What is Competitive Socialising and why is it so popular?
Competitive socialising mixes traditional activities such as darts, ping pong and crazy golf with a quality, high-end F&B experience. Venues have a form of gameplay at their core and usually include both a bar and fast food dining spaces. Competing socially with friends and family is not a new concept, but its re-interpretation into the social entertainment sector has led to a massive scope of opportunity. While London is leading the UK with new leisure trends, brands are emerging throughout the UK. It’s an exciting entrepreneurial area.
Only time will tell what effect the coronavirus pandemic will have on the industry… but we’re confident once the outbreak is behind us, the popularity of competitive socialising venues will only continue to rise!
Why is competitive socialising growing in popularity?
Social Changes
If you’ve popped into one of the competitive socialising venues across the UK, you’ll know that they are appealing to an evolving demographic of consumers.
So why are they so popular? Across the board, families, urban professionals, millennials and students are showing common trends and patterns in their wants and desires when it comes to how they spend their money and time. Millennials are spending less on products and more on experiential activities. Younger generations aren’t turning to alcohol to fulfil their social needs and desires but to activity led contemporary and diverse experiences. With accessible price points and game playability, all demographics can participate both in terms of age and socio-economic status making the format totally inclusive.
Social Media
Today’s consumers’ value experience over ownership and social platforms tap into the tribal nature of experiences craved by Millennials and Gen Z. The world has become a place to discover, explore, but more than this, through sharing – a place to belong.
Via this sense of belonging, and exploration that has led a return to craft, artisanship, and the rise of multi-sensory experiences resulting in a truly global movement.
It’s in this sphere that Competitive Socialising has grown. Speaking both to the sense of community craved in our digital world and to the ready to share, visually exciting ‘Instagram perfect’ experience.
Today’s Retail Landscape
The rapid global change in consumer behaviour has left many ‘traditional’ leisure activities with decreasing footfall, notably shopping centres and cinemas have both seen rapid declines. According to BBC, in August 2016, US box office takings were $625m (£482m), nearly 35% lower than the same month in 2015. While the British Retail Consortium (BRC) states the number of shoppers on UK high streets has fallen by 10% in the last seven years. Businesses with marketing strategies built around long-established print media have struggled to find a voice with the digital-first consumer.
Technology
The use of technology within the competitive socialising sector has rocketed, creating some truly unique and engaging experiences and adding additional levels of stimulation for the player. Founded in 2013, Flight Club is a good example of a tech-forward concept. The dartboards incorporate a series of cameras and are fitted with dart tracking technology.
Case Study: BHS > Crazy Golf Venue
Traditionally, Competitive Socialising has been set in a bar or a club. However more recently, we’ve seen that shopping centres have started to see the potential in adapting their space to accommodate these new activities.
With our client Swingers, we transformed the former BHS flagship store in London’s Oxford Circus into a thriving crazy golf venue complete with cocktails and street food.
Consumers are quickly evolving their wants and needs and while this is contributing to challenges in the retail sector, we’re seeing a diversion of spend to leisure, now accounting for 14.3% of consumer spending. So, is the future of retail social?
Funderdome, Melbourne Australia
What’s the benefit to your business?
Spaces are busy day and night with a concept that offers something for everyone; lucrative corporate groups, families, groups of friends, couples and the casual visitor, building a broad audience segmentation.
A study by Harris Group found that 72% of Millennials would spend on experiences over material items.
While this has an upward shift to the older generation, figures in the US show a 4x increase in expenditure on experiences.
Over 96 million images are uploaded to Instagram every day, with Instagram driving the decline in banner advertising.
A recent survey by Eventbrite showed that 7/10 Millennials experience ‘fear of missing out’ and this dictates their future recreation and spending plans.
Barclaycard shows that for 2017 the UK experience market spend is over 14%, while halo figures for April show a 20% increase in spending in pubs compared with the same month last year. Spending in restaurants went up 16%, while theatres and cinemas enjoyed a 13% rise.
How can design and playability enhance the competitive socialising experience?
With competitive socialising projects, we believe it’s critical to strike the perfect balance between playability and cool design aesthetic. We aim to ensure every concept is totally unique with design elevating the desirability for customers as much as engaging gameplay to keep them coming back. Technology equally enhances the experience, with games and environments that cater for the Instagram, selfie-ready generations.
An example of a brand who gets the balance right is Electric Shuffle. Modernising the traditional game, they use machine vision technology to identify the exact location of the pucks and instantly show players their score on an interactive game screen. Their colourful, fun design approach feels like a modern twist on art deco with neon accents and plenty of curiosities.
For experience-hungry Millennials and Gen Z, tech teamed with cool design allows and motivates customers to easily share mementos from their visit on socials. At Swingers, the winner’s podium serves as an ideal place to capture footage of their visit, with technology providing a seamless experience from snap to social media. Customers become co-marketers!
Many of our current projects combine high-end retail with competitive socialising. Hoyts, one of the largest cinema chains in Australia, have asked us to expand the scope of entertainment options on offer for their customers with a new competitive socialising concept. Funderdome will house mini-golf courses and bars with a colourful and playful beach-vibe as well as futuristic and retro-inspired barcades. Features such as the indoor beach and buildings were inspired by a trip to New York’s Coney Island.
With our crazy golf designs, to ensure super fun as well as challenging playability, all holes undergo computer simulations before fabrication. The next round of testing is by world golf champions who make sure all skill levels are catered for.
So, the key to success in competitive socialising seems to lie in a totally unique and forward-thinking concept that perfectly balances design and playability!
Want to chat competitive socialising?
If you have a great idea for a new competitive socialising concept or are interested in transforming or expanding your existing retail or entertainment concept, get in touch and we can chat through the route to realisation!