MMM: Unity Advertiser Exodus After New Fee Structure Announcement; Fitness App Usage and Advertising Trends

Key Takeaways:

• Following the announcement of its suggested new fee structure, Unity saw a material decline in the amount of US advertisers on its ad network. According to Sensor Tower data, the number of US advertisers on Unity’s ad network fell 21% WoW during the week that the the fee implementation was announced (week beginning September 11, 2023)

  • Although seasonality may have also contributed to a decline in the number of US advertisers on Unity’s US ad network during the week of September 11, 2023, analyzing the same week last year (week of September 12, 2022) reveals that the number of US advertisers actually increased 7% WoW, suggesting that the abrupt decline in advertisers may have been influenced by the company’s announcement of the new fee structure

• As of 3Q23, Planet Fitness has the highest number of MAUs, nearly 5x as many as its closest competitor, LA Fitness. Despite a 20% MoM decline in Sep'23 MAUs (driven by seasonality across the gym cohort), Planet Fitness saw MAUs in the same period remain largely flat YoY

  • As of YTD 2023, Equinox and Crunch were the fastest growing gym/fitness apps in the cohort. Per ST data, MAUs on Equinox and Crunch were up an average of 70% and 30% YoY, respectively, from Jan’23-Sep’23

• As of 3Q23, Planet Fitness is the predominant advertiser across the gym/fitness cohort with ~60% of US ad spend, although its share is down slightly (10pps) from 2022 as Life Time Fitness increased its ad spend across the cohort by 7% YoY followed by Orangetheory, up ~5% YoY

For more information, request the full report from reports@sensortower.com.