Peloton is going to begin making TikToks for millennials who can’t handle a bike ride longer than 60-seconds.
Peloton’s sales, and corresponding profits, have been falling ever since the good ‘ole days of the pandemic, and now they’re trying anything they can to boost subscribers, even if that means lowering the bar and trying to attract the fleeting attention of Generation Y.
Some call this generation millennials, or digital natives, or lazy (not my words), but whatever your definition is we can at least agree we’re talking about the generation born between 1982 and 1994.
This comes hot on the heels of Peloton’s rebranding effort that they launched in May of 2023 to become a fitness company “for all”, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Part of that effort apparently means partnering with TikTok “to bring short-form fitness videos and other content to the social media channel” according to CNBC.
They even have a cringy slogan: “#TikTokFitness Powered by Peloton”
Ugh. I feel like I need to wash my mouth out after just saying that verbal diarrhea.
The partnership with TikTok will focus on short-form fitness videos, content from Peloton’s more famous instructors, and they’ll be doing a lot more collaborations with popular TikTok creators.
I feel like companies bringing their branding and messaging to social media shouldn’t even be a news worthy story, but I guess that’s how we do in 2024.
So how did Wall Street react to this non-event?
They piled into Peloton’s stock sending it up 15% after the news was announced.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Peloton still isn’t doing too hot. Peloton’s financials are a mess, and they still aren’t profitable despite having 3.08 million subscribers as of October 2023. In fact, for the 3 months ending Sept. 30 Peloton lost 30,000 members. And what happens when you lose subscribers? Your revenue goes down the toilet, and that’s exactly what happened to Peloton with their revenue falling to $595.5 million, which is down from a high of $757.9 million 3 years earlier at the height of the good ‘ole pandemic (or, at least it was good for Peloton’s sales).
But Wall Street does love a good comeback story. During the Covid-19 pandemic Peloton was a Wall Street darling, probably because we were all stuck at home with nothing to do except buy over-priced bikes that didn’t go anywhere.
Most Peloton subscribers became addicted to watching other out of shape people like themselves try to exercise for the first time in their adult lives, and welcome the incessantly cheerful encouragement of Peloton’s insanely fit instructors like Ben Alldis saying things like “Great things rarely come from sitting in comfort zones.”, or Tobias Heinze who’s internet famous for saying “If your legs are tired, run with your heart!”
What does that even mean?!?!
You know who loves cheesy exercise slogans? TikTok users apparently!
According to Sofia Hernandez, TikTok’s global head of business marketing, she said “We have over a billion users across the globe of all demographics. People from 16 to 60 are on the platform and when I think about [Peloton’s] campaign of ‘anyone and anywhere,’ there’s not a better place to reach that level of audience we have, that level of a diverse audience.”
So Peloton is going all in with TikTok on their marketing campaign.
Their new TikTok videos will include “‘behind the scenes’ videos such as ‘get ready with me’ clips and other fitness-adjacent content that gives people on TikTok an inside look into Peloton and its instructors.”
The first content they are producing will feature well-known instructors such as Cody Rigsby and Ally Love, and then expand to include less-known B and C-level Peloton instructors, as well as internet famous TikTokers.
Can’t wait for that. No, not really. Wake me up when this rebranding effort is over.