Planet Fitness and the New Year’s Eve Arbitrage: Why a Purple Hat in Times Square Might Beat a Super Bowl Ad

Every year, right as the ball drops in Times Square, something strange happens.

The most resolution-friendly moment on the planet — midnight on January 1 — is not dominated by Nike, Peloton, Equinox, or some six-pack-soaked influencer screaming at you through a ring light.

It’s dominated by Planet Fitness.

Purple hats. Purple confetti. Purple stages. Purple logos floating behind Ryan Seacrest while 20+ million people watch from their couches and another million freeze their asses off in Midtown Manhattan.

And here’s the thing:

This isn’t just good branding.

It’s elite marketing arbitrage.

Planet Fitness has quietly locked up one of the most underpriced attention buys in advertising — and when you stack the numbers, it may deliver more effective ROI than a Super Bowl ad, at a fraction of the cost.

Let’s break it down.

The Sponsorship No One Talks About (But Everyone Sees)

Planet Fitness has been the presenting sponsor of Times Square’s New Year’s Eve celebration for nearly a decade, with 2025–2026 marking their tenth consecutive year owning the event.

This isn’t a logo slapped on a step-and-repeat. The sponsorship includes:

• Prominent branding throughout Times Square

• A dedicated Planet Fitness performance stage

• On-air integrations during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve

• Branded confetti drops (yes, really)

• Tens of thousands of Planet Fitness NYE hats handed out to revelers

• Massive social, digital, and PR amplification tied to the event

Sources:

• Planet Fitness Press Releases: https://www.planetfitness.com/newsroom

• Times Square Alliance: https://www.timessquarenyc.org

• Harris Poll marketing analysis (via Planet Fitness): https://theharrispoll.com

Visually, the crowd becomes a walking Planet Fitness ad, broadcast live to the world.

And crucially — this all happens exactly when people are thinking about going to the gym.

Let’s Talk Cost (Because This Is Where It Gets Interesting)

Planet Fitness does not publicly disclose the cost of the sponsorship. But based on advertising trade estimates, comparable event sponsorships, and Planet Fitness’s own historical marketing disclosures, the annual cost is widely estimated between $5–10 million.

For context:

• Planet Fitness disclosed $33M in national advertising spend in 2017, which included the NYE sponsorship

• Franchisees added roughly $100M+ in local advertising that same year

• In recent years, total system-wide marketing spend is estimated north of $200M annually

Sources:

• Planet Fitness 2017 Annual Report

• Exercise.com industry analysis: https://www.exercise.com

• Investor Relations filings: https://investor.planetfitness.com

Even if we assume the high end — $10M per year — the real question isn’t cost.

It’s what they get for it.

Attention Math: NYE vs the Super Bowl

Let’s compare this to the heavyweight champ of advertising flexes.

Super Bowl Ad (2024–2025 benchmarks)

• Cost: ~$7 million for a 30-second spot

• Audience: ~115 million viewers

• Duration: 30 seconds

• Zero cultural ownership beyond that moment

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/super-bowl-ad-cost

Planet Fitness NYE Sponsorship

• Estimated cost: $5–10 million

• Audience:

  
  

  • ~22 million U.S. TV viewers on ABC alone

  • Global reach often cited at 1 billion+ impressions via broadcast, streaming, news, and social

• 
  

• Duration:

  
  

  • Hours of live broadcast

  • Replays, clips, news coverage

  • Social media afterburn for days

• 
  

• Context:

  
  

  • Peak fitness intent moment of the entire year

• 
  

Sources:

• Harris Poll: https://theharrispoll.com

• ABC / Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve viewership reports

• Times Square Alliance coverage

This is the part people miss.

Planet Fitness isn’t just buying reach.

They’re buying intent-aligned attention.

The ROI Nobody Publishes (But the Numbers Tell Anyway)

Planet Fitness does not publish a clean “we spent X and made Y” ROI figure. No big brand does.

But the downstream indicators are loud.

Membership Growth

• Planet Fitness added ~1.7 million net new members in 2023, ending the year at ~18.7M members

• Q1 is consistently their strongest acquisition quarter

• After prior NYE campaigns, Planet Fitness reported record-breaking hourly and daily web sign-ups immediately following New Year’s Eve

Sources:

• Planet Fitness earnings calls

• Shorty Awards case study (Hill Holliday): https://shortyawards.com

Each new member represents recurring monthly revenue — often $10–25/month — not a one-time purchase.

That’s lifetime value, not impulse spend.

Brand Awareness: Owning the Resolution Moment

According to Harris Poll data, Planet Fitness consistently ranks:

• #1 in unaided brand awareness in the gym category

• #1 in ad recall following the New Year period

• One of the only fitness brands to see significant ad awareness lift immediately post-NYE

Source:

• Harris Poll marketing analysis

This matters because January is a bloodbath for gyms. Every brand is screaming for attention.

Planet Fitness doesn’t scream.

They just… are.

The Arbitrage Play Explained Simply

Here’s the quiet genius of the strategy:

• Super Bowl = highest cost per second of attention in advertising

• NYE Times Square = underpriced relative to cultural impact

• Fitness intent on Jan 1 = higher than any other day of the year

• Planet Fitness already owns the “non-intimidating gym” positioning

So Planet Fitness buys:

• Less crowded ad inventory

• Longer exposure

• Higher emotional resonance

• Better intent alignment

At a cost that hasn’t yet been bid into insanity by competitors.

That’s arbitrage.

Why This Works Specifically for Planet Fitness

This strategy wouldn’t work for every brand.

It works for Planet Fitness because:

• Their price point is accessible

• Their messaging is anti-judgment

• They’re not selling elite performance — they’re selling permission to start

New Year’s Eve isn’t about six-packs.

It’s about hope, forgiveness, and trying again.

Planet Fitness shows up right on cue with a purple hat and says:

“It’s fine. Come as you are.”

That’s marketing psychology done correctly.

Final Take: Quietly One of the Smartest Buys in Advertising

Planet Fitness doesn’t win advertising headlines the way Super Bowl brands do.

But pound for pound, this may be one of the best attention-to-cost plays in modern brand marketing.

They’ve:

• Locked a culturally dominant moment

• Paid less than flashier alternatives

• Achieved outsized awareness and conversion

• Repeated it long enough that it now feels inevitable

The real flex isn’t the hats.

It’s that nobody has outbid them yet.

And until someone does, Planet Fitness will keep owning the first thought in America’s head every January:

“Maybe I should finally join a gym.”