IS THAT FOR REAL? FAKE EXPERIENCES.
WHAT’S GOING ON
As economies all around the world shift out of agriculture and manufacturing to a service based economy, and as we become healthier, wealthier and more educated, our appetite and expectations for novel, adventure and immersive experiences is rising.
Consequently we are seeing the global rise of fake experiences emulating real life experiences.
For example, demand is growing for indoor recreational centres that emulate experiences that were once the haven of adrenaline junkies and out of reach of the average person, particularly ‘thrill seeking experiences’ (due to factors such as cost, physical ability and the odd bit of bravery required to jump out of a plane):
- Several indoor skydiving centres have opened up around the country, including facilities in Perth, Penrith and Gold Coast allowing those who aren’t brave enough to jump out of a plane to live the experience.
- Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are all working on building wave pool parks where novice surfers can take part in the activity without a worry of sharks or getting caught in a rip. You are literally in safe waters.
- Indoor ski parks are the latest to join the rank. Only last week China announced to debut the world’s biggest indoor ski park in Shanghai, developed by the owner of the world’s famous Dubai ski park.
- Penrith is also developing the country’s first carbon neutral indoor snow centre due to open by 2025. The complex will include an 80 metre beginner slope, a snow play area, ice skating rink, ice climbing and rock climbing areas and fitness facilities.
- A Bear Grylls Adventure Park is opening in Birmingham later this year. The park is designed around real-life challenges faced by Bear Grylls (Man vs. Wild) himself. For those brave enough, the complex will feature indoor skydiving, climbing and the highest free-roam high ropes in Europe, and even a zip line from a Chinook helicopter.
Technology is further enabling our hunger for experiences. Our favourite example comes from a recent partnership between Samsung and Uniting Aged Care. The partnership involves a pilot program that will see Samsung visit five Uniting aged care homes across NSW and the ACT to encourage residents to ‘tick off’ their bucket lists through immersive virtual reality experiences. Residents will select an experience from their personal ‘bucket list’ that they have not yet achieved, particularly those they have always dreamed of doing. Samsung will source the virtual reality content based on their individual request for them to enjoy in the aged care facilities.
We have previously spoken about the tech giant’s ambitions to create augmented reality (AR) experiences with Facebook ploughing millions of dollars into developing AR platforms.
GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION
- We believe the new experience economy has only just begun with fake experiences becoming a core feature of it – making experiences attainable to the many rather than the few.
- In a world where social is the new currency, social media is the perfect platform that feeds this growing trend. Engaging in thrill seeking activities is just half the fun, sharing it with your social network completes the experience as we continuously seek approval and validation from those around us.
- As our growing desire for experiential consumption over material possession in our on-going pursuit towards happiness grows, we believe this trend towards fake experiences will become even more pronounced in years to come as we increasingly pass up the latest handbag to shell out for experiences that bring out a level of bravery and adventure in all of us.
