Gamification – an introduction

“I’ve heard of that, it really sounds cool, we should totally be using it… um… what does gamification mean?”

Okay, opening this way might sound a little trite, but it is important to be clear what we mean here when we talk about gamification.

Why?

Because there are a couple of equally correct interpretations of the term gamification:

The first can be defined as a set of activities and/or processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements. This should not be confused with Game Theory, which is a completely different study of mathematical models in the science of logical decision making in humans, animals and computers.

The second definition is the application of game-design elements, principles, and mechanics in non-game environments. Gamification in the context of marketing is primarily used to inspire and improve customer and user engagement and loyalty.

It is this second definition that we will be exploring in this article.

Background

As a term “Gamification” is most commonly accepted to have been coined in 2002 by Nick Pelling, the British born computer programmer and inventor of many iconic 80s computer games such as Arcadians and Frak!

Pelling saw the usefulness of computer game dynamics as tool for business and industry as a whole and decided to transfer his knowledge of games into other contexts.

It was not until around 2010 however that we began to see gamification both as a concept and commercial process really beginning to take off.

Gamification as a catalyst for changing behaviour
Gamification has been widely applied in two areas, in the workplace, and as a marketing tool.

With the former its purpose, from the employer’s point of view, is to facilitate a change in behaviour with their employees.

With the latter, the aim is to facilitate a change in behaviour with the consumer, for lead acquisition and to drive user engagement and customer loyalty.

In both cases, there are three elements that must converge in order for the desired change in behaviour to occur:

  • Motivation
  • Ability
  • Trigger

Critically, all three things must happen at the same time.

 

Gamification and Marketing
Since Nick Pelling’s first exploration of the concept we have seen that in addition to the workplace, gamification can be (and has been) applied in almost every walk of life. One of the areas of greatest relevance for our purposes in which it has most widely been adopted is in the field of marketing.

A survey conducted of Forbes Global 2000 companies by Gartner in 2013 saw over 70% of respondents saying that they planned to use gamification in their marketing efforts, both in terms of the acquisition and retention of customers.

In this context the objective of gamification includes transforming standard tasks and objectives into engagingly fun, and very often social, activities, as well as using game mechanics simply as an audience engagement tool.

 

What is Gamification?
In its baldest and slightly over-simplified sense, the basic concept of gamification can be expressed by a rather geeky Harry Potter reference.

Perhaps you’ve read the books, or seen the films? If you have, you cannot have missed the immortal words “five points to Gryffindor”.

This refers to the house points often awarded to the heroes of the piece at the end of some outlandishly remarkable and often life-threatening adventure. These house points were then tallied together for each house and represented in a league table in the annual Hogwarts House Cup. The efforts of the individuals were recognised and rewarded.

Just as Harry, Ron and Hermione were being rewarded for their outstanding degree of engagement, with gamification, the level of engagement by the user is incentivised.

Engage ever more closely with a task, brand, product, or service, and you will see this engagement perceived or represented as a series of achievements. Achievements that in turn will be both recognised and rewarded.

In this way using gamification in marketing can be a very strong driver in strengthening customer loyalty. If applied in an engaging and relevant way, gamification can be a great tool in giving your customers a reason to keep coming back to your touchpoints.

But Gamification is NOT Games
It is important to make the distinction between gamification and games here.

Gamification is not about the creation of a totally new game property designed to meet a specific business purpose.

Gamification involves taking something that already exists and applying to it the kind of game principles and mechanics that motivate and inspire an audience, in order to create deeper engagement and greater loyalty.

The basics of Gamification mechanics
The mechanics of Gamification are built on a simple challenge-reward-show principle.

You are set a task or series of tasks to complete. As you progress, you collect evidence of this in various ways, all of which are demonstrable, both to you and your peers.

In 2011, serial entrepreneur and gamification evangelist Gabe Zichermann, explained that the most commonly used games mechanics are:

  • Challenges: The starting point of any gamified journey. You, the hero, will need to complete these in order to earn:
  • Points: the basic metric used to measure achievement. Gaining or losing them incentivises the user to engage with the gamified environment consistently in order to earn:
  • Badges: the basic tool to used to denote achievement. The more you collect the higher an achiever you must be, by default moving up through:
  • Levels: Everyone loves the rush of levelling up! And the more you level up, the higher up you are on:
  • Leaderboards: the ultimate ranking tool. Are you good enough to be top ten?

When interviewed for Forbes magazine in 2019 about future gamification trends, Zichermann reiterated these basic principles as still holding true, adding that gamification can make the biggest impact “anywhere that consumers or employees are distracted or disconnected from their goals and objectives.”

Gamification therefore offers the opportunity of reconnecting these dots, and successful gamification tools work because they:

  • Give users the motivation in the shape of the chance to win, receive rewards or gain recognition.
  • Give users the ability to carry out a task, either by facilitating it, or breaking the task into bite-size chunks, making the user feel better able to complete the task.
  • Give the user a trigger, cue or reminder to complete the action.

If all these conditions are met, gamification can change behaviour, create motivation and keep consumers inspired and engaged.

 

Gamification and goals
But is gamification merely a bit of an over-hyped universal panacea? It can’t be that good surely?

No, gamification is not a cure-all, and we’re not claiming that it is here. As with anything, it is about time and place. It is about relevance. Always.

When talking about any audience, not least a consumer one, there needs to be a defined business need when applying gamification. Gamification is so much more than something just being fun for the sake of it. Your goals for gamification need to be clearly defined.

Successful gamification needs KPIs.

But the beauty of gamification is that it is by its very nature designed to be measurable.

 

Gamification and eCommerce
Another highly regarded expert in the field of Gamification is Yu-Kai Chou. He is the inventor of the Octalysis – The Complete Gamification Network which explores what Chou describes as the Core Drives of Human-Focused Design.

He argues that, unlike Function-Focused Design which only looks at getting the job done as quickly as possible, Human-Focused Design “remembers that people in a system have feelings, insecurities, and reasons why they want or do not want to do certain things, and therefore optimizes for their feelings, motivations, and engagement.”

On his blog he covers a wide variety of examples of excellence in gamification, but for our purposes those regarding ecommerce are perhaps most relevant.

You can explore the full list on his blog, but one example that he uses that we would like to amplify here is the gamification applied in eBay’s Bidding and Feedback system.

Here he draws our attention to how eBay challenged the paradigm of ecommerce stores by using gamification. Applying a competitive bidding system, real-time feedback and awarding stars to users for “levelling-up”, eBay moved the ecommerce experience from a simple purchasing process to one of bidding, and importantly, winning against other people. Chou argues that it is precisely this prospect of winning, even if this means you have paid more for the product than you originally bid, that appeals to the gamer inside us. We are engaged on a more visceral level.

In addition, as an eBay member, during the bidding process, further game-design elements are deployed to keep you engaged, including being nudged when you are outbid, and being motivated to return to the site regularly to check on your activity.

We chose to include this example as we feel it may sit outside what we might typically regard as gamification. It’s just eBay after all. And yet, it is precisely this quasi-invisible nature of the gamification experience on eBay, all of which fits the parameters of highly efficient gamification, that in turn demonstrates the inherent power of gamification.

There is a real elegance in having your audience engaged and actively interacting with your gamification processes, without actually realising they are doing so.

 

Gamification and the future
The final word on gamification we give to Yu-Kai Chou. Interviewed for the same Forbes article as Gabe Zichermann we referred to earlier, he framed the future trends for gamification thus:

“In 2019, gamification is becoming more mature, and we are seeing a shift from Extrinsic Motivation design (rewards and incentives) to Intrinsic Motivation Design (making the tasks actually enjoyable). This is important because rewards and incentives can motivate a person to start doing a set of actions, but it doesn’t last long without continuous dangling of a carrot. Intrinsic Motivation ensures long term motivation because doing the task itself feels meaningful and rewarding.”

This view is fascinating, as it predicts a significant and very positive development from the origins of gamification. More than that, it also expresses the maturity and enduring relevance of gamification as an extremely effective and relevant tool for you to have to hand in your marketing toolkit.