\u201c… While this retreat won\u2019t be for everyone, those meant to be there will feel it in their bones …\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the pitch from Winter, who posted the invitation on Monday to her 100,000-plus Instagram followers as she angled for expressions of interest for the 20 available spots (two, she said, had already sold by the time she posted). The $10,000 private room package isn\u2019t a fee per se, but rather a \u201csacred contribution\u201d for the all-inclusive retreat set to take place in June next year, according to the event\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Nourish and Bloom is Winter\u2019s expansion from cookbook author into the growing $11 trillion global wellness industry. It\u2019s where followers look for meaning and guidance in sound and energy healing, alchemy (a mystic form of something close to chemistry), breath work, and a host of other alternative and fringe practices that often have little to no scientific evidence that they work. Wellness culture is a subject that RNZ\u2019s podcast The Lodge examined earlier this year through the cult of Chinese-born guru Aiping Wang, who established a base in New Zealand\u2019s South Island.<\/p>\n
And Winter isn\u2019t the first influencer or content creator to branch out into an in-person event. Influencers are increasingly exploring the benefits of in-person events to further build their communities and create other revenue streams, according to Business Insider.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Winter could do a couple of these a year, that is a tidy income,\u201d says Bodo Lang, a marketing professor at Massey University.<\/p>\n
He likened the retreat and similar events to the status symbol of driving a luxury car.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Attending] would be a great dinner party conversation starter with high-flying friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the aspirational language and wellness jargon populating Winter\u2019s Instagram post and the Nourish and Bloom website, it\u2019s clearly aimed at New Zealanders at the top of the income and education scale, and wouldn\u2019t make much sense to those on lower incomes, Lang says.<\/p>\n
Content creators typically have a few goals in mind when they invite followers to in-person events, says Lang. It is, of course, about making money, but it is also for creating more content at the event and turning attendees into \u201cword of mouth agents\u201d or \u201cbrand apostles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will preach about how amazing it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the perspective of content creators who run events, \u201cit is converting your largely passive, possibly loss-making audience online into a community, customers and ultimately super fans,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Many followers would have spent years in a \u201cparasocial\u201d relationship \u2013 a one-sided, non-reciprocal connection \u2013 with Winter through her social media presence, cookbooks, and other media. That makes an in-person retreat \u201ca real gap closer, an aspirational gap-closer to get close to people you are really into online,\u201d says Lang.<\/p>\n
He believes some New Zealand consumers are nursing Covid hangovers after the isolation of lockdowns, feeding a hunger for in-person connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are still working from home, so I think people crave contact with other people, particularly if they are slightly out of reach … \u2018Suddenly I am one of 20 at this particular [retreat]\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The growing wellness industry is worth more than $11 trillion globally. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
Anesha Dhanji, who follows Winter on Instagram, was interested in the retreat but ultimately didn\u2019t sign up. The $10,000 fee was too great, and Winter hinted there would be more affordable opportunities in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat attracted me to it is firstly that I\u2019m interested in personal growth and self-reflection, especially after a very difficult two years,\u201d Dhanji wrote to RNZ on Instagram.<\/p>\n
She has never been to the retreat location in the Southern Alps and was keen to meet new friends and make connections.<\/p>\n
Sophie Stephens is a travel and food influencer based in Christchurch who runs social events through her initiative Girls Eat and Meet. The events, like the one this Thursday, are mostly sold out, demonstrating a need for women to have real-life connections, she says, pointing to the success of running clubs started by influencers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually made three of my really close friends through Girls Eat and Meet events,\u201d says Stephens, who started the initiative not long after she moved to the city.<\/p>\n
The events don\u2019t make much money but are a way for Stephens, who is also a marketing consultant, to find an altruistic meaning in her existing social media platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hate to think the girls coming were overpaying,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Winter did not respond to RNZ\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c… While this retreat won\u2019t be for everyone, those meant to be there will feel it in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35029,95,13851,138,3623,169,39307,3756,106,111,139,69,11588,18217,39309,39306,5510,39308],"class_list":["post-44364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-10k","tag-and","tag-author","tag-business","tag-celebrity","tag-chef","tag-chelsea","tag-cookbook","tag-head","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-retreat","tag-serena","tag-solomon","tag-unpacking","tag-wellness","tag-winters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}