Gamification – playful marketing strategies defined
The term gamification generally describes giving marketing a playful approach. The focus is on establishing an interactive relationship with the user and to bind the user emotionally to the product and brand through relaxed, playful actions. This does not have to mean developing a game app parallel to the actual product.
Instead, the focus is on making the path to customer conversion as simple as possible. Games or web tools can help to make processes in the customer journey more attractive or reduce inhibition thresholds. This approach works very well with young people and target groups who have playful interests. It follows from this: Gamification is much more appealing for B2C business than for B2B marketing.
What are examples of gamification
Websites and apps use the playful approach in many facets. Often, just one of these elements is enough to give customers and interested parties an additional incentive and develop a playful desire for their own products and services. Typical examples of this are:
- Rankings and awards: Users of an app can receive virtual (or real) rewards if they log in to the site or open the company’s app every day for a set period of time.
- Tests and quizzes: Small tests can be integrated, and if they are successfully completed, the company distributes rewards ranging from virtual stars to real discount vouchers.
- Status displays: For many services it is worthwhile to include status or progress like in a computer game and thus keep the user motivated until the end.
- Storytelling: A story is developed around an everyday process. In this way, the user becomes the hero of the story, who has a greater focus on his or her successes with the help of the products and services.
A combination of these and other approaches to playful marketing is easily possible. The only important thing is to clarify the benefits for the respective target group in advance and to adapt them to the respective product or the service offered. Not every order or action within an app can be tracked via a status display, for example. The provider should not offer the prospect of a reward for every single click.
The user as the central character
Gamification of marketing requires a fundamental change of perspective compared to other forms of advertising. This approach does not intuitively suit many companies, which is why it is worth working with an online marketing agency.
Gamification is not about the target group as such, nor is it about creating a single persona. Instead, the focus is on the individual player, who should see the use of his own app or a purchase in his own shop as part of a playful mission. He takes on a hero role that is conveyed to him actively or subconsciously, depending on the product.
The active hero role
A typical example of an active hero role is the website or app of a fitness studio. Here, the journey from untrained couch potato to superhero is the prime example of a hero story. Many apps of this kind work according to the level principle and award experience points and rewards when certain goals are achieved within the training journey.
Customers use products and services of this kind when they want an active change in their personality. The same applies to sticking to a diet, learning a relaxation method or a new management of everyday life. An active hero role lends itself here, as the user consciously perceives his hero journey and playfully receives ever new motivation.
The passive hero role
Active hero building does not work in every industry or for every marketing project. For some users, it is even off-putting if they are permanently celebrated as a hero via the shopping process in an online shop. The same applies in personnel marketing when a potential applicant is playfully showered with advance praise.
Gamification remains the important approach in such projects, especially with a young target group. Here, the active hero role should be exchanged for a more restrained approach. Isolated elements for motivation and customer guidance are better suited. The same applies to learning content that is shared without commercial interest. These are to be conveyed rather discreetly and without a direct focus on the learner.
How much does gamification change the viewer?
Science has been dealing with marketing and advertising psychology for decades. They have not yet discovered the golden advertising measure that always works for every target group. And gamification is not an approach that guarantees success in every environment.
An essential reason that applies to diverse forms of marketing: Many customers sense directly or in the long run when an obvious manipulation of their own interests takes place. What seems exciting and new in the beginning through the initiated hero’s journey can lead to a blunting over time. It is all the more important to keep the hero’s journey playfully exciting and to set new impulses in order to advance customer loyalty.
Companies or website operators should learn to express growing appreciation towards loyal customers. For example, it is worthwhile to hold out the prospect of greater rewards with real added value when customers achieve certain levels or experience points. The willingness to invest a little more in loyal customers pays off in the long run.
How to get started with gamification?
For many companies, game-based marketing strategies are rather abstract. Technically and in terms of content, there is a lot to plan and implement, with in-house marketers and web development reaching their limits. Working with an experienced online marketing agency like ONELINE makes it easier to get started. Here, it quickly becomes apparent which approaches work with one’s own target group and which kind of hero’s journey makes sense. Once established, many measures can be continued independently or linked to other forms of digital marketing.
