Tag: gamification

Incorporating gamification tactics into a financial services company’s marketing mix can be a fun and rewarding tool to encourage a desired consumer behavior: depositing money into a savings account, increasing spend on a credit card, accessing educational content or paying a loan or credit card on time, for example. Gamification, however, needs to be more than adding points, trophies, badges and other competitive elements to an existing product. Here are four tips that can help you begin thinking about gamification along with some notable examples.

Google, the most visited website in the world, has successfully capitalized on the world’s most monumental athletic event—the Summer Olympics. With a majority of the world tuning in or following in some aspect, riding the insurmountable buzz is an obvious marketing strategy. However, Google didn’t solely rely on television spots flooding primetime or even social promotions. In a not-so surprising move, the dominant search engine relied on visits to its own home page-- a tactic relied on less frequently as brands shift focus towards Facebook and landing pages. Starting on the morning of the 2012 Opening Ceremony, Google introduced a new Doodle daily, each depicting a different sporting event. After nine sports, the brand switched it up. It added animation and a gaming aspect to increase engagement.

Gamification as a marketing tactic is being put to use by financial services for brand amplification, to deepen customer engagement and to energize promotional campaigns. Discover is dabbling in game mechanics as part of its digital strategy to appeal to card prospects and customers by demonstrating product value for their rewards credit card. It has moved away from the traditional way most banks communicate reward value: a static graphic telling consumers do X, earn Y and get Z. Loosely applying the Forrester definition of gamification – “The insertion of game dynamics and mechanics into non-game activity to drive a desired behavior” – Discover presents a good example of how to use elements of game theory to communicate and sell.

Tipp-Ex is to Europe what Wite-Out is to the U.S. — the leading brand of correction fluid that’s become so well known its name has become the generic word for the product. But with the use of emails, texting and the backspace button, it would make sense for the brand to become irrelevant in today’s world. Tipp-Ex, however, has figured out a way for the brand not only to survive, but also to go viral outside of its own market in a modern social marketing ploy.

These days, even city dwellers can harvest crops, breed animals in a cow pasture and decorate a lighthouse all in a day’s work—from their cubicles. It’s all thanks to Zynga— the San Francisco-based social network game developer whose resume includes FarmVille, CityVille, FrontierVille, Words With Friends and Mafia Wars, among others. You may know them as the root of all those status updates from your Facebook friends who boast their bovine purchases at every turn, or perhaps you’re a digital denizen yourself? Whatever the fascination of thriving in a virtual world, it amounts to success. Available on multiple platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, the iPad, smart phones and Yahoo, Zynga’s games reel in more than 230 million monthly active users. That’s a lot of faux fruit! But lately Zynga and its following aren’t the only ones cashing in on the crop of games. Make way for the era of social gaming as a hot marketing platform.