What is Gamification in Marketing? - Gamification Definition
Gamification is generally defined as a strategy that uses game mechanics in a non-gaming context to boost your conversion rates. It is one of the most used strategies across the digital marketing industry.
If you are to use a game in your marketing campaign, your game will be accessible to almost everyone at this age. A well-designed game will be a source of fun and entertainment for your customers. Also, games attract more attention to your website and your product.
How Does Gamification Work?
There are two basic dynamics making gamification work – challenges and rewards. People generally love to compete and solve the problems given to them. It is in our nature to handle this type of task.
Moreover, rewarding them is also of high importance. This can be accomplished by either in-game rewards or external rewards; such as discounts. If people are to get a badge or level up after completing a task, they will be more likely to spend more time on the game.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Gamification in Marketing
Gamification, like everything else, has pros and cons in marketing. If we are to list advantages first, most well known are;
- The involvement of users in your campaign is higher. Due to the competitive and rewarding nature of games, engagement of users is at higher rates than any other campaign method.
- Brand awareness and loyalty. The more time they spend on your game the more likely they will remember your brand’s name and tell anyone about it. Also, they will emotionally attach to your company, which will result in more money spent on your products.
- New users. Since it is a fun way to spend a user’s time, the chances of coming new users to your game are higher.
- Higher conversion rates. This is closely related to loyalty. If people become loyal customers of yours, they will be more aware of your products and take positive actions.
- Increase of data entry. At the end of your game, you can ask your users to give them their contact addresses and they are more prone to giving them.
However, you should also keep in mind that making a game has cons for your brand. Some of them are;
- Requirement of Creativity. Since gamification has been present for a while in the industry, you have to come up with novel game ideas to engage your users. You can always use quizzes and tests, but they are quite accustomed to. So, they are not the way if you want to keep your customers engaged with your product.
- Games require sources. The game-making process takes a lot of time, thus money. The details in your game, such as animations and gameplay, require a high amount of time. This process includes designing, creating, and testing the game. And in this industry, facing a problem is just like breathing.
There are ways to refrain from these disadvantages. For example, one of the ways to refrain from the latter problem is to use the wheel popup brought to you by Popupsmart. Instead of spending your money and time on a designing project, you can effortlessly integrate this popup into your site.
3 Gamification Examples
M&M Eye Pretzel Game
Back in 2013, M&M launched pretzel-flavored candy. They have modified a pre-existing game which has been quite famous and played by many – “Where is Waldo?”. They posted an image containing a pretzel guy on their Facebook page.
The number of likes, shares, and comments of this simple, almost costless idea can be considered high. The original post is still up if you want to check it out.
Pleasure Hunt by Magnum Ice Cream
As a new take on 2D Mario Games, Magnum launched a game called “Pleasure Hunt” in 2011. In this game, you control a character named “Magnum Woman” and your goal is to collect chocolates throughout the internet. You can visit a number of different sites such as YouTube and Samsung.
After you finished the hunt, you could share the score you got with your friends via social media platforms. The results were awesome. In just five days, the site got 725 thousand unique visitors. The Magnum URL was the most shared URL on Twitter.
The average time spent on the site was eight and a half minutes. This is without a doubt one of the best examples of gamification in marketing.
Starbucks Rewards
Starbucks incorporated your real-life purchases into a gamification method. It is a great way for Starbucks to ensure customer engagement and increase customer loyalty. Every purchase means stars for Starbucks Rewards members.
With these stars, customers can receive free food or drinks. As you get more stars, you get to reach gold status and you can have the best rewards. This is a method that makes customers loyal to the company via the rewards they get for being loyal.
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