How Game-based Marketing is Transforming Brand Strategies

It's no secret that video games have taken over the world. In fact, a recent study by Newzoo showed that 79% of the world's population frequently interacts with gaming, and this number is only going to continue to grow.

As a business owner, it's important to understand how this trend can be used to your advantage. Game mechanics is a powerful tool that can be used to engage customers and create brand awareness within a marketing campaign.

In a world where people are constantly glued to their phones and screens, it's no wonder that brands are starting to explore mobile gaming as a way to connect with a target audience.

Gamified marketing is still relatively new, but it has already proven to be extremely effective in engaging customers and building brand loyalty.

In this article, we will discuss the basics of gamification marketing and how it can be used to benefit brands.

What is game-based marketing and how does it work?

Game-based marketing can be used as a fun way to reach a target audience within playable ads as a way of combining your ad units with an interactive game or incorporating gaming elements in a non-gaming context.

Providing an immersive, engaging, and fun experience with your brand will help customers to remember your name and this is the biggest advantage of a gamified campaign.

A gamification marketing strategy can be used by any business, across any industry, and it is one of the most effective ways for brands to deliver their message in a creative way to their existing customers and attract new customers.

Brands can implement a variety of game mechanics in their marketing strategies such as:

• Achievements: digital badges, levels, or points are given to the user as a reward for reaching some pre-established accomplishment.

• Leaderboards: users are ranked according to their performance in the game, creating competition and inducing higher involvement rates.

• Countdown: players are challenged to complete a specific task in a limited time period (usually a few seconds).

• Progress: Customers are asked to progress in a certain activity and there is an element that displays their progression (think loyalty reward programs).

What are some of the benefits of using gamification in marketing campaigns for businesses and consumers alike?

Reading about the popularity of gaming across all generations, you may have already realised that there are plenty of mutually beneficial advantages and benefits for businesses and consumers when a brand implements gamification techniques into its digital marketing strategy.

People are intrigued by games and gamification makes it easy for brands to create fun content that their followers can engage in. The people who engage in the games are able to discover the brand’s products in a fun and interactive way for better marketing efficiency.

Below, we will break down the top six benefits of gamification techniques in digital marketing and explain why they are so effective.

1. Gamification increases and improves user engagement

As users are encouraged to take specific actions with gamification, often engagement rates are higher and better than those achieved in previous traditional advertising campaigns.

Businesses are able to engage their customers better through gamified content. The incentives offered at the end of every game such as digital badges, rewards, and price discounts are used to encourage users to further interact with a brand.

Through engagement, the users are able to learn more about the brand, the brand's message, and its products, and this helps with the company’s marketing efforts.

Customer satisfaction within interactive digital marketing can associate games with a positive association with a brand. This development of positive feelings towards the company can increase the chances of making a sale.

Studies indicate that there is a 100 – 150% rise in user engagement and positive consumer behaviour as a result of gamified content and for the businesses that are looking to effectively engage their audience, gamification efforts are the way to go.

Engagement can be the very first step of a long-term relationship between the customer and the brand, which leads to the next benefit of gamified campaigns, brand awareness.

2. Gamification helps to grow brand awareness and loyalty

As stated earlier, customers who keep your brand’s name in their minds for a long time after having an interactive experience with a branded game are a valuable asset for your business.

A positive customer experience can develop brand recall and an emotional connection with the marketed brand which results in loyal customers.

According to a recent publication made by Gallup, engaged customers represent “an average 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth compared with the average customer”.

3. Gamification helps to gather useful customer data

Gathering customer data and new leads are not always easy, especially under general data protection regulation, and this is where gamification comes to play.

Gamification marketing is a simple funnel system for brands to collect valuable user data. Users must provide their personal information in order to take part in a game, such as a name, address, and home. This data may be used to provide personalised services to the users.

Games are one of the most common ways for website owners to attract visitors. Offering users the opportunity to have a pleasurable experience or even win a prize or reward is likely to make them more willing to provide you with potential data.

The data also provides businesses with crucial information about their consumers' demographics, which helps them to tailor their offerings to the demands of their clients.

Speaking of target audience demographics...

4. Gamification helps reach a diverse audience

Games were designed to be challenging in order to appeal to the Millennial generation. Generation Z, on the other hand, grew up during the smartphone and digital technology era and are visually motivated.

The demands for digital marketing are higher than ever before, due to these two generations and gamification is able to assist with that.

Gamification taps into providing visual content that these younger generations prefer when it comes to product marketing. Bite-sized and easily digestible content that is highly visual and interactive.

Gamification strategy, therefore, adds a creative edge to a brand’s marketing efforts and this allows them to remain competitive and relevant to its users.

5. Gamification increases conversion rates

As players engage with the gamified elements provided by your brand, they are more likely to respond to your CTA, than if it was a traditional banner ad or any other marketing method in order to win the rewards that you have attached to the interactive experience. This will help to improve your conversion rates.

Consider, for example, an e-commerce store where you provide users with a 20% discount if they are to fill out a short quiz form. The user is likely to take advantage of that discount and proceed to use it to make a purchase on your store site.

Gamified content can be a win-win for customers and companies alike, customers are rewarded for their efforts and companies receive GDPR-compliant data.

6. Makes the promotional offers more interesting

Consumer behaviour can be, many times, more emotional than rational. Often, the same offer or product may be interpreted differently, depending on the context and circumstance of the approach.

As an example, users may ignore a clickable banner that advertises a 10% discount in the next hours, but they may feel very excited by being rewarded the same 10% discount for passing three levels in an interactive branded game.

This is a result of consumers valuing an earned reward over a handout. When they reach the high scores, when they complete the tasks, when they top the leader boards, they want to relish their victory.

Bigger and better rewards may not always yield bigger and better results, sometimes the customer base just wants any form of recognition for their achievements.

Summary

Did you know that around 65 percent of people are visual learners? When it comes to understanding new information, visuals trump text every time.

This is why advertisers and marketers have been using TV, video, and other forms of visual content for years now. And in more recent times, they’ve started incorporating more and more gaming into their marketing mix.

So what does this mean for your brand? It’s time to start thinking about how you can tap into the power of games.

Gamification is no longer a new trend – it’s an essential part of any successful marketing strategy. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to be incorporating game-based mechanics into your branding.

At Gamify, we believe in the transformative power of games. That’s why we’ve dedicated ourselves to helping brands use gaming principles to create more engaging content and connect with their audiences in powerful ways.

Check out some of our other blogs for more insights on how gamification can help your next marketing campaign & business grow.