A Basement of Addicts

My son and I are addicts. I am 45 years old, he will turn 12 in November.

This realization snuck up on me slowly, but finally hit me late this summer. It was about 6 pm on an early August night. Both me and my son were in the basement feeding our addictions. We could have and should have been outside, it was a beautiful summer evening with plenty of light remaining.

Instead, we were in the basement, in adjoining rooms. We were separated by a set of French doors; I could see him, but he was not paying attention to me. I was watching him feed his addiction as I gave in to mine.

I was 30 minutes into my session and was really struggling; sweating profusely and gasping for air. I chose this pain; I loved it and hated it.

Through my sweaty, blurry vision and the set of Home Depot French doors, I could see him: my first born, sprawled out, his upper body on a bean bag chair and his legs spread across the rug. He was wearing large headphones with a microphone and was holding violent conversations, punctuated by laughs, with people who were not there.

In reality, we were both addicts of perfectly legal and increasingly popular and celebrated technology enabled services. I was riding a Peloton spinning bike and my son was playing Fortnite on his Microsoft XBox One X. We were competing via technology with other users. I was racing up a spinning leaderboard, trying to earn personal bests, and beat my mileage goals. My son was counting kills, wins, skins and an assortment of things I somewhat understood.

There were actually many similarities between the services we were using and the companies behind them.

Through our addictions we are both connected to people across the world and able to enjoy their company, camaraderie, and competition without physically being with each other. In fact, each of us has a growing network of addicted peers to compete and cooperate with. The social element of both the bike and the game form one of the core value propositions that customers love in each offering.

Additionally, both Peloton and Fortnite make use of gamified rewards and statistics to highlight their users skill, build their self esteem and increase their status across their digital communities. While all users on both platforms are competing, in the digital space there are always more awards to be produced and won — its not a zero sum game. Additionally, on both platforms, more time builds more skill and success, breading more awards and thus more engagement. Gamification 101.

Beyond social play and gamification, both Peloton and Fortnite are multi-platform. My son and I can leave the basement behind (my Peloton bike and his XBox One X) to use our chosen services and engage with our community.

As the popularity of each grew, both Peloton Interactive and Epic Games (the maker of Fortnite) have broadened the platforms on which users can participate. I can use my iPhone or iPad to take Peloton classes on other bikes or I can stream yoga or strength training or other fitness classes from my backyard, office, or a mountain top in Scottsdale (yes I took a Peloton yoga class there).

My son can play Fortnite on his mobile device or his chromebook. In fact, from my Peloton saddle, I have seen my son play Fortnite on his console, while watching another player’s stream on Twitch on his laptop — all while talking to his Fortnite buddies on Facetime. While that instance occurred in our basement, it highlights the multiple platforms that Epic Games has used to grow Fortnite.

While there are more similarities — an awesome core product, continually offering new content for users — and plenty of differences between the offerings, the success of Fortnite and Peloton highlight some of the great opportunities available in the innovation economy when leveraging gamification, cross platform offerings and social engagement.

The ability to combine and balance these elements is a truly challenging business feat and only works when the core product or service creates true, unique value for customers. In the cases of Peloton and Fortnite, the core products and services are excellent, allowing the companies to exploit social engagement, gamification, multiple points of engagement.

Peloton and Epic’s goal of creating daily active users that drive revenue is not new — everyone from cigarette and newspaper makers to coffee and toothpaste sellers try — but as Fornite, Peloton and my basement of addicts makes clear, technology and media allow new strategies and combinations of offerings for peddling products and services to connected consumers.