The spinning bike

Yesterday I did something I rarely do. I purposefully clicked through a banner ad.

On his podcast, Tim Ferris’s recently promoted a new spinning bike. Normally I skip through the ads on his podcast, but this one caught my attention. I used to go to spinning classes and I enjoyed them. But, at the moment, for several different reasons, I don’t go to the classes.

Tim Ferris’s usually only promotes tech or niche performance products. I haven’t considered buying a stationary bike in a long time. I’ve bought one before and barely used it after the first year. I spinning bike doesn’t seem like the cool new thing, but if Tim Ferris’s is promoting it, there must be something unique about this bike.

The Display Ad

I didn’t investigate further until I suddenly see this display ad for the Peloton Bike, the one that featured on Tim’s podcast. I decided to click through. The bike looks high end, like the new kind you see at the gym. It has a large touch screen on the front that plays live spinning sessions. 

The bike is aimed at people who enjoy spinning classes, but don’t have the time to go to class. Or perhaps they prefer working out solo rather than crammed into a studio for an oversubscribed class. This target audience is pretty small, but it’s specific. I imagine it’s big enough to sustain the Peloton Bike business.

There’s so much noise surrounding us at every single waking moment. The only way an ad catches our attention is when it’s for a product designed for someone just like us. A product that would only attract a small group of people. Because, when someone from this group sees the ad, it jumps off the page. Everything else forms part of the noise.