Spa Business issue 2 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

TRENDS
�������������
����������������
���������������
GAME CHANGER
Gaming’s addictive features – challenges,
rewards and social pressure – may be
some of the most powerful weapons
ever invented to get people to jump-start, and stick
to, healthy lifestyle changes says Susie Ellis
SUSIE ELLIS » PRESIDENT » SPAFINDER INC
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.
80 Read Spa Business online spabusiness.com / digital
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
The average player of online social games is
now a 43-year-old woman... a demographic
that squares precisely with spa-goers
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 (see opposite).
Insurance firm Aetna used MindBloom to
create Life Game to make it fun, rewarding and
social for members to achieve wellbeing goals –
whether drinking more water or planting a tree
SPA BUSINESS 2 2012 © Cybertrek 2012
YURI ARCURS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM