Under Armour app tracks how much people ate — and exercised — on Thanksgiving Day

Dive Brief:

Under Armour released data collected from its MyFitnessPal health and fitness tracking application that shows people in Washington, D.C., New York and Massachusetts consumed more Thanksgiving Day calories on average than elsewhere in the U.S., but also that MyFitnessPal users across the country burned more calories on Turkey Day than on an average non-holiday Thursday.
The athletic gear retailer found that men ate more than women on average during Thanksgiving, but that both were on the move, with men burning more than 666 calories on average and women burning more than 440 calories. Both figures represented an increase of more than 15% over the prior Thursday.
Under Armour's Connected Fitness platforms, including MyFitnessPal, now have 190 million users worldwide, generating 100,000 daily downloads and tracking 740 million workouts.

Dive Insight:

This is exactly the kind of guilt trip some of us need right after Thanksgiving — hearing how a lot of people exercised a lot more than we did that day. I myself was not averse to going for a walk after the big Thanksgiving meal — a walk that took me from the dining room table to the living room couch. I know it wasn't a long walk, but it sure felt that way.

There is some demographic data here that might prove interesting to other audiences, related to folks in Georgia, Utah and California burning more calories than people in other states that day. And what exactly drove people in Washington, D.C. to consume more calories than anywhere else in the country — post-election stress?

For Under Armour's purposes in retail, however, a lot of this data will get funneled into enriching the personalization of its mobile and online shopping apps, something the brand clearly has been pursuing since earlier this year. Under Armour has been relying heavily on its Connected Fitness platforms for collection of data, and as these platforms close in on 200 million users worldwide, it has a deep well of data from which to draw.

How could it end up using the data from Thanksgiving Day? It's tough to say, but don't be surprised if people in Washington, D.C. start getting bombarded with marketing campaigns that subtly pitch them on the joys of jogging.