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Where Does Peloton Go from Here?

How the Tread+ recall changes Peloton's brand story—and, therefore, its advertising content.
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Francis Scialabba

3 min read

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From the Peloton Wife debacle to the time the fitness company told the world it “turned off” advertising because of rising interest in home workouts during the pandemic, the brand has had a wild ride (no pun intended).

But the latest news surrounding Peloton is sure to change the larger story of its brand—and, therefore, its marketing strategy.

ICYMI: Ahead of its earnings call last week, Peloton recalled its Tread+ treadmills after one child died in an accident involving the machine, and many more were injured. On the call, the company said it expects Q4 sales to decrease by $165 million because of the recall.

So how will this affect the brand’s future ads?

Marketing Brew spoke with Crystal and Tom O’Keefe, hosts of Peloton-themed podcast The Clip Out, about where the brand goes from here. The couple started cyclin’ in 2016 and have since interviewed everyone from company execs to Monica Ruiz, the “Peloton Wife” herself.

TL;DR: The Clip Out hosts predict that Peloton will try to become an industry leader for safety, sprinkling that theme into future ads as a result of the Tread+ recall.

Tom predicts that Peloton will probably rise to the gold standard, fix its products to make them safer, and then advertise around that idea. “It’s just kind of the corporate culture and the way we've seen them deal with things in the past,” he said.

Crystal said she expects the brand to take a “Show, don’t tell” approach. “I think it will be visual. They'll be showing how it's safe, even if they're not having a whole commercial about that,” she added.

The hosts explained their thinking with a quick lesson on Peloton history, referencing the issues Peloton had with music licensing as a case study for how the brand might handle this situation.

What happened? Last year, Peloton settled a $300+ million lawsuit filed by the National Music Publishers’ Association, which accused the brand of using thousands of unlicensed songs 😬.

“They were getting sued left and right,” Tom said. “So they went to court and they fought it out and they figured it out, and now they are the best at music licensing and working with artists,” he continued.

After the music licensing scandal, The Clip Out hosts told us they saw subtle shifts in Peloton’s ads, such as including music from lesser-known artists and posting about its artist series frequently on social media.

Bottom line: If Peloton follows the same model here, we can expect them to focus on improving what it failed at originally—and reflecting those changes in its marketing. “They came off those lawsuits and then they signed a multi-year deal with Beyoncé,” Tom pointed out, so don’t be surprised if you see the “Beyoncé of safety” working with Peloton a few months after the treadmill recall.

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Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.

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