Han Wen,
Director of internet marketing, Clarins

Clarins was the first in the beauty industry to create a completely branded social game

We recognised the gamification trend in the digital social world and felt the need for Clarins to be where our customers are. Our target audience is women over 25 who are interested in spas and beauty products. We chose Facebook because the platform is huge – it has an estimated 900 million users, half of whom are regular social game players. In addition, social discovery – discovering a game via friends – enables games to grow quickly without a large marketing budget.

As Clarins was the first in the beauty industry to create a completely branded social game, we thoroughly researched online and social gaming trends as well as PC, console and hand-held games to figure out what makes a game great. We also partnered with FreshPlanet because of its expertise in developing casual games.

We’ve implemented all the standard features of successful social games in Spa Life – including rewards, challenges and leader boards. Our goal from day one was to create a fun and engaging game, so we decided against features that require the player to perform any specific action – such as watching brand advertising or making a purchase – to progress in their game play.  

Since the launch in September 2011, we’ve had more than 1.1 million unique players and over 120,000 likes.

Spa Life, on Facebook, is a game where players manage a spa of their own design to attract customers with the best treatments while working with limited resources.

Details: https://apps.facebook.com/spa-life

Clarins was the first in the beauty industry to create a completely branded social game

Chelsea Howe,
Director of design,
SuperBetter Labs

SuperBetter could help spas customise their services once a client leaves, says Howe

Game designer Jane McGonigal came up with the idea for SuperBetter when she found herself struggling to recover from severe concussion. It’s about helping players to achieve health and wellness goals – most commonly weight loss, healthier eating, regular exercise, stress reduction and better sleep – in their real lives and not just in a virtual world.
It draws on core online gaming mechanisms – social involvement, overcoming obstacles, feedback and tracking progress – to help players achieve their goals. They recruit allies, complete quests (steps to help them achieve goals), battle bad guys (things standing in their way), and activate power ups (boosts to keep them motivated). The game was designed to increase players’ resilience – their ability to stay optimistic, curious and energised in the face of challenges – and McGonigal thinks spa consumers would find this attractive.

The game launched on 9 March and had 20,000 users in the first two months. It currently has slightly more female players than male, mostly aged 20-50.
Spas can use SuperBetter as an additional resource for clients who are looking to achieve personal health or wellness goals. Operators can also create their own Power Pack to complement their brand, product philosophy and approach to health and wellness. Alternatively, SuperBetter Labs has developed Power Packs that blend in-game content, scientific research and expert advice from leading doctors, psychologists and researchers.

In the past, a customer might leave a spa with recommendations to improve their daily lives. However, games like –ensure that these recommendations won’t get lost or forgotten.

Right now, most people play games in brief spurts throughout the day: online or on their phones. Most spas have few – if any – offerings that are accessible on the go and take less than five minutes. By integrating games into their repertoire – to induce feelings of relaxation, comfort, serenity and confidence, just like spa services do – spas can integrate their programmes into client’s lives even after they leave the building.

In addition, spas could use elements of games – like tracking progress towards a bigger goal or giving clear feedback – to make clients feel like every visit is a step towards a serious and tangible improvement in their lives. Instead of just arriving for a treatments, clients would feel like they’re starting a journey towards a lifestyle that is more mindful, stress free and focused.

Howe has headed up the design of SuperBetter for the past 10 months and has just received the 2012 Rising Star Award from Women in Gaming.

Details: www.superbetterlabs.com

Chelsea Howe

The SuperBetter online wellness game launched in March and in the first two months 20,000 users had registered – most were females aged 20-50

Ian Bogost, video game designer, philosopher,
critic and researcher

Games for fitness will continue, with programmes such as Nike +, says Bogost, but there’s an emerging trend towards relaxation and meditation games

Role playing is the most compelling component in games – there’s something intrinsically appealing about being someone else whether you’re a space marine or just a farmer. But what makes games different to any other media is having a response to a choice you make and to see that decision matter inside a simulated environment.

There are other gaming elements such as presenting a challenge, socialisation, rewards and status (think scoreboard). And there’s a trend – especially in marketing – to extract these features and apply them to other online and offline services. For example, collecting rewards for using a service or distinguishing loyal customers on a leader board. Yet these elements are secondary systems that only really matter if they’re connected to a primary system (a game) that provides that compelling experience.

There’s a lot of disagreement about the gender dynamics in games too. One argument is that men are motivated by competitive games and women by collaborative or social games. But it’s hard to know how true these claims are as they’re usually the result of small studies and are very generalised. Games on Facebook, for example, are mostly social but are played by men and women alike who are of all ages. Yet there certainly isn’t the same gender disparity there used to be – over half of adult players these days are women.

Exercise games aren’t new, they go back some 25 years and this physical use is going to continue with games such as Nike+. There will also be development in the clinical sector – games produced for medical professionals, such as for training surgeons, or games for patients.

There’s certainly an emerging trend in the relaxation/meditation games arena. Deepak Chopra’s Leela is a good example, while Wild Divine with its whole body relaxation training programmes launched in 2002. There are also new styles of games such as PlayStation 3’s Flower that are less about action and more about contemplation and observation.

If spas tap into gaming, they would need to offer more than just a technical improvement. I could see it working by making a connection between an on-site service and something clients take away that maintains the spa experience in some way.

A professor at The Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, Bogost teaches computational and digital media programmes. He’s written books on video games and is the co-founder of game design firm Persuasive Games.

Details: www.bogost.com

Ian Bogost