Excelling at what your company offer is often synonymous of success, but having a loyal customer base is not easy. Applying gamification elements to products or services can help brands to keep customers engaged, but it's not exempt of risks. This talk will present an introduction to gamification and will show success stories, specially focusing on apps promoting a positive behaviour change. Manuel will also share some lessons learned from app development and what opportunities gamification can bring to multiple disciplines.
Brand engagement with mobile gamification apps from a developer perspective
1. Brand engagement
with mobile
gamification apps from
a developer
perspective
Manuel Martin Salvador
R&D Engineer @ Base
AI researcher @ Bournemouth University
05/12/2016
CMC Masterclass Series
Bournemouth University
3. Let’s play a game!
6 questions
Every right answer = 1 point
Prize = a box of Heroes (raffle between top winners)
Self-assessment: please write down your answers
10. Loyalty
Do people often think in your
company when need to buy a
product or hire a service?
E.g. soft drink, detergent, barber
shop, mobile phone
Introduction
11. Engagement
How often do customers interact with your brand?
● This will vary depending on the life span of the product (e.g. milk vs car)
How do customers react when you offer something new?
● E.g. you may want to try a new Oreo’s flavour
Introduction
12. Main challenges
Brand recognition: can people identify my logo/tagline?
Customer loyalty: how can I keep a customer and avoid him/her to go to a
competitor?
Customer engagement: how can I make customers like my brand and react
positively to my offer?
Introduction
14. Definition
“Gamification is the use of game-design elements and game
principles in non-game contexts.”
Deterding et al. From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification". MindTrek 2011
Gamification
15. Main applications
Marketing: loyalty (e.g. Tesco Clubcard), customer engagement.
Workplace: motivate employees to complete tasks.
Education: encourage students to learn.
Health: encourage people to exercise more (e.g. Fitbit).
Crowdsourcing: collect hard-to-get information from many users (e.g. Foursquare).
Gamification
16. Point system
Users get points based on their actions
You can choose a word that fits well within
your strategy (e.g. coins, health points,
experience points)
Source
Gamification
17. Incentives / Rewards
Give value to the points (e.g. 1000 points = £10 voucher)
Known rewards (rules)
● E.g. get a free coffee with 300 points
Unexpected rewards (because reasons)
● E.g. happy birthday! Have a free cookie on us!
Gamification
Source
18. Leaderboards
Being part of a community
Competitive: beat your friends
Refresh it periodically (e.g.
every week) to avoid frustration
Gamification
Source
21. Risks
If used badly, gamification has the potential to be counterproductive
Moral drift / cheating
Addictive behaviour
Illusion of fun: Just pretending something is fun does not make it fun.
Anxiety vs Boredom
More
Gamification
24. Change of behaviour
Most humans try to avoid boring or difficult tasks
Learning a new skill or create a new habit take time
Apps
encouraging a
positive change
25. Question #3
How much time does it take to create a new habit?
Apps
encouraging a
positive change
26. Change of behaviour
Most humans try to avoid boring or difficult tasks
Learning a new skill or create a new habit take time:
● 21 days to build a new habit (Maxwell Maltz. Psycho-Cybernetics, A New
Way to Get More Living Out of Life, 1960)
● 66 days to build a new habit (Lally et al. How are habits formed: Modelling
habit formation in the real world, 2009)
Apps
encouraging a
positive change
35. I want to gamify my business
What’s your goal?
What’s your budget?
Do you have an app?
A. My app is my business
B. My app is a complement to my business
C. I don’t have an app
Lessons from
a developer
46. Privacy
Respect people's privacy. Not everybody wants to share his/her progress.
Check the Data Protection Act (in the UK) and international legislation if you
operate abroad.
Be specially careful when you audience are kids
Lessons from
a developer
Source
47. Backwards compatibility
People don’t update apps as often as developers would like
Source
Oct 2016
Lessons from
a developer
Question #6: In what year was
Windows 7 launched?
51. Steady rise in the market growth
2012: $242 million
2015: $1700 million
2016: $2800 million
Source
It’s effective!
● Domino’s Pizza: created the gaming app Pizza Hero and increased sales revenue by 30% by
letting customers create their own pizza with an app.
● Popchips: uses games to personalize mobile advertising and has seen its sales rise 40%
leading to $100 million in sales.
● Bell Media: increased customer retention by 33% by incorporating “social loyalty” rewards on its
website.
Source
Gamification is here to stay
Source
Opportunities
Interest over time