Dive Brief:
- Peloton on Nov. 1 announced the launch of a new multi-phase campaign — its first from agency Special London — entitled “Find your push. Find your power,” per a press release.
- The first North America-based phase of the effort centers on the friendly, Peloton Leaderboard-based sibling rivalry between former NFL great J.J. Watt and current NFL star T.J. Watt.
- Two-thirds of Peloton members are women, according to the company, and the new campaign seeks to win over more millennial men by focusing messaging on their fitness needs.
Dive Insight:
Peloton is preparing for the holiday season and beyond with the first iteration of its “Find your push. Find your power” campaign. As the fitness company evolves its go-to-market strategy, it is working to create demand with new audiences through more balanced marketing, per press details. First up: millennial men, a large majority (70%) of whom engage with running but are unfamiliar with or unsure about Peloton's running offerings, according to brand research.
To build awareness with millennial men, Peloton has enlisted two of the Watt brothers, a retired NFL great and a current star linebacker. The duo are also Peloton members who compete against each other on the company's Leaderboard, according to press materials, and could help the brand overcome the target demographic’s lack of understanding about its offerings.
“Partnering with them is an organic way to counter these misperceptions by showcasing that we have challenging workout options that are hard enough, even for elite athletes,” said Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Weinberg.
A 30-second spot shows the Watt brothers engaging in a variety of workouts — including using the company's Tread, Bike and app products — while receiving alerts about the other's latest exercise milestone. The rivalry climaxes as J.J. smashes a photo of the two, who are then shown in split screen getting a barrage of “LET'S RUN!!!” text messages from “Mom.”
The campaign includes six-, 15- and 30-second spots featuring the brothers across TV, digital, social and over-the-top streaming content. The work is the first effort for the brand from creative agency Special London and brings to mind recent campaigns from other brands featuring another pair of football-playing brothers, Jason and Travis Kelce.
“The sibling rivalry that lies at the heart of this first campaign is not only something most of us can instantly relate to, but there was no better duo than NFL legends T.J. and J.J. Watt to bring that idea to life,” said Special London Chief Creative Offer David Day. “Their natural competitive spirit and sense of humor helped us to encapsulate Peloton's motivational power — the power to engage and encourage people to work out and to get them to come back for more.”
The campaign is also the first major effort from Weinberg, who joined the company as CMO in January after working as senior vice president and chief marketing and revenue officer for Intuit’s QuickBooks. Peloton last week announced that Peter Stern will be its new CEO, effective Jan. 1. The former Ford executive was also the co-founder of Apple Fitness+.
The company exceeded Wall Street expectations in its Q1 2025 earnings but expects to have a soft holiday quarter. With that in mind, the company is ramping up media spend to support demand generation, interim Co-CEO Chris Bruzzo said during an earnings call.
