What does the word “game” conjure up in your mind? Chess, football, maybe tag, and playing cards? What’s your favorite game? Is it a board game or a computer game? Have you ever stopped to think about how many games there are, and how often we play them? You’re probably familiar with games like chess or Angry Birds, but what about gamification games?
Gamification takes winning to another level. Companies use game designs to increase customer loyalty or staff engagement, engineering game play to transform the way they do business.
Games are more important than you think.
Gamification means using games to get people together or solve problems. It’s widespread, and it can be very useful. The annual McDonald’s Monopoly game is an example of gamification. Customers are rewarded with Monopoly pieces every time they buy food or drinks. To get more obscure pieces and complete a set, they have to order bigger meals or visit more branches.
Gamification works by leveraging behavioral economics and design. Just think about all the situations where we collect points, where badges represent achievements, levels give us a rank, and leaderboards and scoreboards show how we compare with others. See also my other BLOG where I explained the basics.
Gamification provides great opportunities for businesses and other organizations. It can even be critical for them.
Games can help you invigorate your brand, engage with customers and raise profits – just like the McDonald’s Monopoly. They can also inspire innovation and creativity within your company. The main thing that makes games essential, however, is their ubiquity.
A study by TNS Global found that over 60 percent of people in the Western world regularly play computer or video games. This is even more true for young people: about 70 percent of toddlers and young kids play them!
So if you want to connect with people in our modern world, you’ve got to do it through means that you know will hook them in: games.
Gamification isn’t just about designing fun games. It’s also about relating to your customers in new ways, and ensuring they use whatever you’re putting out there. This is the biggest advantage of gamification: it engages people.
So what does that mean for a company? Well, gamification allows you to respond directly to your customers’ desires and needs. It lets you connect with them on a new level. For example, young people today are driving less and less, as they prefer to take public transit (where they can play games on their phones!) Ford and Nissan have addressed this issue by gamifying their cars.
Ford created a virtual plant for the dashboard display that acts like a digital pet – it turns green when the driver conserves gas. Nissan lets their drivers connect to Facebook, so they can compete with each other over who’s the safest and most eco-friendly driver. These strategies allow Ford and Nissan to engage with young people, especially those who don’t want to drive for environmental reasons.
But as you all know, I still believe Tesla is many steps ahead, especially the self-driving car, then you can just play a game on your phone, the car does the work by itself, very convenience;-)
Games let you give customers what they want, so they provide for you in return. The rapper Chamillionaire did this by creating a gamified community called the “Chamillitary.” Fans in the Chamillitary compete to be Chamillionaire’s number one fan. They can collect points to redeem for merchandise, special events or things they can show off to their friends, like a personal voice mail from Chamillionaire.
The Chamillitary is essentially a loyalty program where you buy something then get points that encourage you to buy something else. It has a more important function for Chamillionaire, however: it allows him to release music and merchandise, and reach out to his fans without having to rely on a record label’s marketing department. He and his fans use games to help each other.
So how can gamification make a difference inside your company?
The first step is to gamify your strategy. Games can engage your employees just like they engage your customers. Games can help you think about what might happen in the future, or “end game.” Games come in many different shapes and sizes, and we’ve seen how they help people work. If you gamify your employees’ experiences, you can motivate them and improve their performance.
Even dull or dreary tasks can be spiced up with games. Nike tech reps, for example, go through a nine day camp where they live the history of Nike. It’s called “Ekin,” which is “Nike” backward.
Ekin participants run on the original tracks the Nike founders used, and they hold the waffle rubber shoe soles that were Nike’s first product. This increases the camaraderie between staff members, and teaches them the company’s history. It also lets them interact with their own products in a meaningful way.
The real goal of Ekin is to make the employees excited about the brand, so they can excite the consumers in turn. In the end, they transfer their enthusiasm and joy of running to the customers.
A nice fact: just playing can inspire innovation and creativity. Playtime isn’t just for kids! Playing lowers our stress, which hurts innovation and leads to burnout. It creates space in your head where you can be creative. This is why you can find Xboxes, pool tables and other games at almost every successful company in Silicon Valley these days. In fact, Google employees famously use 20 percent of their work time to work on – or play with – their own creative projects. This is how Google developed Gmail.
People are motivated by games, and games have far more to offer than a few minutes’ fun. Companies need to implement gamification to keep ahead in our modern world. They can help you in every area from strategy building to recruitment and customer engagement.
So, let your employees play.
Games aren’t just for your customers – they’re equally important inside the company. There’s a reason that Google keeps Xboxes around for their staff to play. When your employees can relax and play a bit, they’ll not only be happier, but more creative and productive too.
Love, Marietta
I will play more Mindcraft together with my sons then:) but as we all known playing outside or just a bordgame will stimulate your creativity too!
