How does gamification fit into marketing?
As the digital era leads to an erosion of the effectiveness of traditional marketing and advertising approaches, companies need to find fresh ways to engage attention. Gamification presents a new space for differentiation as marketers search for ways to enter consumers’ digital “walled gardens” and achieve real and practical business outcomes, often through approaches that are novel and more effective than traditional means.
For marketing purposes, gamification can be used directly to drive sales and to create perception of brand and differentiation. And it works, because the results can be measured and tracked. Beyond marketing, gamification is equally relevant for employee-facing initiatives and for behavioural change at the individual and community level.
One of the fundamental principles of gamification is exploiting the eagerness of players to link others into the game and publicise their accomplishments. Having a trusted source serves as the messenger—utilizing chains of “Likes” and “Friends”—elevates the credibility and perceived importance of the message.
ASEAN is going digital. High penetration of mobile in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. Indonesia has high percentage of mobile Facebook and has 266 million mobile phone subscribers, and is tipped to become the world’s fourth largest mobile market in 2013. All of these point to ASEAN being a perfect test-bed for gamification. The regional market for digital gaming is expected to more than double in the next four years, to over US$30 billion (accounting for 60 per cent of worldwide global digital gaming sales).
Dilution of traditional marketing: People are bombarded with information, and gamification can break down the social wall. Wrapping their message in a game offers marketers a prime opportunity to differentiate themselves from the clutter and be ‘invited into the garden’ through the recommendation and endorsement of network members. The ASEAN market appears quite receptive to gaming (unlike conventional business marketing), as 47 per cent of Indonesian Internet users who are not currently playing online games via social networks are interested in doing so.
Any examples?
Google wanted to compile a vast global archive of images that exist on the Internet—a daunting task that would require vast resources. They enlisted volunteers worldwide to coherently describe the images for free by turning the exercise into a kind of game that they play eagerly for the sheer fun of it, and got the results they wanted.
Coca Cola’s Happiness Refill campaign in China is another good one. Coca Cola could have just gone with dishing out flyers with free mobile internet credits, but by putting it in a coke dispenser, they didn’t just made it a lot more fun, memorable and brand relevant. Subtly, they are building an association and appointment behaviour, where youths turn to coke to satisfy their cravings and bring them happiness.
Nike was able to accomplish a lot more with Nike+ with the clever use of Games Mechanics. Through the incorporation of a pedometer in shoes, runners can compete against their friends or work towards collective targets. They can track achievements and broadcast them to friends, on the Nike+ community or Social platforms. The result was that they achieved higher brand engagement, greater brand loyalty, increased sales volume, and in 2011, membership in Nike+ grew 40 per cent, which helped boost revenues in the Running category by 30 per cent.
Singapore’s transit company tapped into gamification to resolve the problem of peak hour subway congestion woes for commuters. Gamification was chosen after authorities exhausted all immediate solutions, including cash rebates. Insinc, a gamified web-based system, was created to encourage and reward passengers who shift their commute off the peak hour. The pilot study with 17,000 participants shifted almost 10 per cent of travel off morning peak traffic, encouraging the authorities to extend the program for another 18 months and opening it up to a wider group of 60,000 participants.
In 2010, Pocari launched Ionopolis, a game targeted at Indonesia’s social-media-hungry population. More than 93,700 signed up to complete challenges on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare via mobile or PC in the four months of the competition. The company was able to increase sales by tying the purchase of the drink with in-game benefits and also reach and educate a wider consumer segment with their innovative approach to marketing.
What components work best in which markets?
The results vary from market to market. The Southeast Asia region offers an ideal kind of field environment for companies to test gamification approaches. The huge digital wave sweeping across the ASEAN region is characterised by a shared appetite for gaming, physical proximity, and general social similarities, which make it highly probable that a successful gamification initiative in one market could be scaled throughout the region at reasonable cost.
Many ASEAN cultures seek out collaborative rather than aggressively competitive mechanism, and it is important to look beyond components and individual game mechanics to understand that creating market-relevant gamification initiatives is more about how these components come together to create an effective and enjoyable experience. The collectivistic culture in ASEAN is critical, hence using social platforms as an enabler for gamification can be very powerful indeed.
In terms of components, companies need to address the issue of consumer technology in their target markets when performing gamification campaigns. For example, augmented-reality gamification apps in Singapore might be a huge success but will definitely flop in countries like Vietnam.
Companies in ASEAN have access to diverse consumer demographics within the region, which facilitates the testing and monitoring of a variety of gamification trials. This, in turn, makes a company’s ultimate gamification product all the more robust and suitable for widespread implementation in other regions.
Three principles that businesses should have in mind when factoring in gamification in their strategy for a digital roadmap: Improve engagement, Differentiate, and Influence behaviour.
What are the main trends in gamification in ASEAN, and what are their implications for marketing strategies?
Globally, the popularity of digital games is vast and growing. By 2015, according to Gartner, spending in the gaming and gaming-related markets is projected to reach US$112 billion. The trend for businesses to adopt gamification strategies can be attributed to three main drivers: the impending demographic dominance of Generation Y; the decline in effectiveness of traditional marketing approaches and channels; and the ubiquity of ‘content agnostic’ inter-changeable technological platforms. In addition, social connectedness is central to gamification, as games constitute a link that facilitates and encourages engagement with others.
Southeast Asia is going digital in a big way, and the region’s youthful population is playing a big part in this heightened interest in games. For marketers, this means that business need to start speaking the language of these young people, which means they need to engage consumers at more touch points. Through incorporating gamification tools into their websites orsocial media platforms, consumers are enticed to return for the fun factor and benefits. Furthermore, businesses need to remember that in an age of information overload, Gen Y users are more likely to junk unsolicited messages from outside the wall than pay attention to them, choosing instead to trust the opinions of their friends more than they believe business marketing. To influence Gen Y’s behavior, businesses have to communicate with them through the methods and channels that they relate to best.
While ASEAN has been lagging the United States in terms of adopting gamification, acceptance has clearly hit our shores. Increasingly, we see our clients seeking our assistance in this topic. Even the Singapore government has embraced the concept. Insinc came out of pilot into a second phase just earlier this year as SMRT and LTA pursue all avenues in tackling the train congestion issue in Singapore. MOH is also looking to gamification to facilitate the consolidation of patient heath records into the national records system. Businesses that do not incorporate gamification into their marketing strategies will find it increasingly difficult to have their voices heard in the din of competition.
How can businesses take advantage of this growing trend?
A good mix would be to combine digital, device, Gen Y and the high mobile/digital penetration. Nearly half of Southeast Asia’s Internet users play online games every week, six out of 10 via social networks. And the regional digital gaming market is expected to more than double to US$30.3 billion between now and 2016, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of global sales. This makes gamification an important tool to tap into the vast potential of these markets. Implementing gamification is not costly or difficult, and doesn’t require a company to re-invent the wheel, but the benefits it yields can be tremendous.
Start the business simple and identify the outcome you want. Look for nutty problems you can’t solve with the traditional way, and map out a gamification plan around them. Involve Gen Y and focus on them, as studies have found that Gen Y expect everything they consider interesting to contain game-like elements. Focus on user experience and design the right content to create the right engagement.
Gamification is necessary in marketing strategy, but its use is not limited to marketing; it can also be used for organisation internally to change behaviour and for cost efficiency.
Gamification can be a differentiator in consumer-facing strategies, but it is not limited to that; organisations also leverage it to change behaviour and improve cost efficiency.