillars:
- Extend the lifespan of existing content.
- Introduce long-term progression and goals.
- Encourage repeated exploration of environments.
This approach aimed to maximise return on existing content investment while strengthening retention drivers.
Solution
1. Multi-Stage Content Releases
Instead of releasing environments as fully unlocked experiences, we introduced staged content rollouts.
- New features and routes were unlocked over time.
- Users were encouraged to revisit environments.
- Content felt continuously “fresh” without new asset creation.
This created recurring engagement triggers and reduced early content exhaustion.
2. Dynamic Environment Variations
We introduced environmental variations such as:
- Day and night cycles
- Weather conditions
- Alternative routes
These changes increased perceived variety and made repeat sessions feel meaningfully different.
3. Reward and Progression System
To reinforce long-term motivation, we redesigned the reward system.
- Added collectible trophies and achievements.
- Linked rewards to consistent usage.
- Encouraged exploration across multiple environments.
This shifted user behaviour from passive consumption to goal-oriented engagement.
Metrics
These initiatives significantly improved long-term engagement and product value perception:
- +36.7% increase in average monthly time spent per user (YoY)
- Strong uplift in repeat sessions and environment revisits
- Increased depth of progression across user cohorts
By extending the lifecycle of existing content, the product delivered more value per user without proportional increases in development cost.
Business Impact
This work strengthened Holofit’s subscription model by:
- Increasing perceived value of membership
- Encouraging habitual usage
- Improving return on content investment
- Supporting long-term revenue stability
It enabled the company to scale engagement without relying solely on continuous new content production.
Key takeaways
- In subscription products, engagement depth is as critical as acquisition.
- Extending content lifespan can unlock significant business value.
- Progression systems are powerful drivers of long-term behaviour.
- Retention strategy should be embedded in product design, not added later.
- Maximising ROI on existing assets is essential in resource-constrained teams.