TRENDS
Deepak Chopra has launched Leela a meditation game for XBox and Wii Kinect – he wants to use the addictive nature of video games to engage more people
us$2.5
$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 pharma- ceutical companies worldwide, the medical establishment is getting involved too.
T e 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 improv- ing 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 mem- bers 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 physi- cians as allies in their quest for wellbeing. Sites like the US-based
HealthyWage.com
allow dieters to bet their money (and profi t nicely) if they lose weight. Nike+, FitBit and other GPS- and bio-based fi tness tracking apps allow exercisers worldwide to archive
their workouts and compete in online net- work 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, cor-
porations will continue to ramp up games. For instance, more US enterprises are part- nering with companies like Keas, which off ers employee wellness programmes – get- ting 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.
Improving health behaviour is a massive US$2.5 trillion opportunity... stakeholders already include hospitals and insurance and pharmaceutical companies
82 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital
Keas uses social media and virtual gaming to create employee wellness programmes (left); the OptumizeMe app is focused on setting and accepting physical challenges (right)
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 des- tination spa Canyon Ranch – which already off ers the 360 Well-Being iPad apps focused on fi tness, meditation and healthy cooking
– could easily transform its apps into spa/ wellness games by adding layers such as chal- lenges, 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. T e challenge for the spa industry will be to create truly engag- ing 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
SPA BUSINESS 2 2012 ©Cybertrek 2012
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