Speakers:
Richard Baxter, Founder / Director SEOgadget.co.uk @richardbaxter
Jeff Coghlan, CEO and Founder, Matmi @matmi
This was such an awesome session, that I have split it into two posts – first up – Jeff Coghlan of Matmi
Jeff Coghlan – Gamification
A fascinating overview of ‘Gamification’ and how it is being used in ‘normal’ marketing practices to enhance, engage, and at the end of the day – sell more stuff.
What is Gamification?
According to Wikipedia –“Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes, in order to encourage people to adopt them, or to influence how they are used.”
Why use Gamification?
? Build brand awareness
? Stimulate interaction and community
? Encourage action to sales
? Build brand loyalty
? Change behaviours and innovate
We then moved on the ‘is this gamification?’ quiz with some excellent examples of brands using game technologies and gaming ideas and a fantastic explanation of how gamification works in marketing.
Enter the quote of the session: “Is this gamification? I personally don’t think it is, and I’m a gmaification expert so…”
The list of examples:
? United Airlines Campaign for apps – NO – using games as the mechanic to deliver to the audience but not using gaming mechanics on non-gaming stuff
? FourSquare – YES – you are achieving something, getting badges and awards in a non-gaming environment – with the advent of GPS, this is the future of gamification. Think about town centres that are dying – how can you use gamification? Earn points in shops for free parking!
? Vimto – website game to squish fruit – once the juice-o-meter is filled you get a free music track – YES – the gamification is limited but you are getting a reward for doing something so is a form of gamification
? Gorillaz – promo for the ‘escape the plastic beach’ album – with achievements and awards to plug into their own achievements and awards system – NO – it uses games and game mechanics but not using the game mechanics in an achievement and awards system, so it is gaming and it is driving sales but it isn’t gamification used in a non-gaming environment
? Café Nero Loyalty Scheme – YES – the simplest form of gamification – if you collect the loyalty stamps to achieve a free coffee. It is drives behavioural change and gets people to engage with the brand more and more.
? Linked In – the % completed bar – YES – this is gamification – this drives people to complete their profile – if you didn’t know it was only 60% complete and you had to do more, you would not be bothered about filling it in. It gives a measurement by which you can achieve more followers, searches etc. with a completed profile.
? Nike Plus – plugs into your phone, tracks your performance, how fit you are, who has done your most, badges, awards, shares comparisons against your friends – BIG YES
? American Airlines App – you win points, air miles, segments – YES – it is a gamified solution – award achievement system to drive behavioural change.
? Sainsbury’s Nectar Card – YES – collect points, tracks data, drives change, achieve bonus. Imagine if you go shopping and Nectar knows what you have in your fridge and it challenges you on what you can cook, and encourages you to have your own come dine with me with your friends, socially you can share how good you are and how experimental you are with food and who is the best chef. Turning something that is mundane into something that is quite exciting.
Gamification for the inside of your business
“Base Camp makes me want to be sick” – not happy with the project management tools, Matmi thought that it would be nice if in house you could earn points, awards and rewards for project management tasks. They set about to think about writing something, then discovered a US company that was already considering this as a concept – Red Critter Tracker – a gamified project management system.
Jeff says this has increased productivity no end, and cannot recommend it highly enough! “ I can’t believe how much it has changed our company… we had a party when we got rid of to celebrate getting rid of basecamp”
Takeaways
? Have clear objectives – how your customers behave generally, what motivates your customers, how do they prefer to be engaged?
? Gamification is a long term strategy – not launch and forget it
? It works better when turning an already exciting product into a richer environment
Richard Baxter session up next!
