Want to turn your customers into loyal brand advocates? Adding gaming elements to your marketing could be the secret ingredient that transforms one-time customers into engaged brand ambassadors. In this blog, we'll explore how understanding the psychology of gaming can help you boost conversion, loyalty, and customer lifetime value. It's win-win!
What is gamification?
Gamification is a technique that uses game-like elements in what is otherwise a non-gaming context. In marketing, that often means creating loyalty programs to unlock exclusive rewards – we've all had a coffee card stamped in order to get a free drink, right? But a mechanic as simple as this can be leveraged in the digital space with almost endless creativity.
The combination of gaming and marketing is most powerful when it follows the structure: goal, investment, reward. That means creating a clear goal – like a free drink – and a structured way to achieve it.
Games tap into our brain's natural reward system, releasing dopamine when we play. This positively reinforces interactions – and specifically for gamified marketing – purchasing behavior. In a landscape where attention is hard-won and easily distracted, games can help tap into otherwise unattainable engagement levels.
The elements of great gamification
Fulfilling human needs
Betty Adamou, a gamification researcher and author of Games and Gamification In Market Research, writes that humans have four psychological needs: relatedness, autonomy, mastery and purpose (or RAMP for short). Everyone needs all four needs met in order to thrive in life and stay engaged. Games are inherently highly engaging because they often fulfill these needs – and that's why game mechanics are so powerful in marketing.
Personalization
Offering member account spaces also gives brands the opportunity to personalize. This can be tailoring offers to suit previous habits, allowing members to create avatars or choose rewards, integrating social features, or reacting to information learned in quizzes.
Continuous interaction
Successful gamification encourages and rewards actions like referring a friend or collecting in-store. This positive reinforcement keeps customers coming back. Adding points, levels, or progress bars locks in engagement and a sense of investment in the mind of the user, motivating them further. Interactive challenges like quizzes and leaderboards can also add an element of competition which can encourage repeat visits.
Novelty
Our brains love novelty for a combination of evolutionary and neurological reasons. Newness offers an opportunity to learn and avoid threats, but also gives us a dopamine rush, stimulating attention and memory. Novelty is important in gamification marketing campaigns because it keeps people interested. The key is to aim to always "surprise and delight" – with daily deals, special quizzes, unique content and limited-time offers.
Right context
The hardest question to answer for many brands is where to add game mechanics, and what techniques to use. Gamification has to feel natural and easy. If it feels forced or inappropriate, it could cause more harm than good.
Benefits of gamification
- User engagement: Gamification injects fun and competition into tasks, making users more likely to participate and stay active.
- Customer loyalty: By creating a positive and rewarding experience, gamification can foster brand loyalty and keep customers coming back for more.
- Conversion Rates: Gamification can incentivize desired actions, leading to higher conversion rates for things like purchases, signups, or app downloads. Smile.io found that gamification used in email programs caused an uplift of 48% in Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and 15% rise in conversion.
- User research: Gamified experiences can gather valuable data on user behavior, preferences, and motivators through their actions and choices within the game, or in answers to quizzes.
- Education: An interactive game or quiz can transform product information and launches into an engaging and interactive experience.
- Testing: Gamification can be used to test new products, features, or marketing campaigns in a fun and low-risk environment, gathering valuable user feedback.
Examples of gamification in marketing
Sephora
Global beauty powerhouse Sephora has seamlessly integrated gamification strategies to unlock ongoing customer engagement. Sephora's app includes a member space, which is free to join and features a 3-tier loyalty program with various benefits that increase in value as you climb the tiers. Points are earned with every dollar (or euro) spent, but users can also acquire bonus points by performing actions like inviting friends, subscribing to the newsletter or picking up an order in store. But that's not all.
Sephora's Virtual Artist uses filters to let customers test products in augmented reality, offering comparison and social share options too – making it easier to make informed decisions. Users also get personalized and location-sensitive alerts, so they can find out if a product they like is on offer, or if a store nearby has an event they might be interested in. The app will even ping them on their birthday to remind them to pick up their free gift. As if that wasn't enough, Sephora also includes quizzes that have a double-sided benefit. On one hand, the customer can get personalized offers and recommendations, and on the other, Sephora can gather valuable data about their customers' concerns and priorities. With this data, they can better tailor their offering, and continue to offer highly personalized offers.
Webhallen
Webhallen is a popular Swedish electronics store that has taken the idea of loyalty reward programs to the next level with gamification marketing.
Being an electronics store, Webhallen understood that their customers would include a wide range of demographics. But since their first store opened in 2000, the company has had a strong association with gaming. So it made sense for their member's site to be based on classic 8-bit games, featuring a custom game called World of Webhallen, featuring quests and supply drops where users can collect points and climb to higher levels and take part in the leaderboard. Every year, the company chooses exceptional members with over 20,000 points to become "knighted", a badge which shows in your online reviews. Members enjoy secret giveaways, surprises and competitions, encouraging regular brand engagement on a high level.
Joe & The Juice
The coffee stamp card is a classic example of a gamification marketing campaign that rewards loyal customers. In-app stamp cards are available for most coffee chains. Here in Sweden, coffee and juice café Joe & The Juice engage new and existing customers with a little gamification.
As part of a tiered points system, Joe & The Juice customers get to take part in special prize draws, unlock rewards and buy in bulk at a discount. Secret gifts are revealed along the way, keeping the excitement and novelty factor strong.
McDonald's Monopoly
After first appearing in 1987, the McDonald's Monopoly game has garnered a cult following, with a band of especially loyal customers posting videos daily during the promotion, to track their prizes.
The combination of an already-existing game (let alone the world's most popular board game) with a brand sounds like a good plan on paper, but executing it well is challenging. McDonald's went with a simple game mechanic – a ticket attached to food packaging. These tickets reveal a game feature from Monopoly, a discount code or a prize. The marketing strategy is simple: the more food customers buy, the more chances they have of winning.
It's useful to note that these kinds of contests should be administrated by a third party company to avoid fraud and to ensure fair distribution of prizes.
Lassie
Lassie is an EU-based startup pet insurance company proving that gamification is for everyone – not just for cafés and fast food chains! What differentiates Lassie from other modern, all-digital insurance agencies is the brand’s focus on prevention.
In order to create a "preventative insurance ecosystem", the brand had to find a way to support mindful pet ownership. The Lassie app offers courses and articles to educate owners on things like safe chew toys, vet visits and nail trimming. As users work through the courses and prove their knowledge in quizzes, they earn points which unlock rewards like cheaper insurance premiums and discounts on pet care products.
SATS
The scandinavian gym group SATS have gamified their member app in order to boost emotional engagement, inspiring gym-goers to keep up their training and try new things.
As anyone who’s been on a fitness kick knows, gym training can get stale. A personal trainer can create a perfect plan, but without regular check-ins, the novelty and reward can wear off quickly. Knowing this, SATS have created a lightweight and easy-to-use member app that encourages and rewards regular visits. A tiered loyalty scheme offers better benefits (like guest passes) with more visits, and timed challenges unlock trophies for your “trophy case”.
Avoid the pitfalls of gamification in marketing
Gamification can be a powerful tool for marketers, but there are some pitfalls to avoid:
- Inauthenticity: If the gamification feels forced or like a cheap trick to get people to buy something, it can backfire. People will see through it and may feel less connected to the brand.
- Overused mechanics: With gamification becoming more popular, people are getting used to the same mechanics. If your gamification isn't creative or engaging enough, people might get bored and stop playing.
- Poor design: Complicated mechanics, or even games that are too easy, can frustrate users. The game should be well-designed to be both challenging and rewarding.
- Focus on reward over activity: If the only reason people are playing is for the reward, they may not be interested in your product or service once the reward is gone. Gamification should be designed to create a fun and engaging experience, with the reward being a bonus. Remember to look at Adamou's RAMP principles to guide your gamification strategy.
- Cost and development: Creating a good gamified marketing campaign can be expensive and time-consuming. Make sure you have the resources to develop something that will be effective.
- Addiction potential: While gamification is meant to be fun and engaging, it can also be addictive for some people. Be mindful of this and design your gamification in a way that promotes healthy play.
Takeaways
Gamification is a powerful tool for marketers, and can be leveraged to increase engagement and create loyal customers. Focusing on member tiers, points tracking and location or personalized surprises can help encourage continuous interaction. But while gamification can be effective, it's important to avoid making it feel forced or overly complex.