In our 2012 SpaFinder Trend Report, we named online wellness gaming one of the most interesting, innovative future spa and wellness industry trends to watch. With more medical experts arguing that gaming’s uniquely engaging core mechanisms – from rewards systems to social dynamics – are effective in getting people to sustain healthy regimes, the online gaming and spa connection is super logical and powerful. While the trend remains largely predictive at this point – because online gaming is hands down the most explosive consumer media form and almost every industry is ‘getting into gaming’ – it will inevitably evolve.
User alignment
Let’s start with a few facts: a staggering half a billion people worldwide play online games for at least an hour a day. And they’re not all teenage boys down in the basement zapping villains in games like World of Warcraft. While hardcore gamers are more likely to be male and younger, the massively popular social, casual games category – think games like Farmville, Bejeweled and Angry Birds – is actually dominated by an older more female demographic.
A comprehensive study of US and UK gamers, PopCap Social Gaming Research 2011, shows that the average player of online social games is now a 43-year-old woman – with female social gamers outnumbering males 55 per cent to 45 per cent. Another study, Kabam Social Gamer 2011, reveals that the average first-time social gamer is a 50-plus year-old woman. This online social gaming demographic squares precisely with spa-goers: a demographic that is roughly 70 per cent female and aged around 40-45, according to a series of online surveys by SpaFinder.com. So spa-going and online social/casual gaming consumers are very much aligned.
Fun and serious
Gaming is no longer just limited to battling virtual enemies or tending the virtual farm, however. Millions worldwide have already played dozens of spa-focused games, including Sallie Spa, Sara’s Super Spa or Spa Mania. And Clarins just took the spa-themed casual game to a new level with its Spa Life on Facebook, where players manage clients in search of treatments, and where they can redeem points for Clarins products.
But, as noted in our trends report, the big, powerful and truly game-changing gaming and wellness connection lies ahead – and it involves ‘serious games’, a new online, social gaming category. Serious wellness gaming platforms are rapidly developing as medical experts agree that gaming could be the key to changing the world’s health. If countless medical studies show that the old directives from doctor to patient dramatically fail to keep people on track, the ‘gamification’ of getting people to adhere to regimens – whether fitness, diet, stress reduction or even beauty – seems to work far better.
Gamification means putting into play elements like voluntary participation, rules, points, levels of achievement, challenges/goals, rewards and a social feedback system to keep people in the health game. When you add the social gaming layer, research shows people are radically more likely to adhere. Add to the mix new gadgets that make it easier to monitor bio-information – such as uploading vital signs, calories burned and steps taken – and connect the results online, you can see how the online wellness game could get very precise and real.
Wellness game evolution
While fitness/health games such as Nintendo’s Wii Fit and Let’s Yoga! have been around for years, wellness gaming concepts are suddenly getting far more interesting and complex. Improving health behaviour is a massive us$2.5 trillion (€1.9tn, £1.5tn) opportunity says digital marketing expert Shuan Quigley in an online blog Can Games Fix American Healthcare? With stakeholders including hospitals and doctors, insurance and pharmaceutical companies worldwide, the medical establishment is getting involved too.
The leader in this movement is the US-based Games for Health project, which brings medical professionals and game developers together to study how cutting-edge games – such as exer-gaming, physical therapy, biofeedback, nutrition and emotional health games – can be an innovative force in improving people’s health and wellness.
World-renowned medical institutions, like the Mayo Clinic in the US, are holding conferences on topics such as Games as Life-Changers. Elsewhere, insurance giant Aetna has partnered with wellness game developer MindBloom to launch Life Game, designed to make it fun, rewarding and social for members to achieve wellbeing goals.
SuperBetter (opposite) is a new game from SuperBetter Labs, a digital serious games company. Its goal is “to turn everyday folks into superheroes for health,” and revolves around a social platform that allows people to recruit their friends, family and physicians as allies in their quest for wellbeing.
Sites like the US-based HealthyWage.com allow dieters to bet their money (and profit nicely) if they lose weight. Nike+, FitBit and other GPS- and bio-based fitness tracking apps allow exercisers worldwide to archive their workouts and compete in online network challenges. Skimble, a mobile platform that schedules short workouts into a busy day, shares people’s progress socially on Facebook and Twitter, etc. OptumizeMe lets users dish out and accept physical challenges.
Given their massive healthcare costs, corporations will continue to ramp up games. For instance, more US enterprises are partnering with companies like Keas, which offers employee wellness programmes – getting staff to eat better and exercise – through a live social media and virtual gaming mix.
Spa movement
We’re beginning to see some gaming movement in the spa/wellness industry. Mind-body guru Deepak Chopra has launched the meditation game, Leela, that uses 43 interactive exercises, focusing on the body’s seven energy centres, to relieve stress. Chopra spent three years designing Leela, and has explained that it was the addictive nature of video games that attracted him, allowing his philosophies to reach and engage far more people. Meanwhile, US destination spa Canyon Ranch – which already offers the 360 Well-Being iPad apps focused on fitness, meditation and healthy cooking – could easily transform its apps into spa/wellness games by adding layers such as challenges, rewards and a social network.
Online wellness gaming is projected to generate us$2bn (€1.5bn, £1.2bn) in revenues by 2015, according to digital media delivery specialists RealNetworks. The challenge for the spa industry will be to create truly engaging games that creatively connect their clients to the spa’s programming, experts and special community, either by using or customising third-party gaming platforms or designing their own. And while I have mostly focused on online wellness gaming, they don’t have to be online to be powerful: think of the many engaging ways spas could integrate games and gaming mechanisms, rewards and social contests and challenges into their real-world programming. The branded Biggest Loser weight-loss spa resorts in the US, which are based on the social, challenge-focused premise of the popular TV show, launched in 2009 and are now opening their third destination in New York state.
Whether online or off, spas need to realise that they have a strong advantage and opportunity in wellness gaming, because the work they do forges real and powerful connections with – and between – guests. These connections are far more real than what’s offered by most existing generic, online wellness gaming communities.
In our SpaFinder Trends Report we also note that online gaming is part of a wider trend we see percolating in the spa industry: spas extending their connection to customers, to move beyond the sporadic visit model and establish programmes to forge longer-term, more profitable relationships.