'Social Wellness'
Everyone wants to be a community-building brand! Plus more news & trends: 'Protein candy,' vitamin brand woes, and why are GLP-1 makers funding body positivity orgs?
Welcome new readers! (We’ve hit 15K subscribers! 🎉) A heads up that Well To Do starts with an essay followed by a roundup of the latest news & trends!
Updates:
I spoke with Religion News Service about The Well Church, a “church where wellness meets spirituality in community.” This ties back to the New York Times piece I wrote several years back about organized religion getting in on wellness to woo back worshippers (Ramadan bootcamps, Catholic meditation apps, Jewish prayer hikes, etc.)
Religion News: A church where wellness meets spirituality
RELATED: NYT: Where Group Prayer Meets Group Fitness
—Rina Raphael
‘Social Wellness’
One of the top questions I’m asked these days: How do we make our brand a social wellness brand?
I get it. So many brands now clamor for “community,” “connection,” and “social health.”
Noom’s new app, Noom Vibe, for example, wants to “foster social connectedness” through audio “community circles.” Cannabis brands claim they promote social wellness by relaxing the consumer. Virgin Active is rebranding from “just a gym” to “social wellness club.”
The same goes for any resort or club that has a sauna. Aman’s newest hotel brand Janu is now “powered by social wellness and connection.”
Is any shared social experience or human interaction now marketable as “social wellness?” (By that logic, can we start referring to bars as social wellness clubs?) Or are we endeavoring towards more meaningful peer-to-peer connection and belonging?
Mind you, this isn’t just relegated to the wellness industry. Retail brands are transforming brick-and-mortar shops into third-space hubs “for community, culture and creativity,” according to The Future Laboratory. Glossy recently asked: Are community-based concept stores the future of fashion retail?
We increasingly expect brands to fill our voids—to help us achieve something we’re missing. And increasingly, we’re missing other people.
I predicted one of the biggest wellness “trends”: addressing the loneliness epidemic. So, where do we stand now?
Nearly 50% of consumers look to the wellness industry for a sense of connection, according to a MindBody report. And self-care culture is changing, as I reported in 2022. Younger adults are particularly trying to prioritize socializing as part of their wellness routine. Youth intelligence data firm YPulse surveyed 1,500 13 to 39-year-olds, and nearly two-thirds of respondents, skewing more Gen Z than millennials, agreed with the statement, “my social life affects my wellness as much as physical health.”
Meanwhile, the industry is revving up. In the last few years, I profiled pricey “social self-care” clubs and how Silicon Valley is investing in social wellness startups like Peoplehood, which aim to monetize in-person support groups—basically, imagine AA without the addiction. As I wrote for the LA Times, “emotional support now comes with a membership fee.” (I’m a bit skeptical of these models for reasons noted in the articles.)
Gyms more naturally extend themselves into communal events since they are increasingly the place to meet and mingle. It’s why popular franchises focus on socialization, such as F45, which organizes experiences like group brunch after class. Gen-Z and millennials are spending 5-10% of their income on fitness “not only as something great for longevity and health but also [as] a social space,” says Women’s Health editor Liz Plosser.
Gyms and yoga / wellness spaces have long been social outlets, partially due to how Americans view them and how often they frequent these places. In fact, some say the communal benefits outweigh the primary health draw. From The Gospel of Wellness:
A small Brown University study suggests that with instructor-led mindfulness programs, the social factor is potentially “more significant than the type or amount of meditation practiced.” The “with whom” may just trump the “how” because face-to-face contact has been shown to lessen anxiety, stress, and depression. In interviewing more than a hundred participants, researchers found they frequently spoke about their relationships with fellow participants and the class instructor, notably “the expression of feelings and the installation of hope.”
Community-building is tough. And it’s a tricky area to monetize, especially in-person solutions. Stephen Hays, founder of What If Ventures, a VC fund centered on mental health (and who I previously profiled here), is on the lookout for social support startups. But, as he told me last year, “The difficulty is that there are so many free options out there so finding the right pain point, right payer, right use case is key.”
In my book, I touch upon the various ways the wellness industry has tried to sell “community”—in some ways good, and in other ways problematic. I’m not opposed to Silicon Valley and brands helping us connect, and at the very least, we have more awareness and interest. But, as with everything else in health, the real solution is a bit more complicated. Overall, I don’t see any industry innovation that compares with policy or grassroots efforts. And even federal initiatives to bring people together are challenging, as I detailed here. Culture and norms play a massive role in our social well-being, and it’s hard to imagine the private sector pushing it in new ways, save for the ones that have already proven successful.
In other words: I’m still betting on gyms and the growing outdoor market (walking / hiking / running groups), but other than that, not much else in the industry for the moment. But hey, I love to be proven wrong! Got something exciting? Hit me up.
Previously:
News & Trends:
Pharma is now funding the body positivity movement: A third of the Obesity Action Coalition’s donations come from companies like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, makers of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. Why? (Unsettled Science)
Protein candy is a thing now: Hershey’s partnered with One Brands to protein-pack Reese’s Peanut Butter and their Cookies ‘N’ Creme bar. I dunno, this feels like candy bar mutilation. (Stack3D)
… As is functional candy: “The first candy to help you snack strong.” (Link)
Meanwhile, is every beloved brand of my youth partnering with wellness? Behold, Liquid IV popsicles.
Are Blue Zones loaded with record-keeping mistakes and fraud? Experts are debating a preprint suggesting the Blue Zone might be a bit of a myth or at the very least, inaccurate. (Tamar Haspel)
Beauty marketing goes all in on “science”: Been repeating this for the last two years: “Natural,” “clean,” and “free-from” are out. “Science” and “efficacy” are in. (Glossy)
Previously: Why ‘Science-Washing’ Is Surging in Wellness
Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, is pivoting to older populations as birth rates decline: “The 50+ age group in most countries around the world is going to increase significantly over the next 10 to 20 years,” said CEO Mark Schneider. (LSN)
Erewhon’s latest membership benefit isn’t food or wellness-related: Members can now get access to exclusive invite-only dating app Blush. Makes sense since Erewhon has been called “Tinder for groceries.” (SFGate)
Fhitting Room to shut down most studios, blames booking platforms: The HIIT brand says “aggressive third-party booking companies have changed the way many clients book and buy classes; the result is significantly less revenue.” (Athletech News)
Bayer teams up with Samsung wearables to study menopause sleep disturbances: Roughly 50% of menopausal women report sleep disturbances as one of the top bothersome symptoms. (FutureFemHealth)
1 in 5 employees feel lonely: Loneliness is more prevalent among employees younger than age 35, and fully remote employees report significantly higher levels of loneliness than those on-site. Do companies have an obligation to tend to this issue? (Gallup)
Do we need more celebs to help combat health misinfo? Bayer enlisted former New England Patriots player Julian Edelman for a social media campaign targeting wellness fads and medical misinformation called #WellnessConfessionals. (Link)
Elvie’s new (and free) pelvic health app: The gamified app wants to help women build a consistent pelvic floor training routine. (Femtech Insider)
Previously: LA Times: Pelvic health is the hot new wellness market
Nike x Hyperice’s “recovery” massage sneaker: The high-top sneaker/boot can supposedly massage your feet on demand. (Sneaker News)
Reimaging country club sports? Ballers is a new, non-traditional social sports club backed by celebrity athletes and set to open in big U.S. cities. “The impetus for the brand was bringing country club sports to the city, and kind of dirtying them up… Our program marries traditional prep sports like tennis, squash, and golf with newer trendy sports like pickle and padel — and layers them onto a surprising industrial site.” (Skift)
Deeper Dives:
Why Did Vitamin Brand Care/of Shut Down?
Care/of, a subscription service that offered “personalized” vitamins, announced it was shutting down last week. This, after Bayer acquired a 70% stake in 2020 in a deal reportedly worth $225 million. So what exactly went wrong? Rohit Bhadange goes into the history of the brand – and how its decisions ultimately led to consumer skepticism and an unsustainable business. (Link)
The Truth About America’s Most Common Surgery
In the new book “Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section,” Rachel Somerstein uses the history of the Cesarean section to explore troubling patterns across our healthcare system. “Despite the C-section being the country's most common surgery, many expectant parents are not encouraged to seek out information about the specifics. This leaves mothers poorly equipped for the procedure's aftermath, especially when the surgery is unplanned … So much of the harm done in American delivery rooms happens because providers dismiss patients’ concerns or don’t communicate with them at all—some providers pressure, or even force, women into having Cesareans.” (The Atlantic)
On The Urge To Think Things Suck Worse Now Than Ever Before
Scientific American has been receiving much criticism lately, and its most recent thinkpiece sure didn’t help. Two scholars penned an article arguing we are “objectively speaking, we are living through a dumpster fire of a historical moment.” But are we? There’s some shit going down around the world, but is this truly one of the worst times for humanity? You’d need data to back that up. (Singal-Minded)