Fitness startup Ladder just dropped a multi-channel marketing campaign calling out Peloton for copying their product.
The campaign included:
- A cheeky blog post revealing that Peloton employees had logged over 1,500 sessions in Ladder’s app since January ๐
- Side-by-side images showing the striking similarities between the two apps’ designs
- A series of “Ladder Versus” parody videos inspired by Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads
The Bigger Story
This confrontation lands at an interesting moment in digital fitness. Peloton, the pandemic darling, has been weathering serious headwinds โ CEO turnovers, layoffs, and a 33% YoY decline in app installations. Meanwhile, Ladder is riding momentum from a fresh $105M Series B and 69% YoY growth in downloads.
What Ladder Got Right
- Perfect Timing: By striking immediately after Peloton’s app release, Ladder hijacked the company’s buzz. Their response exploded on TikTok while Peloton’s launch barely made a ripple.
- Humor as Strategy: Instead of lawyering up, Ladder leaned into humor. Their “really, really (really) inspired” tone turned a potential lawsuit into a playful brand win.
- Differentiation Through Details: Every campaign element hammers home their key differentiators: Ladder’s certified trainers vs. Pelotons’ celebrity coaches, Ladder’s strength focus vs. Peloton’s “woo-woo” wellness approach, etc.
- Receipts: Rather than just claiming Peloton copied them, they let the UI similarities and a screenshot of Peloton’s app usage data tell the story.
- Format Matters: By drawing inspiration from Apple’s iconic “Get a Mac” campaign, they tapped into a familiar and effective way to position themselves as the innovative challenger brand.
For a struggling Peloton, this campaign lands like a gut punch. While the fitness giant scrambles through approval chains and PR meetings, Ladder’s nimble team leveraged the key advantage of being small โ moving fast and taking risks.
Consider us impressed ๐