Despite having an “Our Team” section on their website, Activz only provides a photo of their management.

Further research reveals David Brown crediting himself as Chairman and CEO of Activz on his LinkedIn profile.

Brown (right) is also one of the executives featured in the “Our Team” Activz website photo.

As per Brown’s LinkedIn profile, he has MLM executive experience dating back to 1996.

  • President, Natural Balance (1996 – 2000)
  • President/CEO, Metabolife International (2000 – 2003)
  • President/CEO, LifeVantage (2008 – 2013)
  • CEO, Yevo (2014 – 2016)

Brown’s last company, Yevo, launched in 2014 with the aim of marketing dehydrated meals.

In 2016 Yevo shut down due to a “lack of success”. Activz launched in May, 2017.

Read on for a full review of the Activz MLM opportunity.

Activz Products

Activz operates in the nutritional supplement and personal care MLM niches.

Products featured on the Activz website include;

  • Linq – marketed as “cellular jet fuel” that benefits metabolism, brain function, gut function, immune system and skin
  • Emora – the Emora range includes a purifying mud, essence toner and rejuvenating serum

Note that Activz do not provide retail pricing on their website.

The Activz Compensation Plan

Activz’s compensation plan pays residual unilevel commissions on generated sales volume.

Additional performance-based bonuses are also available.

Activz Affiliate Ranks

There are seven affiliate ranks within the Activz compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • A – generate and maintain 50 PV a month
  • A1 – maintain 50 PV a month, recruit and maintain one affiliate and generate and maintain 500 GV a month
  • A2 – maintain 50 PV a month, maintain at least one personally recruited affiliate and generate and maintain 1000 GV a month
  • A3 – maintain 50 PV a month, recruit and maintain at least two affiliates and generate and maintain 2500 GV a month (max 2000 GV from any one leg and min 125 GV in smallest leg)
  • A4 – maintain 50 PV a month, maintain at least two personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 5000 GV a month (max 4000 GV from any one leg and min 250 GV in smallest leg)
  • A5 – maintain 50 PV a month, recruit and maintain at least three affiliates and generate and maintain 7500 GV a month (max 6000 GV from any one leg and min 375 GV in smallest leg)
  • A6 – generate and maintain 100 PV a month, maintain at least three personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 10,000 GV a month (max 7000 GV from any one leg and min 500 GV in smallest leg)
  • A7 – maintain 100 PV a month, recruit and maintain at least four affiliates and generate and maintain 15,000 GV a month (max 10,500 GV from any one leg and min 700 GV in smallest leg)
  • A8 – generate and maintain 150 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 20,000 GV a month (max 14,000 GV from any one leg and min 1000 GV in smallest leg)
  • A9 – maintain 150 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 30,000 GV a month (max 21,000 GV from any one leg and min 1500 GV in smallest leg)
  • A10 – generate and maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 50,000 GV a month (max 30,000 GV from any one leg and min 2500 GV in smallest leg)
  • A11 – maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 75,000 GV a month (max 45,000 GV from any one leg and min 3750 GV in smallest leg)
  • A12 – maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 100,000 GV a month (max 50,000 GV from any one leg and min 5000 GV in smallest leg)
  • A13 – maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 200,000 GV a month (max 100,000 GV from any one leg and min 10,000 GV in smallest leg)
  • A14 – maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 350,000 GV a month (max 140,000 GV from any one leg and min 17,500 GV in smallest leg)
  • A15 – maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 500,000 GV a month (max 200,000 GV from any one leg and min 25,000 GV in smallest leg)
  • A16 – maintain 200 PV a month, maintain at least four personally recruited affiliates and generate and maintain 1,000,000 GV a month (max 400,000 GV from any one leg and min 50,000 GV in smallest leg)

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail sales and an affiliate’s own orders.

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is PV generated by an affiliate’s entire downline.

Additional Compensation Positions

Activz rewards affiliates at the A6, A8 and A10 ranks with additional compensation positions (up to four).

The Activz compensation plan states that “PV applies towards Business Centers”, suggesting that PV rank qualification need only be met once over for additional positions.

Note that the Activz compensation doesn’t specify where additional compensation positions are placed.

I’m assuming that each additional position is placed within the unilevel team, possibly at the top of an existing team or as a new leg.

Fast Start Bonus

The Fast Start Bonus is an additional percentage bonus on sales volume generated within a new downline affiliate’s first calendar month.

Activz pay the Fast Start Bonus via a unilevel compensation structure.

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Activz cap the Fast Start Bonus at five unilevel team levels as follows:

  • level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 20%
  • level 2 – 4%
  • level 3 – 8%
  • level 4 – 6%
  • level 5 – 4%

Residual Commissions

Activz pay residual commissions via the same unilevel team structure used to pay the Fast Start Bonus (see above).

  • A ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • A1 ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
  • A3 and A4 ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 4% on level 2 and 8% on level 3
  • A5 and A6 ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3 and 6% on level 4
  • A7 and A8 ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3, 6% on level 4 and 4% on level 5
  • A9 ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3, 6% on level 4 and 4% on levels 5 and 6
  • A10 ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3, 6% on level 4 and 4% on levels 5 to 7
  • A11 and higher ranked affiliates earn 10% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3, 6% on level 4, 4% on levels 5 to 7 and 1% on level 8

Note that residual commissions are compressed.

This means that inactive affiliates across the first eight levels of a unilevel leg are replaced with active affiliates deeper in the leg if need  be.

PC Royalty Bonus

The PC Royalty Bonus is a percentage bonus on up to five unilevel team levels:

  • A ranked affiliates earn 20% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • A1 and A2 ranked affiliates earn 20% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
  • A3 and A4 ranked affiliates earn 20% on level 1, 4% on level 2 and 8% on level 3
  • A5 and A6 ranked affiliates earn 20% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3 and 6% on level 4
  • A7 and higher ranked affiliates earn 20% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 8% on level 3, 6% on level 4 and 4% on level 5

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the PC Royalty Bonus and standard residual commissions is the number of levels paid out on and no compression.

Rank Achievement Bonus

Activz reward affiliates for qualify at specific ranks with the following Rank Achievement Bonuses:

  • qualify at A2 and receive 100 PV product credit
  • qualify at A4 and receive $250
  • qualify at A6 and receive $500
  • qualify at A8 and receive $1000
  • qualify at A10 and receive $2500

Global Bonus Pool

Activz take 8% of monthly company-wide GV and place it into the Global Bonus Pool.

The Global Bonus Pool is split into 10 smaller pools, which affiliates can earn a share in based on rank:

  • A6 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A7 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A8 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A9 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A10 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A11 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A12 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A13 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A14 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%
  • A15 to A16 pool – 10% of 8%

Based on rank, Activz affiliates are able to earn from multiple Global Bonus Pools.

A15 and A16 ranked affiliates earn from all ten available Global Bonus Pools.

Legacy Bonus

Activz take 1% of monthly company-wide sales volume and place it into the Legacy Bonus pool.

A11 to A16 ranked Activz affiliates receive an equal share in the Legacy Bonus pool each month.

Legend Bonus

Activz take 1% of monthly company-wide sales volume and place it into the Legend Bonus pool.

A16 ranked affiliates receive an equal share in the Legend Bonus pool each month.

Special Promotions

Activz don’t provide specifics on offered special promotions.

Here’s what’s written in their compensation plan:

ACTIVZ offers an array of special promotions that allow our
distributors and customers an opportunity to earn more.

Rewards such as CREDITS, PRIZES, INCENTIVE TRIPS, TRAINING, BONUSES, and MUCH MORE will be rewarded to those that qualify.

Joining Activz

Activz fail to provide information regarding affiliate membership costs on their websites.

Further research reveals Activz affiliate membership is tied to the purchase of an “Activz Starter Kit”.

Despite my best efforts, I was only able to find pricing on Activz Starter Kit costs for Mexican affiliates:

  • Basic Starter Kit – $2702 MXN ($145 USD)
  • Advanced Starter Kit – $5923 MXN ($319 USD)
  • Premium Starter Kit – $9140 MXN ($492 USD)
  • Premium Starter Kit (more products?) – $11,296 MXN ($608 USD)

Note that the presentation I sourced the above amounts from was pretty blurry, so some figures might be slightly off.

The Activz Distributor Policies and Procedures document states that purchase of the Activz Starter Kit is optional in North Dakota, Massachusetts and Wyoming, suggesting there is also a “bare-bones” affiliate membership option.

After the first year, renewal of Activz affiliate membership is $25 USD annually (waived if an affiliate maintains twelve months of autoship).

Conclusion

On the surface Activz presents itself as a typical MLM offering with some glaring problems.

Retail product costs and management bios are two crucial due-diligence components missing from the Activz website. For a company that’s been in business for over a year, this is pretty unforgivable.

Usually when we see retail costs not disclosed, it’s because an MLM company is focused on affiliate autoship recruitment.

Affiliate autoship recruitment is entirely possible within Activz, however I wouldn’t say there’s an overly broad focus towards it.

Where Activz fails on focusing on retail is a general PV requirement (no retail volume requirements), rewarding affiliates on autoship with annual fee waiving and product credit bonuses that reward an affiliate’s own orders far beyond that of their retail customers.

The most an Activz affiliate can earn in credit on a retail order is 50 PV on their first retail customer order.

That’s it.

Conversely, an affiliate earns a

  • 20% product credit if they place an order for 1 to 3 consecutive months
  • 25% product credit if they place an order for 4 to 9 consecutive months or a
  • 35% product credit if they place an order for 10 or more consecutive months

This is obviously a *winkwink, nudgenudge* nod to affiliate autoship recruitment. At the same time it’s also a disappointing squandering of what could have been a retail sales motivator.

Instead of encouraging affiliate autoship, why not offer product credit on repeat retail orders?

One interesting component of the compensation I hadn’t come across before was the minimum volume requirement for unilevel legs.

It’s not explained in the compensation plan, but I took it to mean the minimum volume required in the smallest unilevel leg.

This is a great way to get affiliates with larger downlines to focus on all of their unilevel legs, as opposed to just building a few and leaving the rest orphaned.

However, with the absence of retail volume qualifiers, lack of retail pricing disclosure and affiliate autoship rewards, I’m not convinced Activz has a significant retail customer base.

The good news is establishing this for yourself is pretty straight-forward.

As a potential Activz affiliate, what you want to find out is how much retail PV your upline is generating each month versus their own monthly spend.

What you want to see is minimum 50% retail volume counting toward their PV quota.

If an affiliate is qualifying for commissions each month on their own order and nothing else (or an equivalent fraction in retail sales), you’re looking at a product-based pyramid scheme.

I’ll finish up with one final warning regarding how Activz is being marketed.

Activz appears to have launched in Mexico last year, prior to its US launch this year.

In Central and South American countries, Activz products are marketed as a cure-all for cancer, leukemia, arthritis, fibromyalgia, diabetes and “other advanced diseases”.

For their part Activz don’t seem to have a problem with this marketing, with some of the prominent examples I found first published almost a year ago.

For the record, there is no medical or scientific evidence to support claims any of Activz’s products cure any disease. Nor are any of Activz’s products registered as treatment of any condition with the FDA or COFEPRIS, the Mexican FDA equivalent.

This kind of misleading marketing has no place in the MLM industry. Worse still, it unnecessarily exposes Activz affiliates who might be doing the right thing to financial and reputational risk.

Approach with caution.

 

Footnote: There is a non-MLM company bearing the name “Activz Complete” that also markets nutritional supplements.

To the best of my knowledge Activz Complete has nothing to do with Activz the MLM company.