The Play Book:
What's shaping the way we unwind?

A lot of us are often striving to find the perfect work/life balance. But when it comes to life and our free leisure time, what’s really driving the things we prioritise? Are our choices changing in a cost-of-living crisis? Do factors like gender, age and relationship status affect our leisure time and spending?

The report ‘The Play Book: A deep dive into the UK’s downtime’ produced by PrettyGreen, aims to uncover new insights about how the UK is prioritising its leisure time in 2024, and which paid activities and experiences are stealing the biggest share of time and wallet. It also features commentary from marketing experts at brands including ITV, Abba Voyage, Merlin Entertainment and Thresholds Sports, offering their views on the challenges and opportunities the findings present.

This research is focused on specific paid-for leisure sectors where consumer brands either activate directly or through partnerships and sponsorship, to help inform brand planning and brand marketing strategy for 2024. Conducted through an online omnibus survey by Opinium in late November 2023, 2,000 UK adults were surveyed, nationally representative of age, gender, region, and social grade. In this report, we use generational definitions to analyse results by age, which represents the following age cohorts: Gen Z (18-26), Millennial (27 – 42), Gen X (43 – 58) and Baby Boomers (59-77).