Conspicuous experience

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “conspicuous experience” this year – the idea that our experiences are becoming a greater status marker than our possessions, especially through the lens of social media. After going on about it to friends and colleagues for months, Viewpoint allowed me to turn my ramblings into a feature, an extract of which you will find below…

Post-recession, there’s still not much money to go around, which is leading many consumers to focus their spending on experiences that boost memories, relationships and sense of adventure, rather than products that will lose their thrill or usefulness quickly.

Unusual events have almost become the norm for urbanites, who flock to site-specific cinema nights, secret supper clubs, salons, lectures and neighbourhood festivals. Pop-up events have gone mainstream, as consumers realize their value lasts long beyond the event: a one-time event can offer more surprise and discovery than even the most longed-for product. Brands have swiftly jumped on the bandwagon, with every household name creating pop-ups to launch or celebrate the experience of using key products, from Nike’s Feel London “exploration space” to Magnum ice-cream bars’ Pleasure Store in Toronto. While consumers continue to appreciate innovative and immersive brand experiences, they’re also looking for unique and personal experiences that help express and build their own identity.

As Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, authors of recent book Happy Money: The Science Of Smarter Money, write, “Dozens of studies show that people get more happiness from buying experiences than from buying material things. Experiential purchases — such as trips, concerts and special meals — are more deeply connected to our sense of self, making us who we are”. In the book, Dunn and Norton highlight 5 ways for people to gain greater happiness from their spending: the first is “Buy Experiences”.

Tom Marchant, co-founder of experiential travel company Black Tomato, believes, “People are realizing that its experiences that give colour and richness to their lives – they are defining themselves by what they’ve done.” Even luxury consumers are refocusing their spending on experiences, rather than goods. A Boston Consulting Group study found that sales of luxury experiences outpaced luxe goods by 50% in 2012, with even consumers in emerging markets beginning to switch their allegiances from branded goods to indulgent experiences. “All over the world, luxury shoppers tell us they’d rather spend more on experiences than on clothes and jewelry. They’ve gone from ‘all my friends and I wear Cartier’ to ‘I cherish spa days with my friends,’” says Michelle Eirinberg Kluz, a Boston Consulting Group principal. “Although experiences are more intangible than an item, consumers consider them more memorable.”

But they’re not exactly keeping these extraordinary experiences under their hats – sharing (and even showing off) details of their experiences seems to be a key element of their personal value. James Wallman, author of Stuffocation, points out, before the advent of social media, status symbols only needed to be visible to those physically nearby: “what you owned – car, handbag, branded clothes – counted much more in terms of signifying status. After all, who knew you’d just been to the latest restaurant or away for the weekend?” But now, with the world increasingly viewed through the prism of Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Twitter and even Snapchat, what people do has more impact than what they have. “Because of how many followers and friends you have on Facebook and Twitter, far fewer people will actually see you driving your swanky car or holding your fancy handbag than will know that you’re sitting on a chair lift in Chamonix, watching the sunset from the rooftop of your riad in Marrakech, or playing golf on the roof of Selfridges”, says Wallman.

This conspicuous experience can be showcased through stories at dinner parties or over fences or watercoolers, but is most powerful when told and filtered through social media. As edible experiences guru Sam Bompas of Bompas & Parr  told me, “Consumers need to have more creative lives now – it’s no longer good enough to just go to the pub on the weekend. People feel they have to do something fantastic, and get the pictures to prove it”.

When it comes to experiential spending, travel tops the list for many consumers. Marchant says, “Many people don’t see travel as discretionary spend – they’re still pursuing value, but travel is something they’re less willing to give up. It’s something they can look forward to, so they’re willing forgo spending on other items”. According to McKinsey research, 30% of European luxury consumers are willing to spend less on luxury goods in order to afford experiences such as travel, while a TripAdvisor survey in Spain found that 58% of consumers would sacrifice buying new clothes to afford a holiday, while 55% would buy fewer gifts and 50% would reduce their alcohol consumption.

A key part of many trips is the ability to share the experience, whether through Facebook albums, live tweets or instant Instagram shares. Some travel companies are leveraging conspicuous experience to weave status updates right into the itinerary. A French ski resort in Vars enables has installed video cameras to capture skiers and snowboarders best tricks, which can be posted directly to Facebook. In Majorca, Sol Wave House has transformed itself into a Twitter-themed hotel, which allows guests to order room service or drinks by the pool via tweets. Sydney’s Instagram-themed hotel, 1888, all rooms are decorated with blown-up Instagram snaps (as well as the kind of nostalgic/authentic décor Instagrammers favour), plus a booth in the lobby for “selfies” (self-portraits captured by a smartphone camera), while guests with over 10,000 followers on the app, or those who take the best pictures of the hotel, can get a free night’s stay.

Images from top: Nike Feel London; Casestagram; Sol Wave House

Clever things club

In my line of work, you have to be a sponge for everything that’s going on – reading everything, always listening and watching. Most of the time, that means reading anything I come across – Twitter links being the greatest boon to trendsters in finding things you didn’t know were interesting, without leaving your desk. But there’s another tool in learning about things which requires leaving one’s desk or sofa and getting out into the world – one which is so very old-school, but gaining increasing social currency.

It’s going to lectures – something most people would never have considered doing once they escaped college. Sitting in a room as grand and legendary as the theatre at the Royal Institution, or a concrete-floored “space” in Shoreditch or in the private dining rooms of Soho restaurants, more people are literally taking themselves out of their comfort zones to go and hear about something new or different, or debate key contemporary topics. Sometimes you get to go to these things for work, like the great School of Life or  It’s Nice That events or even a TEDx, and so the inspiration and enlightenment you get from the various expert or visionary speakers has a useful outlet. But generally, it’s just exercise for the mind.

A couple of my friends and I like to watch out for interesting and unusual talks to attend on a lunchtime or a weekday evening, especially if it involves the promise of a sharp wine or artisan beer (these being the usual tipples offered with your ticket price). We call this Clever Things Club. Events range from talks by inventors, jellymongers, lexicographers and pornographers to discussions on the role of feminism in fashion or opinion in media. If i talk about people going to improving events like this with my work hat on, i usually ascribe it to people wanting more bang for their buck out of their leisure time – looking for culture, entertainment and a wine without having to shell out for all three, lectures are great value for cash- and time-poor consumers. But there’s something else too – the wonder of the new.

It’s easy to get caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of things we like, things we do, things we’re used to, people we know. The comfort of sticking to what we know/like is pleasant and all, but can also become a bubble, causing us to lose touch with the excesses, adventures and awesomeness in the world. Call it the Wheelhouse Effect, the Filter Bubble, or just plain getting stuck in a rut – whatever, it’s important to break out of the familiar algorithmed world we live  in and learn things, hear different opinions, appreciate others’ experiences and look at things in a new way. It might not always be highbrow, but if it opens your mind to something else even for a little while,  it’s excellent value.

Play time

I love Viewpoint magazine. It’s kind of an oddity – a lushly printed, highly visual and thinkful biannual magazine that charges £45 every issue (because it has no ads). You can barely find it anywhere, but it’s well worth seeking out, believe. It’s from the same stable as Textile View, View on Colour and Bloom, and it’s the first place I ever had anything published (at the tender age of 18). I’ve now been writing for Viewpoint for the last 15 years, off and on (including a stint as editor) and it’s a real treat to get to write for it still. I’ve previously featured extracts of Viewpoint stuff on this here blog (on Desire and Romance)and I recently did a thing about Play for the mag, so I thought I’d put an extract here for the internet’s delectation (Viewpoint is still stubbornly old media, so you can’t read it online).

Playing with the everyday

“Everyone wants to play”, says Sam Bompas, partner at food experience designers Bompas & Parr. “People have told themselves that they need to behave in a grown-up way, but in the right context they are happy to let go”. Bompas believes that the hugely popular interactive artworks by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Carsten Holler have encouraged people to think about their environment in a new way, and delight in simple pleasures.

Just as Holler’s slides encouraged serious gallery-goers to reconsider what art can do for human interactions, Dutch design firm HIK Ontwerpers installed a slide at a rail station to help commuters reconsider their daily journey. The “transfer accelerator” was designed as a nice gesture for travelers, as well as a carefree way to speed up the morning commute and improve wellbeing in its run-down locale.

A competition to create a new bridge across the Seine also hopes to encourage Parisians to think differently about their environment. One of the winning designs is an inflatable trampoline bridge, which would allow people to bounce across the famous river.

Streetlife

For many, this kind of public play is part of a growing pursuit of extraordinary experiences in everyday life. Bompas believes, “Consumers need to have more creative lives now – it’s no longer good enough to just go to the pub on the weekend. People feel they have to do something fantastic, and get the pictures to prove it”, particularly for the benefit of their online social networks.

The result is an explosion of opportunities for play, as streets become playgrounds again – with games that are a whole lot more sophisticated than hopscotch.  Berlin’s Playpublik, the Festival for Playful Public Spaces, used the city streets as part of a series of digital/real games around the city’s Computer Games Museum. Games ranged from parkour to micro-board games and collect-and-swap contests.

Meanwhile, in London, Hide&Seek’s 99 Tiny Games project suggested simple games via plaques mounted in 33 different locations around the city during summer 2012. The plaques instructed passers-by in games such as Rushing Roulette, where players spin round with eyes closed, then try to point at the centre of the plaque, and Twickers, a twig-pulling game, where the loser is the one whose twig snaps first.

Immersive playgrounds

Some forms of play adhere to the digital culture that spawned them, using real-life landscapes as just another platform in a multi-level game.  Shadow Cities, a multiplayer online game, uses real streets as its playing surface. Smartphone users can form teams as they attempt to control the world of the game, which is overlaid on a real-world map, using GPS.

In London, Mudlark’s Chromarama game takes the geolocation-tagging and badge-winning appeal of Foursquare further by creating a game based on commuters’ routes around the city. The game uses travel data captured by players’ Oyster cards to award points for those who get off the tube early and walk to their destination, or those who go on quests to famous, or undiscovered, parts of the city.

Alex Fleetwood, director of social gaming agency Hide& Seek, believes this is only the beginning of online/offline play. “I think we’re going to see a deep integration of the video game culture as we presently understand it with older, more embodied, more situated forms of play – sports, parlour games, games in public spaces – linking everything that’s thrilling about computer-mediated games with everything that’s important about old-fashioned social play.

Conspicuous experience

Although much of the play renaissance is about the pursuit of release, variety and thrill, there’s also an element of competitive leisure. As Bompas comments, “The drive for experience is evolving. It’s not merely about going to a great event or getting involved with fun stuff, but making people stars in their free time. So play becomes a different kind of conspicuous consumption – it becomes conspicuous experience.”

After all, when money is tight, consumers are much happier to show off about things they’ve done, rather than things they’ve bought. But with brands, marketers and retailers focusing so heavily on the intangible value of “experience” over the last decade, palates for experience have become more sophisticated, and if a brand is going to get involved in play, they have to create an experience that’s truly remarkable, or just truly useful.