7 Things About Gamification Campaign Your Boss Wants To Know

“Wow, a gamified campaign sounds awesome! I'm just not sure how to get my Boss onboard”

Lets be completely transparent here, the team here at Gamify love games, why wouldn't we?! but more importantly we believe in the motivational science behind gamification. So, when we have potential partners talk to us about how fun games are, we agree but endeavour to make sure that there is more motivation and understanding behind the urge to create a gamified campaign.

The objective behind educating partners being that, sometimes when they have the task of gaining approval from the higher ups, relying solely on words like ‘fun’ just won't cut it. Bosses want to know that they aren't burning their marketing budget on frivolous, flash in the pan trends.

Having an idea based around a Gamification campaign is all good and fine but if you do not have a firm understanding behind why you think a game campaign would be of great benefit, there is little chance you will be able to convince your boss to get onboard.

In honour of “Bosses Day” (Tuesday, 16th of October), we’ve compiled a list of 7 important details about Gamification Marketing your Boss wants to know, in order to equip you in what could otherwise be an up-hill battle.

1. Engagement

When I say engagement, I do not use this word flippantly. One of the strongest factors within a branded mini-game is its ability to have measurable engagement. Gamify’s software platform allows for the backend to capture data pertaining to how many unique players are engaging with the campaign, who is handing over their information, how many social shares and who is redeeming their earned rewards.

If you haven’t done so already, take yourself over to our Game Library to get a better understanding of the recorded demographics and target markets from previous campaigns along with our case studies which expand on the level of engagement previous clients have received from our game engine.

Unlike most traditional marketing, games cannot unexpectedly pop-up in user feeds, arresting user attention, instead users are provided both an option and incentive to play the game which means any engagement from that point on comes proactively from the user, they are in control, they choose to interact with the company. This alone is a marketing win.

With users engaging with games and inadvertently interacting with businesses, there is an opportunity for businesses to display their messages and brand in a variety of ways throughout the time that the user is participating in gameplay. Games invoke a level of engagement that cannot be reached by the likes of video. In fact, studies have shown that regular TV still has large viewership, unfortunately for stakeholders in the $72 billion TV marketplace, people are habitually looking at their phones during the airing of commercials.

In an age when people look to a screen to be entertained in those daily moments of downtime, most users don’t see the games they’re playing as marketing at all. Games can offer them that quick burst of stimulating activity while also creating product awareness/ passing along new lead information to businesses.

2. Social Media friendly

The beauty of our game software being structured around HTML5 means they can be easily shared across your various social media channels with simple links and embedded play buttons. Social Media channels are the best environments to cultivate a competitive and social buzz around your campaign and brand, having the ability to engage directly with your audience, responding to any questions or posts directed at the brand, promoting game challenges and rewards, along with praising the successful leaderboard entrants and finally crowning a winner at the end of the campaign.

All of these factors attribute to building up a community of competition and play, where players will tag their friends and ultimately bring more traffic to the game and your brand pages. As touched on in an earlier post “10 things to consider before you commission a game”, if your brand’s pre-existing marketing and brand health is poor, you would be foolish to think that a game campaign is the miracle cure, be sure that your brand’s social presence is well-oiled, consistent and structured in the lead up to game campaign in order to get the best results possible.

Consumers today want to do business with brands that they know and trust. When a consumer is able to engage with a company and other users through a game, this registers with the social drive within most consumers and in turn create a positive community outlook towards the brand.

Human-focused design elements in Gamification campaigns such as providing the option for social media shares, in turn creates a space for the best form of advertisement; a happy customer who shares their experience with others.

If your game is interesting, fun, and engaging then it can be highly expected that it will help generate repeat customers and organic social shares.

3. Brand personality

If we’re going to be completely honest, some businesses are simply not cut out for a game. Don’t get us wrong, we at Gamify will endeavour to convey whatever message you wish to get across to your audience in a game but if the message doesn’t fit, it simply does not fit.

That being said, some industries will always be a little more, corporate than others. This does not disqualify them from using a game as a way of reaching their audience, in fact it helps show their audience that their brand can be just as fun and engaging as more low maintenance lifestyle brands.

Your Brand Personality can be enhanced and defined through a game campaign, offering an outlet for your audience to “look behind the curtain” of what could otherwise be considered a cold and impersonal business, this is important for your brand image moving forward and also the end result of the campaign because in the end, the success of your game campaign will ultimately come down to the kind of emotional response you can provoke in your audience.

4. GDPR aligned data capture

Most marketing these days is structured around acquiring more leads and updating database information. The good news in light of the new GDPR structure, is our games can help you collect the information you’re looking for in a GDPR friendly way.

Any post game entry of information from a user regarding leaderboards and reward redemption is all done well within the guidelines of the new GDPR structure.

5. Positive Brand association

In my previous article “The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on Changing Buyer Behaviour”, I discuss how Gamification is structured around Psychologist Martin Seligman’s PERMA model (happiness model) and how the five points; Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishments, all contribute towards Positive Brand Association.

The human desire to be intellectually stimulated and creative, through the accomplishment of a task. When people reach achievements whether they’re big or small, it creates satisfaction and joy within that person which can be a catalyst into doing and achieving more.

In the context of Gamification Marketing, when customers play a game and earn a reward for their success. The positive emotions that are associated are directly linked to the brand in question.

The qualities of Fun and Engagement associated with games can help to create a positive outlook towards the brand associated with the game. Giving users an outlet to feel accomplishment and earn rewards reflects well on any and all related parties.

Even consumers feeling in control when they play a game bodes well for brands. Having the choice to be a participant in an activity as opposed to a video which can leave consumers feeling somewhat held against their will, can go a long way in users having positive association towards a brand.

6. Cost effective and quick

Most marketers can confirm that the required budget for traditional marketing can be astronomical, depending on the brands reach. The required resources from both internal departments and independent hires in order to acquire expected results can become both an overwhelming and costly process. Whereas Gamify's award winning software platform has inbuilt systems in place that allow for businesses to keep track of their consumer traffic and lead information.

Gamify's software helps create a one stop shop for all the required elements of a successful marketing campaign, saving marketers the hassle, time and money that would otherwise go into a marketing campaign. Gamify’s business model is structured around providing clients game templates that are ready to be skinned to your branding and liking. This helps reduce the time in game development, along with the the costs that can go into building a game from scratch. This white-label approach to providing a branded game allows for businesses to focus their attention on the branded packaging we wrap their game in. We will provide material and planning for the campaign timeline, the businesses simply need to sign-off and adopt our materials into their marketing structure.

With the vast majority of the development done, we can turn games around quickly for any last-minute digital campaigns or exhibition stands.

7. Wide Market Reach

Games are multi-generational and appeal to young and old alike. If a business is looking for a way to appeal to consumers of all ages, games are currently the most accessible stream to reach such a wide network of demographics. According to Forbes, in 2017, 42% of global gaming revenue came from mobile gaming, with over $50 billion in revenue.

To give you an understanding of why mobile gaming is so lucrative, 80% of smartphone users play games on their phone, nearly 50% of which play games daily, putting in approximately 1-2 hours of gameplay each day. The Demographic of Male and Female mobile gamers is almost equally split at 48% Female to 52% Male gamers, with the average gamer being 36 years old.

These numbers show that the market is vast and varied, when you marry those figures up with the integration of smart devices into daily life, it becomes quite evident that whichever target market a business is aiming for is well within the reach of Gamification.

The Boss has given the thumbs up, now what?!

Now it’s time to plan your campaign, at Gamify we have a structured sign-off titled, “8 Pillars of Successful Marketing Campaigns”. This is for the benefit of our clients, making sure they’re setup for a win when moving forward on planning a campaign.