The business of play

TL;DR - Play is big business. To gain insight into the role of play in our lives, it’s helpful to look at play as a business. That also helps us understand how it will evolve in the future.?

Author’s Note: In this edition of Play Well, we noodle on the Business of Play. We will play with this topic from time to time in future editions.?

Play is serious business?

Play rocks ??. It’s a secret superpower that brings happiness. It’s also big business. Think about the massive category-defining companies focused on play. the LEGO Group , Hasbro , Nintendo , Roblox , 美国艺电公司 , 耐克 , Spotify , Patagonia and all their peers. What insights can we get about the role of play in our lives from looking at it as a business??

As a marketer, I think in terms of markets when I analyze an industry. What is the market for play? Where is it heading??

Here, and with the Play Well newsletter overall, I’m focused on play for grownups. I think we need play the most, because we often overlook it for ourselves.?

Buyers of play

With any market, you need both buyers and sellers. I like to start with the buyer. Sellers orient to the needs of the buyer.??

Who are the buyers in the market of play for grownups? Everyone is born knowing how to play, so the market is literally every grownup. That’s a huge market! It would be helpful to get a liiiiittle more granular than ‘every grownup,’ right?

A good way to map out buyers in a market is to group them by objective. I see grownups as having three basic objectives related to play:?

• Personal life play - Playing as an individual, pair or group in your personal life. I define play as any activity you choose to do for fun that actively engages your brain. This objective is the most common of the three, by far.?
• Play @ work - Incorporating play into your workday. Play at work can boost creativity, collaboration, and mental resilience.?
• Play it forward - Volunteering or donating to support play-related causes.?

Keith: the play buyer?

Let's take me for example. I have all 3 objectives:?

• Personal life play - Regular readers of this newsletter know this is a big objective for me ??. My top 5 ways to play right now: skiing, golf, crosswords, music, card games (like Taco vs Burrito)?
• Play @ work - Before I knew about the connection between play and mental health, I didn’t think about incorporating play into my workday. Now I try to. This newsletter series is Exhibit A.?
• Play it forward - I seek to give back to the community as a volunteer coach for my two sons’ soccer and basketball teams. Right before the holidays last year I also organized a small fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club, who emphasize play in their programming.?

Sellers of play

Ok, we’ve mapped out the buyers by objective. Let’s look at how the seller side of the market meets those objectives.?

• Personal life play - This is a vast market. Since everyone has a different play personality, there are tons of sub-categories for different ways to play plus all the equipment, experiences, training, etc.?
• Play @ work - This is a much smaller market. The sellers in this market are consultancies, learning & development providers, employee experience firms, and corporate entertainment. A good example is Freestyle+ , which brings improvisational play into companies to boost their employees’ mental fitness. I was fortunate to work with freestyle+ as an advisor this past year.?
• Play it forward - This is a pretty big market. The sellers here are non-profits, foundations, NGOs, local & national governments, and corporate philanthropy arms. I use the word ‘sellers’ and include them in the market, because I believe you don’t need to turn a profit to be a key actor in a market.?

LEGO: the play seller

LEGO is a truly classic seller in this market. I have to share this tidbit first: I was today years old when I learned that the word LEGO is short for the Danish words "LEg GOdt", which means "play well." That’s right . . . Play Well! It’s the perfect example for this newsletter edition on so many levels.

While LEGO’s main focus is children, they create value across all three objective for grownups:?

• Personal life play - It’s all about that #BrickLife, even for grownups. In 2021, LEGO ran its first campaign specifically targeting grownups, titled Adults Welcome. That theme continued with their 90th anniversary campaign in 2022, which “encouraged kids and adults to bring play into daily life.”???
• Play @ work - In 2002 LEGO created a program to teach collaboration skills inside companies, called Serious Play. In 2010, LEGO open-sourced the program, and now different organizations provide Serious Play training & workshops.??
• Play it forward - LEGO believes that children learn best through play. The mission of the LEGO Foundation is to make learning through play a priority for every child. Their goal is to reach 75 million children a year with their programs by 2032.

Future growth

What is the future of the business of play? Where is the market for play going? I will explore these questions more in future editions of Play Well. For now, I offer two hypotheses for how the market for play for grownups will evolve in the next decade:?

1. Mental health becomes an explicit focus of play. As more people become aware of the mental health benefits of play, more people will incorporate play into their self-care routines. More mental health professionals will incorporate play into their caregiving. And because most adults have a play deficit, more non-profits will focus on empowering adults to play.?
2. We play much more @ work. Play makes work better. Once companies understand the competitive advantage of empowering their employees to play, many more companies will embrace it. And people will be happier if they don’t have to stop playing while they’re at work. Dr. Stuart Brown, the founder of the National Institute for Play, shared his vision for playful life, inclusive of work, in his TED Talk:??

I would encourage you all to engage not in the work-play differential – where you set aside time to play – but where your life becomes infused minute by minute, hour by hour, with [different] kinds of play. And I think you'll have a better and more empowered life.

Here's to playing for a better and more empowered life for all of us ??