Subliminal Advertising Using At-Home Fitness Technology

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digitization of workouts and shopping in many aspects of consumers’ lives. Shoppers taking their consumption habits online resulted in an e-commerce boom across all industries with no sign of slowing down. Competition in e-commerce is growing, resulting in the need for innovation and creativity for businesses to stand out amongst the rest. Digital at-home workout technology allows for new kinds of interactive media, like subliminal advertising, into which companies can insert their products. This will be especially important for lifestyle brands as interactive mediums provide greater brand engagement and consumer sentiment, which may result in increased purchases. Evident in Lululemon’s acquisition of Mirror in the second quarter of 2020, interactive digital fitness programs provide new mediated spaces for consumption and advertising.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders have shut down countless gyms and fitness studios, accelerating a massive shift in the fitness industry, through at-home interactive workouts. The pre-pandemic popularity of CrossFit, cycling studios, and other group-based workout programs showed that fast-paced urban lifestyles demanded a distinct kind of fitness experience. By fostering competition, teamwork, accountability, and social dynamics into intensive workouts, these small communities of individuals began to rely on each other for their fitness goals. People could make friends through these classes and saw instructors as mentors for their fitness goals. Word-of-mouth recommendations and wanting to impress your circle of friends are huge factors when making your next purchase.

Post-pandemic isolation forces social athletes to find motivation and routine on their own unless you can afford at-home workout equipment. The technology-based at-home workout industry, originally perceived as unviable and expensive, was thrust into the mainstream as consumers wanted to replicate the group-workout experience at home. Orders for digital workout equipment, from companies like Peloton and Nordic, increased exponentially, while global-giants like Apple created new sectors to meet this demand. Selling the technology and their subscription services is the obvious goal of these companies but their platforms will permanently change how workout equipment, clothing, and accessories are sold. Lululemon hopes to be ahead of this curve. This was made clear with athleisure company Lululemon’s acquisition of at-home workout technology start-up Mirror. Mirror is an interactive workout system featuring a mirror with an embedded digital image of a fitness instructor in the center, along with other graphics and metrics, that provide guided fitness programs for users to follow along and compare forms. Lululemon acquired this company to compete with the likes of Peloton and Apple Fitness, to capitalize on the popularity of at-home fitness technology. The acquisition, however, also tells us about Lululemon’s future strategy for selling their clothing and brand.

Right now, buying Lululemon or other clothes online lets you view their products as 2D images of models under specific conditions that the company predetermines, with models primarily partaking in athletic activities. Lululemon’s branding attracts young, fit people with lifestyles that allow them to workout in the company’s premium athletic wear. No matter how great their pants may be, Lululemon is a lifestyle brand first, rather than a regular clothing company. The brand’s main objective is to convince you that purchasing their products will put you into the same echelon as the athletic and active people Lululemon promotes in their advertisements. 

Lululemon’s goal with Mirror is to get you to interact with the workout instructors consistently, encouraging you to get to know and like them– or at least feel like you do. Typical digital advertisements only allow for viewer interaction with the clothing and brand, showing information the company chooses, and allowing little input other than what page to navigate to and what products to look at. Their objective is to dissolve the one-way online shopping experience by making it interactive, leaving a lasting impression. This two-way experience will, of course be, superficial, as Lululemon will ultimately decide what products to show you, how often they show you, and who they are showing them on.

Mirror’s technology allows Lululemon to give the models they want you to aspire to be like personalities by curating a catalogue of fitness instructors that are charismatic and attractive. They want to eliminate the barrier between the viewer and content by showing you the people that represent their brand are real, hoping you will aspire to incorporate the brand’s promoted lifestyle into your everyday life by buying their clothes and products, bringing their desired consumer experience to life.

Personal recommendations or ‘word-of-mouth’ is the most powerful marketing tool. If Lululemon manages to convince you that your charismatic fitness instructor, who also happens to exclusively wear Lululemon’s latest catalogue, why would you ever think of buying Nike products?

This new mediated space is not exclusive to Lululemon’s Mirror. Peloton, Apple Fitness, and similar at-home workout technologies can also sell their programs as advertising platforms, by dressing their instructor in a brand’s clothing or painting their image on logos, like they do for NASCAR drivers. Even Peloton clearly promotes their apparel as one of their primary product lines on their homepage, showing how quickly their technology turned into a lifestyle brand with this new medium.  When your workout becomes mediated by a corporation like Lululemon, the company does not need to spend on advertising in hopes of getting you to watch a 15-second-long ad. Companies can actively promote their products for the duration of a workout whether that be 15, 30, or 60+ minutes. This process has transformed working out and fitness into advertising platforms. What is next? With advancements in 3D imaging, artificial intelligence and augmented reality, technology like Mirror may slap a high-resolution imaging camera on their product, bringing a virtual ‘fitting-room’ to your home. This would allow you to try on a product in an instant with form-fitting technology, removing the need for in-person retail and tedious fitting rooms. Trying on clothing and seeing it actually on your body increases the chance you purchase that product significantly. Allowing customers to try on every item in a catalogue and mix-and-match outfits from their own home creates unimaginable potential for increased revenue. This undoubtedly will become the future of online clothing shopping, as brick-and-mortar retail becomes outdated and costly.