Gamification means the integration of game mechanics and principles into traditionally non-game systems and applications. As a strategy, it is used to encourage user engagement; provide an enhanced user experience; and has been used to improve retention, acting as a memorable addition to a campaign. Activating the brain’s cognitive processing locks in brand recall and awareness.
When considering gamification, it should be noted that there are levels to how complex or integral it can be. For example, when running an instant win, there are several ways to add gamification to the promotion. A common and effective addition is to include a digital on-screen scratch-to-win mechanism - simple and highly engaging. Alternatively, a VR-based scavenger hunt promotion like Robinson’s Big Fruit Hunt could be built where the focus of the promotion is the gamified aspects. However, it should be considered that gamification should be adding to your promotion rather than being an obstacle or impediment that consumers have to go through to enter the promotion.
Regardless, gamification has seen a large popularity surge in marketing and digital prize promotions such as prize draws, particularly instant wins. However, what is it about gamification that makes it an engaging experience for consumers?
In building up gamification, there are core elements to consider to be effective. Apart from making it appealing, functionality also needs to be added. Some basic considerations are:
The game mechanics refer to the very basics. What are the game's rules and systems, and how will it function? These are the foundations of how a video game or tabletop game will work and should similarly be thought out for promotional gamification.
The game mechanics are the fundamental foundations for gamification and govern how audiences and participants interact and engage with it.
Dynamics includes a variety of things but is most commonly described as the ‘relationships’ between mechanics and actions. These can vary in complexity and can be easy as considering what the player has to do to continue like clicking or swiping the screen or having clickable buttons which control the game and what these actions will affect within the game.
In game design, coming up with a reward system can be fairly challenging. However, in promotional gamification - the foundation of the promotion is the prize and reward and will likely have already been considered separate from implementing gamification. However if the gamification being implemented involves a little more than something like a tap-to-reveal, there may be an in-game reward system that is used for the promotion.
For example, Coca-Cola’s app includes mini-games where participants must play and win points to redeem these points against different promotions including prize draws and instant wins to make an entry into the promotion.
Games include several elements that make them more replayable and engaging, tapping into game psychology, the key elements are:
Rewards given based on luck or skill have a more profound impact in triggering a sense of excitement and anticipation throughout a process.
It’s what makes gamification and equally, promotions, effective integrations within the consumer journey.
Variable reward systems and a level of unpredictability in results make an experience more engaging. There’s the chance to build up anticipation and excitement in the consumer and allow the payoff from winning a prize or the like to be more rewarding than a guaranteed outcome. We see this to be true in games - within the gaming space, It’s acknowledged that Random Reward Mechanisms or, RRMs are a part of building a balanced and ‘optimal’ experience in games and this ‘randomness’ creates enjoyment but also adds an element of fairness to the game - this is similarly applied within prize promotions where the randomness of winning is an integral part of running a promotion.
The feeling of winning a prize based on luck generates a feeling more powerful than a guaranteed result. Depending on the type of gamification, there’s a chance to include a skill or luck-based element that is engaging for consumers.
We see this principle in real scenarios as well. A strong example we see is in claw machines. Whilst there are some skill factors in winning a prize, it’s widely known that most claw machines require luck - even so, many people take the chance and play for the opportunity to win, not the guarantee that they will. Moreover, the ability to see your performance each turn and the proximity to winning generates the same anticipation and excitement and encourages continual play. When applied within a promotional context, we can translate this continual play to returning participants, consumers spend more time and more attempts within a gamified aspect, therefore, giving the brand associated the chance to improve the memorability of the promotion or brand.
When it comes to games, players rightly assume there’s an objective, to beat a score, to complete a task, or something like that. There’s a competitiveness that emerges, whether it’s against someone else or with themselves. This can be an effective tool to fuel and motivate consumers to play and engage with these gamified elements.
It also encourages continual play. When there’s a target to beat, consumers will attempt to achieve an objective or task and often will make several tries to do so. This is again, ample opportunity to create a memorable experience for consumers by engaging them with the brand.
While gamification is often used to boost engagement and brand recall, brands sometimes overlook user experience and consumer motivations when adding it to prize promotions.
As gamification becomes more common, its drawbacks are also becoming clearer. The main question is whether it actually improves the consumer experience or just complicates it. When brands rush to include gamification, it can end up being a barrier instead of making the experience more fun.
Participants enter promotions to win prizes and expect a quick, simple process. If gamification features feel like obstacles, they may frustrate users and lead them to drop out before fully participating.
Additionally, if gamification is poorly executed, it can hurt engagement rates and leave users with a negative view of the brand, instead of enhancing its image.
With the advent of gamification's popularity, we see big brands try to create entire games. While there are examples of well-integrated gamification, quite often, brands create an experience that feels clunky and unpolished, making for a disconnected and confusing experience which can reflect on the brand poorly.
Game design is far from easy, designing a game that is balanced and engaging is difficult and it’s not a surprise that some brands fail to engage audiences with aspects of gamification aptly. When it comes to gamification, a common issue is over-ambitious ideas. Whilst creative ideas can help your brand stand out, if your team doesn’t have the time or scope to create an ambitious promotion, it’s better to create an achievable but polished gamified experience.
Customers entering promotions are not expecting an entire game. When presented with a highly-gamified experience within the promotion, it may impede their experience - often, consumers are looking to quickly enter a promotion and so gamified mechanics often works best when it’s minimal and adds to the experience rather than being the focus of the promotion.
There are some simple ways to add gamification that isn’t too distracting and overall, adds nicely to the promotional experience.
There are plenty of ways to add gamification that gets participants engaged in a relatively easy way that also makes your brand more memorable. A great place to include gamification is right before a prize reveal for example, in instant wins. It’s a great moment to build anticipation and add an interesting way to reveal results. Some examples are:
All the above mechanics have the same intent but approach it differently - creating different engaging and exciting methods to reveal the results of a promotion.
Many brands have integrated gamification and all in unique ways - and with the help of Past Promotions, here’s a compilation of some strong gamification examples to inspire your next promotional campaign.
Coca-Cola frequently runs promotions on their brands, the most recent example being the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice promotion and last year’s Christmas promotion by Coca-Cola. A common thread between the Coca-Cola promotions is the dynamics of each game.
Coca-Cola hosts their promotions entirely on the Coca-Cola app where various mini-games and quizzes can be found under the ‘Games’ section. Upon playing and completing these games, the player is given points based on their performance and can then use these points to make entries into different prize draws, instant wins, and other promotions available in the ‘Prizes’ section of the app.
For the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice promotion, there was an interactive AR / VR experience featuring different motion controls and levels with various skill-based objectives.
Outside of seasonally relevant or partnership promotions, the Coca-Cola app also features monthly prize draws and various active promotions, making the app a hub for prize promotions across every month of the year - operating like an always-on microsite.
It’s an effective way to keep customers engaged with the app throughout the year, encouraging loyalty and returning participants to engage.
The main challenge of Coca-Cola’s promotional offering is getting customers to download the app. Increasing app downloads is difficult since many consumers see apps as a ‘long-term’ decision and so are more reluctant to commit to a download. Incentivising users to download with elements like promotions may work for some customers, but placing an obstacle, mainly the download, before the promotion may frustrate users and the brands risk consumers abandoning their stage of the promotional journey instead of downloading the app.
Web apps are a solid solution to this - if getting returning participants is important to your brand, it’s hosting an always-on microsite, encouraging sign-ups and email notifications may be even more effective when there’s supporting promotional materials like an on-pack promotion or if it’s running in conjunction to a larger marketing campaign.
Ivy’s Reserve opts to host an always-on webpage on its main website rather than a microsite or through an app. However, it’s well-integrated and supported by other promotional materials, which makes its integration an effective addition to the brand.
Titled ‘Play & Win’ under the navigation bar on their main website, found at ivys-reserve.com/play-and-win. The gamification element they include is a simple High-Low card game which engages audiences, offering 3 plays per day. The ‘daily’ entry addition encourages consumers to continually return to the site and allows Ivy’s Reserve the opportunity to build rapport with users, helping to drive first-party data opt-ins.
With its unintrusive and simple format, it encourages users to sign up for the monthly newsletter. Since signing up keeps customers informed on promotions, prizes, and brand news, it incentivises sign-ups and encourages continual engagement with Ivy’s Reserve as a brand.
Earlier this year, Oreo partnered with Pac-Man and launched their microsite scan-play-win.oreo.eu/uk/ to bring the classic retro games to shoppers. The promotion featured its own exclusive Oreo x Pac-Man promotional packs.
The promotion also included a leaderboard for the Pac-Man game on the microsite and re-skinned the classic retro game for the promotion. By partnering with a well-established game and including it as a core element of the promotion, it focused on why shoppers and consumers were so excited by this promotion - nostalgia.
To further improve results, the Oreo x Pac-Man uses a leaderboard system to foster competitiveness which, as mentioned previously, encourages continual play and engagement.
In 2023, O2 released the Priority Advent Calendar. For this, they added a seasonally relevant gamification addition which builds excitement with audiences. Built on PromoNow with PromoVeritas this activation seamlessly integrated with the O2 Priority Mobile App, and driving increased adoption of app users.
The strength of advent calendars as gamification is that they encourage consumers and participants to return to the promotion daily. Its format also creates anticipation and excitement leading up to the next day improving memorability and engagement with the brand.
An advent calendar format also does not need to be limited to the holiday season - it can be used any time of the year and is a great way to, as mentioned previously, build up anticipation. For example, if your brand is launching a new product, you could include an advent calendar leading up to the day of release to build up excitement. Moreover, you could use the promotions as a chance to represent the product and branding.
This promotion by the cider brand, Old Mout, made use of AR to gamify the promotional experience. Staying true to the brand, the entire experience was in Old Mout’s iconic art style - it felt like a true addition to the promotion and made for an engaging experience overall.
As opposed to Coca-Cola’s most recent Beetlejuice Beetlejuice AR / VR experience on their app, Old Mout opts for a web app instead - meaning the experience is completely accessible on a web browser. Of course, the downside of a promotion like this is that it’s designed mostly for mobile devices.
The gamification involves having the user scan their surroundings to look for 3 hidden animals, all of which are part of Old Mout’s conservation objectives. It is rather easy to do but requires relatively quiet surroundings due to the sound cues in the experience. However, there are also visual cues which make the entire experience straightforward and quick to complete.
Italian food producer, Barilla operated a spin to win promotion.
This type of gamification is a great way to build a short-term burst of anticipation and excitement with consumers and participants on the microsite.
Winning moments, or instant wins, are predetermined to the outcome of the gamification elements. So from the moment that participants enter their details and before they engage with the gamification, the results have already been decided, the gamification is there to add visual flair and present the results in an engaging way which may encourage participants to try again - whether its immediately or at a later date.
See and try our sample games to see how they can enhance a promotional experience. Visit promo-now.com/contact to learn how PromoNow can help you create engaging gamification, or contact one of our experts at +44 (0)20 380 555 38
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