Wellness Gaming

Here's a Saatchi Wellness blog first: we have a post from one of our fans from Facebook!

Bob Easley is feeling some inspiration from the Nintendo Wii Fit, and the new options in wellness that it presents. Pretty cool, actually, if you think about how gamers have gone from being couch potatoes to athletes.

Hope this finds you well -- Jim.

Introducing our "friend", Bob Easley:

There was an article in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal that’s another interesting example of how the world is evolving toward a new, ever widening perspective on Wellness:

A Pitcher's New Core Routine

The last time most of us looked, video-gaming brought forth thoughts of the marginally scary “Grand Theft Auto” or perhaps the latest version “Madden” -- and of teenage afternoons in front of the screen that might be better spent outdoors or in the library. Video games, it was said, were a root cause of the obesity epidemic.

Now a video game – the Nintendo Wii Fit – is part of a Major League Baseball player’s fitness routine! And it’s being covered in The Wall Street Journal, of all places! How things have changed!

It’s a reminder that “Wellness” is, or could be, just about anywhere. The innovators at Nintendo found their way into a gigantic new market when they rolled out the Fit version of the Wii.

Now the game is everywhere from Senior Centers to major league locker rooms (and some agency and client conference rooms as well). If video games can be thought of, developed, and marketed from a wellness perspective, is there a category that can’t be embraced? (Saatchi Wellness has certainly demonstrated once again that condoms are not off-limits!)

Much like the way marketers of every stripe and flavor have rushed to make sure they offer i-phone applications, all of us should be exploring how to connect our brands to consumers in new ways to bring wellness more fully into their lives. Product innovation, strategic focus, and messaging will all be better. It’s both a business opportunity for our clients, and a quality-of-life opportunity for the consumer. In the language of Wii baseball, that’s a home run!

- Bob Easley, fan of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness