Highlights:
- A playbook for performance marketers, brand leaders, and agency teams planning Q4 holiday through New Year campaigns.
- How to target and convert two look‑alike holiday fitness audiences with different motivators and media habits.
- Lift conversion and reduce CAC by aligning offers and creative to each audience’s subtle—but crucial—preferences and values.
Holidays in the US often center on three things: family, friends, and good food, including both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. And throughout the holiday season, many Americans look for ways to stay in shape in between consuming big dinners, indulgent desserts, and sugary beverages. That fitness focus continues as consumers shift gears from the winter holiday season into the New Year, where resolutions are often centered around getting more physical activity for health and self-esteem.
While people used to go to the gym to get their workout in, that’s shifted somewhat in recent years: Now, millions of fitness-minded folks are purchasing Pelotons, yoga mats, bala bangles, and free weights so they can work out at home. This doesn’t mean the gyms are empty by any stretch, but they’re definitely less full than they used to be.
According to Resonate data, 39.8% of the population, or 94.5M consumers, now work out at home (At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts), while 16.9%, or 40.1M consumers, exercise at the gym or an in-person class (Gym Goers).
Audiences like these can, at first glance, present a bit of a headache to marketers. They’re very similar: They are both groups of people who care about working out. They just do it in different places. Their workout routines are even pretty similar: Resonate data shows 88% of Gym Goers compared to 82% of At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts work out twice or more each week. No major differences here.
Demographically, they’re also extremely similar: They’re both split almost evenly between male and female and they have similar household income breakdowns. Demographics, much as in any other instance, won’t be helpful here either.
Instead, it takes digging into deeper data, like these audiences’ consumer preferences, shopper behaviors, and personal values, to find the small differences that you can use to optimize your campaigns and engage with these groups.
Here’s an audience comparison of Resonate data on these two groups’ retailer selection traits and other consumer behaviors:
More Likely to Purchase Products That Are:
At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts: Healthy, Luxurious, Best Looking
Gym Goers: Healthy, Luxurious, Innovative
Primary Influence on Purchases:
At-Home Fitness Enthusasists:
Price 37%
Brand 43%
Convenience 20%
Gym Goers:
Price 41%
Brand 38%
Convenience 21%
Retailer Selection Traits:
At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts:
Best prices/sales 73%
Convenient locations 45%
Larger product selection 41%
Gym Goers:
Best prices/sales 70%
Convenient locations 42%
Larger product selection 39%
Again, they’re extremely similar in many ways. Digging into their consumer profiles, however, does illuminate a few key differences that are helpful to marketers. For instance, while both audiences prefer products that are healthy, At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts tend to choose the items that look the best, while Gym Goers want to use something that’s innovative. Resonate data also reveals that 40% of At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts use coupons, compared to 37% of Gym Goers, but the latter has a much stronger preference for an easy return policy than the former. Incorporating and emphasizing these qualities in your marketing campaigns will help you better engage with each audience.
Now let’s look at their personal values. Both Gym Goers and At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts value a life full of excitement, novelties, and challenges and acquiring wealth and influence. But here again, we find an important difference: At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts value having the freedom to be creative, which is perhaps an important motivator behind their desire to work out at home on their own. Gym Goers, on the other hand, value authority. This could explain why they enjoy in-person classes led by certified instructors or even suggest a motivator behind going to the gym in person: the opportunity to learn about fitness and be themselves seen as an authority figure in a community of like-minded people.
As for their media consumption habits: Gym Goers and At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts spend similar amounts of time online, and both groups’ top apps are, unsurprisingly, health-and-fitness-oriented. It’s where they’re engaging media that you’ll find differences.
Top TV Networks:
At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts: Telemundo, CNBC, Comedy Central
Gym Goers: CBS Sports Network, Univision, NBA TV
When they’re watching paid streaming, At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts prefer Starz, while Gym Goers like Showtime and Apple TV.
Sometimes, it takes a deep dive into the behaviors, motivations, and values of an audience to find out where the differences are so you can make your marketing campaigns more effective. At-Home Fitness Enthusiasts and Gym Goers alike represent enormous opportunities for businesses, but the way to drive growth is to find those subtle differences and include them in your strategies. Resonate’s continuously updated, AI-powered data provides a wide range of insights that empower you to pinpoint the similarities and differences between any audience.
Want to learn more about how to target fitness-focused consumers or another group? Schedule a consultation with a data expert today.
This article is brought to you by Resonate, the leader in predictive consumer intelligence. Companies use Resonate’s AI-powered data and solutions to fuel growth by improving targeting precision, website personalization, and audience activation.
