How can gamification align with your brand identity and values?

Never mix up Gamification with a reward program. In a reward program people are focused on the outcome. In the most efficient way. And you should know the stuff they appreciate so that you can offer it as a reward. But Gamification has the purpose to design an activity in a way that it becomes motivating by itself (hence intrinsic). So, people are primarily focused on the activity instead of the outcome. A reward is probably going to destroy this effect. In this context you need to know what kind of autonomy fits and what mastery means for them. Mastery is provided by progress, not a reward at the finish line. Try to avoid rewards, points or badges if possible. They were never the reason why you enjoyed a game.

Gamification aligns with your brand identity and values by: Boosting Engagement: Incorporating game elements like badges and rewards encourages interaction with your brand. Expressing Values: Create games reflecting core values, such as sustainability, fostering memorable experiences. Facilitating Learning: Gamified training promotes skill development aligned with your brand, like creativity for innovation. Crafting Memories: Engaging elements in brand touchpoints create lasting impressions, reinforcing brand identity. Incorporating gamification in your strategy deepens the connection with your audience, aligning experiences with brand values.

Gamification aligns perfectly with your brand's essence and beliefs by: Enhancing Engagement: Including game features such as badges and incentives encourages interaction with your brand. Communicating ideals: Creating games that incorporate essential ideals, such as sustainability, results in meaningful experiences. Evoking Memories: Incorporating engaging aspects across brand touchpoints creates a lasting impression and reinforces your brand's identity. Integrating gamification into your approach deepens your relationship with your audience, ensuring that their experiences are consistent with your brand's values.

In my experience, knowing your audience is crucial when integrating gamification with your brand's identity and values. For example, a company selling eco-friendly products could use a game where customers earn points by completing sustainability challenges. This not only engages customers in a fun way but also reinforces the brand’s commitment to the environment. It's about making sure the game reflects what your brand stands for, appealing directly to your audience’s interests and values. Keep it aligned, and you'll see your customer engagement increase.

Gamification can also be used to find out more about your customers. Rewarding them for the time spent filling out a survey, is a great way to learn about their buying behaviours and preferences, helping to improve future targeting by building out 1st party data.

Utilizing gamification to align with specific business objectives has been transformative. For instance, when aiming to foster customer loyalty, we introduced a points-based rewards system and personalized challenges, which not only strengthened our relationships with customers but also fostered a sense of community around our brand, resulting in increased retention and advocacy.

This is so true. Whenever we launched gamified campaigns for major brands like Zizzi/ASK restaurants in the UK we always made sure there were embedded tasks which didn't just align to driving more purchases but also enabled the brand to widen their reach on social, to capture more zero-party data about customers and to drive peer-to-peer referrals into the brand (by sharing the campaigns for game rewards). Everything - and I mean everything - that customers engaged with was then monitored so we could understand which tasks customers did and didn't enjoy and what impact changing rewards had on outcomes.

I love the specificity in the loyalty program example. I'll add that objectives should always be measurable. "Increase loyalty" is too vague - is that repeat visits, referrals, or something else? Picking the right metric matters.

What I’ve found when planning objectives for our clients is, be clear on what we’re trying to achieve, set some KPI’s – what numbers can we track? They must be realistic; we want them to challenge, but at the same time, are they possible? Do they align with the client’s brand? And always have a set timeline. When’s it begin, when’s it ends. These are the key elements when we start defining objectives with our clients for gamification programs.

In addition to business objectives, it is worth reflecting whether gamification will be used to create a deeper relationship between the individual and the brand or between the individual and the branded customer community. This will determine the gaming tactics and elements in the next step.

Through empathetic understanding: Delve into the psyche of your customers to comprehend what truly motivates and inspires them. Utilize emotional intelligence to empathize with their aspirations, fears, and desires. By empathetically aligning gamification elements with your customers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, you can create immersive experiences that not only drive engagement but also evoke a sense of fulfillment and purpose, ultimately strengthening the bond between your brand and its community.

Deepak's comment emphasizes emotional intelligence, which is spot-on! I'd ask this practical question: Does the element fit my capabilities? It's a brilliant idea, but if I lack the tech to execute it well, I'll do more harm than good.

When we start looking at the elements of a gamification program, we always have to keep in mind, who our customer is. What motivates them, why would they want to take part and play? We also want it to match our objectives and align with the brand. We look at what motivates the user. Some people are motivated by fun and personal achievements, while others may want prizes and public recognition. (everyone wants prizes!) We’ve found most prefer a mix of both when it comes to popular games and creating customer engagement. So for example, if your brand focuses on social responsibility, you might design a game with elements that encourage players to make social contributions or volunteer, which can attract customers who value these activities.

When deploying gamified marketing for B2C brands it is important to provide the audience with choice in terms of rewards. At 3radical we frequently ran campaigns which allowed people to earn an intermediate currency. We then provided a 'Shop' to allow consumers to decide how to redeem points. In some cases customers choose to purchase additional game plays (intrinsic), whereas others would purchase real-world rewards, such as discount vouchers or additional entries into a prize draw. It was also important to indicate the shelf-life of the points. By communicating this through in-mechanic messaging and outbound comms we saw customers redeem about 85% of all points awarded.

Select game elements like points, badges, or challenges that align with your audience, objectives, and brand identity. Balance intrinsic motivation, such as learning and fun, with extrinsic rewards like recognition, ensuring both align with your brand values, like using gamification for social impact if your brand emphasizes social responsibility.

Reflecting on our journey, I've realized the importance of maintaining flexibility and agility in gamification. Market dynamics and customer preferences are constantly evolving, so it's essential to remain adaptable. By staying vigilant and responsive to changes, we ensure that our gamification strategy remains fresh, engaging, and aligned with our brand ethos, ultimately driving sustained success.

We’ve found, gamification isn't something you can just set up and leave alone. It needs regular checks and updates to make sure it's still working well and keeping people interested. We need to gather data on how people are using the game, what results they are producing, and what kind of feedback people are providing. We also want to keep an eye on what's happening in the market, what our customers expect, and what any competitors are doing. We use this information to tweak and improve our games so they continue to improve and support our client's objectives and goals.

You are right about adaptability being vital! I'll also note that sometimes testing is about what to remove. Features that seemed cool in theory but flop in practice add friction, not fun.

Testing and iterating are crucial for effective gamification; it’s not a one-time setup but an ongoing process. Regularly collect and analyze data on customer interactions with your gamification elements to gauge their effectiveness and engagement levels. Pay attention to the outcomes produced and gather feedback directly from your users. Additionally, stay updated on market trends, evolving customer expectations, and competitor strategies. Use these insights to refine your gamification approach continuously, ensuring it remains relevant and engaging. By adapting your strategy based on real-time feedback, you can maintain alignment with your brand identity and values while keeping the experience fresh and appealing for your audience.

Constantly test, monitor, and improve your gamification strategy by analyzing customer interactions, outcomes, and feedback. Use these insights, along with market trends and competitor actions, to refine and update your approach, ensuring it remains engaging and aligned with your brand identity and values

We found that incorporating gamification into our sales process not only boosted productivity but also encouraged healthy competition among team members, driving higher revenue and a more dynamic work environment.

We’ve found games and people are an interesting combination. Depending on the size of prizing and availability, have some security elements in place. There are fraudsters, professional gamers and just all-around bad actors. Have some checks and balances in place, capture player info to cross reference (if you have rules and limits on your games – one play per day, limited entry, game availability in certain areas, etc) Maybe even an IP limitation to see how many times people play from certain devices. Also – Prize Pools – do you have enough prizes? do you want everyone to ‘win’ or are you ok with ‘non-winners’? These are all things to consider when planning your gamification program.

Gamification is a unique way in which you show your true brand identity. For example, if you are a very "formal" company, your gamification user experience may look more like a business dashboard, providing very factual information. However if you are a brand known for an out-of-the-box personality, gamification tactics are great ways to show this in a way you can't in a regular experience like a a booking funnel or account overview.

The sales example is inspiring! I'd broaden it further to say that gamification can be just as powerful internally. Employee onboarding and compliance training... When done well, these make work better, not just add a veneer of play.

The only way gamification aligns with your brand identity and values is to realize gamification is a tool. Do not build your brand identity & values around gamification, but rather ensure as you define your brand and values that using gamification is the right approach to enhance and further your goals, on-brand and aligned with org values. Then introduce it to your customers. Bring customers in from the beginning -- they will tell you if they want and/or would respond well to gamification, if you focus group it or pilot it with a small group of customers. Take your findings, build gamification that aligns with your brand, is embraced by your customers and helps you meet your goals Or, determine that gamification is not right for your org.