Gamification In Advertising 🕹️ FAQ

Gamification is a concept frequently encountered in the field of digital marketing and advertising, but in my experience brands don’t use it often. Here are some key points ⛳️ to consider if you are planning to make a gamified brand campaign.

What gamification actually means? 👾

It means that we can use game mechanics in interactive campaigns to make more engaging and fun experiences for our customers.

What are game mechanics? 🕹️

• These are all things that players do when they play game: throw a dice, run, walk, jump, mark an object, shoot, move…
• And all things that game designers provide for gamers to track their identity and progress in the game: avatars, gadgets, levels, progress bars, badges, awards … and so on.

Why should we use it? 🎯

When we make awesome experiences as the outcome we can have several benefits:

• Customers think that the brand is ‘cool’ (we build brand loyalty)
• Customers share cool experiences on their social networks (we raise brand awareness),
• Customers tend to return to have more of the awesome experiences (we have more returning customers which reflects also on our website traffic and SEO),
• We can build user database by sharing prizes with leaderboard and so on…

How can we use it? 🧩

• We can use it in interactive banners – get people to play something simple to click or tap before they open the landing page.
• We can use it on landing pages – Create simple game with leaderboard, for users to play free or to get on the board if they log in.
• We can use it on mobile websites and apps in combination with location data so that users make some treasure hunt, scan some QR codes or similar.
• We can use immersive spaces to make some really super awesome experiences

Are there some downsides? 🃏

• Website security can be in danger because if not developed properly they can be hacked.
• If the game mechanic is not properly planned and designed it can turn out to be a boring game and have bad ROI.
• It can be pricey, and difficult for production if you don’t have experienced team.

How can we ensure we create an awesome experience? 🎱 😎 🏆

In order to be a winner in the gamification we should:

• Make sure that we carefully plan user flows through media.
• Create game mechanics that are not too easy for experienced gamers (and there are many of those – think about housewives and grannies who lead in Bejeweled puzzles and Hidden Object Games ) and not to difficult for newbies (users that don’t play game regularly), the key is to make it enjoyable for both experts and new gamers or let them choose difficulty levels.
• All visual items should look great and be inline with the brand but don’t “overbrand” it – they know it is your game, you don’t have to make your logo or product the main character in the game.
• Enable them with option to share their success on social media.
• Have a dedicated support or forum for players (customers) who would report bugs or give you some fresh ideas. Make sure that conversation flows both ways.

Some examples: