About the Author: Yu-kai Chou is a Partner at the Enterprise Gamification Consultancy(EGC) and a gamification pioneer who has been working in gamification since 2003. Yu-kai is the original creator of the Gamification Framework Octalysis, and is a regular speaker/lecturer at organizations like Stanford University and Google Inc.

The Importance of Rewards in Gamification

One of the key values that good gamification design can deliver on is improving engagement with the company’s targeted audience, whether it be users, customers, employees and/or other stakeholders. To be effective for any given application, a significant amount of thought must be put into understanding what is necessary to engage and motivate individuals at a deep level.

Incentives and Rewards are a crucial piece in the engagement puzzle. With proper and thoughtful design, incentive and reward programs can be very effective in providing optimal motivations for driving engagement. That is, with the right selection and mix of rewards, and an effective system for delivering these rewards, participants not only become engaged, but are also retained and become valuable evangelists for the company.

Two Parts of Rewards Planning

There are two elements of a reward that need careful planning: WHEN a reward is given out, and WHAT the reward is. So, just as the timing of the reward is important, the nature of the reward is important. Ultimately, the goal of the reward is to maximize motivation prior to receiving the reward, as well as happiness after receiving the reward.

To determine what the reward itself is, a good option is to utilize Gabe Zicherrman’s SAPS model: Status, Access, Power, Stuff.

But in terms of the structure of the reward, we can look at six types of rewards that can be implemented into a design as well as their key features.

1) Fixed Action Rewards (Earned Lunch)

In Fixed Action Rewards, users complete a certain task, and get the exact reward that they want or expect when they complete it. Similar to fixed ratio schedules, these programs reward the user after they successfully perform an action a fixed number of times. This is appealing because users know exactly what they are getting and will work towards that goal.

One common example of these programs are sandwich store punch cards, where you buy ten sandwiches and get the next one free. This encourages the customer to eat at the sandwich shop more often.

Another example is the frequent-flyer programs offered by several airlines, where customers who are enrolled in the program can earn “frequent-flyer miles” which are accumulated by distanced flown on that airline (or their partner services). These “miles” can then be redeemed for free flights, class upgrades, or other goods and services. Oftentimes the miles can be transferred to other participants in exchange or as gifts.

2) Sudden Rewards (Easter Egg)

Sudden Rewards are surprises that are unexpectedly given out. This is appealing because users were not expecting anything and suddenly get rewarded. The surprise element would give them an extra shot of happiness, making them think about whether they would obtain another Easter Egg in the future.

A good example of a sudden reward system is the “Chase Picks up the Tab” program. Once enrolled in the program, Chase cardholders have a very small chance of getting a text that tells them that Chase picked up the tab, and will credit the $5 purchase back into the accounts. Though the reward dollar amount is not great, it compels consumers to regularly swipe with their Chase cards instead of other cards because they want to see if they “won” again this time. Oftentimes, users will tell their friends about their winnings too, attracting other consumers to sign-up to this “game.” This is a great example of utilizing Unpredictability & Curiosity from the 8 Core Drives of Octalysis.

3) Random Rewards (Drops)

This type of reward may be anything and it will only be revealed once the required action is completed. This is appealing because the user continues to anticipate and guess what the reward might be, creating a feeling of suspense that engages them.

One example of random rewards are those associated with the White Elephant Gift Exchange game that often occurs at holiday parties around Christmas time. Also known as the “Gift Swap”, among other names, this “game” provides a mechanism for distributing inexpensive or undesired gifts (often from previous holiday seasons) among the participants.

The Exchange starts with each participant providing a wrapped gift for the gift pool, and then a determination is made for the order with which each participant will select a gift. The first participant selects and opens a gift from the pool. The next participant can then either select from the pool of unopened gifts or “steal” the opened gift from the first participant, who then selects from the pool.

The next player has the option to select from the pool or “steal” either gift from the previous players. This goes on until the last player selects the last gift or steals from one of the others, in which case, that individual opens the last gift. Again, in this case, everyone knows that once completion of the task, a reward will be earned, but what the reward is can only be known at the end.

A second example of Random Rewards is the Mystery Box Shop. Customers join the service via subscription and pay a monthly fee. On the first of each month a package containing 5 to 10 “fabulous curiosities,” is shipped out to the customer.

The contents of each package follows the theme for that month. Recent themes include “Never Grow Up,” “Hallowawsome,” “Another World,” and “Old School.”

Promising to be cool, curious, odd, or even bizarre, each Mystery Box provides an element of intrigue, which strikes the customers curiosity. Consisting of a mixture of clothing, toys, gadgets, snacks, electronics, and who knows what, each delivery is like opening your presents on Christmas morning. It will keep them coming back for more.

4) Rolling Rewards (Lottery)

Rolling rewards go from one person to another – someone has to win. Typically this form of reward determines a winner solely on chance, while creating growing levels of anticipation. This is appealing because everyone has a good (though small) chance, but people believe they will win with enough persistence.

Examples of rolling rewards include lotteries and sweepstakes. Traditional lotteries have large numbers of participants who make modest commitments in order to have a chance of winning substantial, often huge rewards. Any individual can improve their chances by purchasing additional tickets, though this strategy increases the mathematical odds only modestly. Lotteries often create heightened levels of excitement, and can become somewhat addictive; a situation that sometimes cause criticism for the organizers.

Lottery and sweepstakes winners are often promoted and featured in the media, providing further incentive for current and future players. This encourages all participants to stay involved. In the case of the Speed Camera Lottery, the community also benefits from the safer driving habits that the system helps to establish and reinforce.

The activity “Musical Chairs” illustrates a game situation where someone has to lose on each turn. This is the reverse of a Rolling Reward (Rolling Penalty), and equally engages everyone as they continue to play through much optimism and engagement.

5) Social Treasure (Gifting)

Social Treasures are rewards that can only be earned when “given” by another user. This is powerful because the user must get others to participate, increasing the virality (growth) of the service. In a sense it helps to promote involvement from others, and further encourages them to stay engaged.

Referral fees are one example of this type of reward. A restaurant, club, or other organization might provide special incentives – “Your friends come in at 20%!” “Bring a fourth and get an entree for free!”

Other examples are voting competitions where people must obtain the most votes or “likes” in order to win a prize. I’m sure you’ve all had the experience of some friend or family sending you an email asking you to “like” for their image or entries on Facebook, so they could win the grand prize from their favorite company.

The Social Treasure here is not the ultimate prize from that company (that would be considered a Fixed-Action Reward), but the votes and likes that can only be given out by someone else other than the user him/herself.

Some view the Academy Awards as an annual game where each studio dedicates substantial marketing resources to sway academy members into voting for their candidates and features. Because so many members want the highly coveted Oscar (read: status), they go out of their way to obtain the “social treasures” from others who generally give them a vote, benefiting the program organizers.

6) Reward Pacing (Collection Set)

These are rewards that are given out a piece at a time instead of altogether. This is effective because once a user has a few pieces, s/he will work hard to complete the collection. It is also more cost effective because the company does not need to give out tangible rewards to everyone.

A good example of reward pacing is the McDonald’s Monopoly Game. A cooperative effort between McDonald’s and Hasbro, this game uses the original Monopoly theme to promote a sweepstakes type of awards system. Customers would receive game tokens with each purchase of certain menu items.

Since the tokens were matched with the different board properties, customers could redeem complete token-property sets for cash rewards, with the most valuable property sets yielding awards in excess of $1 million.

If a user had 80% of the set, they obviously will become a lot more engaged and trying to finish the set as soon as they can (but for some reason the last 2 pieces are always impossible to get eh?) But do be careful, consumers will only try until they feel like they are not making any progress for a long time and will give up after that.

Another example can be seen from some friends I have at Zapt: the meta-game on top of Twitter. Zapt gives real rewards and prizes, but only after a user completes the entire collection set of 20 “medals,” each requiring specific challenges and tasks. The amazing thing here is that active users who are engaged will tweet 3 times as much as the average Twitter user to try to obtain parts of the final prize. They will even pay real money to help unlock – not the real prize – but the virtual medals, so they can advance toward the completion of their collection set.

Conclusion

Gamification and Engagement is all about good design, and it’s never a cookie-cutter solution. Many solutions out there use a clever combination of the above reward types – think about slot machines in casinos.

This is why utilizing great service providers like BigDoor can significantly help your company design the best services and engagement programs to maximize your user motivation and engagement with each reward – instead of just giving away free stuff without any returns on your investment.

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Gamification Tips

Happy Friday! We have been working like crazy on some cool new projects and falling behind on our gamification news.  Our favorite links for the past week are listed below and focused mostly on some defense of gamification and new articles about consumer facing gamification and its success.

‘For the Win’: How Gamification Can Transform Your Business Knowledge@Wharton 12/5/2012 Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter sat down with Knowledge@Wharton to talk about their new book, gamification trends and how companies can use game mechanics to improve their business. Interestingly, Werbach and Hunter make the distinction between external and internal (similar to our consumer/enterprise) gamification solutions and point out how different those two approaches can be in solving business challenges.

Don’t Hate The Game. The Points May Not Matter Associations Now 12/4/2012 If you follow the gamification industry you have no doubt heard about the Gartner study released claiming that 80% of gamification will fail. Gamification experts of all types responded to this criticism in a myriad of ways, but we thought this response was especially good. While the hype of gamification has been great in bringing press to our industry, it is also important to remember that gamification should fit your website and that not all websites will need or should implement gamification.

How One Guy Gamified His Google Interview And Won SF Gate 12/1/2012 Gamification is a great way to motivate in the right situations and Jon Guerrera proved that in his quest to land a job with Google. Daunted by the task of studying for the interview, he used basic game mechanics and applied them to his study tactics to create a system of rewards, tracking and milestones.

Social Customer Experiences That Matter Huffington Post 12/6/2012 Being focused on consumer facing gamification means understanding what customers are looking for when they interact with a brand. This is a great look at data describing what customers expect, what makes them stick around and how brands need to adjust to keep their customers happy. Gamification is listed as one of three suggestions for how brands can improve their customer experience. It’s great to see consumer facing gamification get some recognition.

How can social data help drive brand loyalty? Fresh Networks 11/30/2012 Less than 48.8% of marketers believe that their marketing initiatives are working. Unfortunately, the loyalty program landscape has been bogged down by traditional programs that have not adjusted to meet with new customer demands like social recognition, real time feedback. Brands looking to improve the value of their loyalty program should start with taking a look at social data, and adjusting their programs to address deficits there.

Social Loyalty in Action – Airport Check-ins on Social Media for Air Miles TNooz 11/26/2012 Delta Airlines has embraced a new trend of social loyalty by announcing a deal with TripAnomaly a startup that gives passengers 80 SkyMiles points just for checking in at the airport and posting it to their networks. This partnership “taps in to the idea that passengers are increasingly willing to share certain elements of the personal data on social networks (such as location) in exchange for loyalty points and other traveler perks.” We would love to see more airlines involved in something like this!

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty

One of the common mistakes in the industry today is the assumption that all gamification is created equal. In creating an industry, many of us have forgotten that the competitive realm will be comprised of a wide variety of gamification examples and solutions. While many distinctions between enterprise and consumer gamification are beginning to emerge, we also see a trend in the lack of separation between gamification products and gamification solutions. The two may seem similar, but in our experience, gamification products don’t tend to see the same success as a comprehensive gamification solution. Typically, a product is a one-size-fits-all answer to the problems of user engagement online. It is generally the same regardless of the type of users, content on the site, and site-specific needs/goals. For many websites, this application of gamification works great: it provides extra lift in registration and engagement, yet remains simple enough for a small publisher to manage themselves. For larger publishers a product is often simply not enough.

The reality is that large scale gamification is a network of moving parts, working in unison to engage and motivate users. This network is what we refer to at BigDoor as a gamification solution. Adding game mechanics to incentivize loyalty amongst online users is only part of the puzzle. Comprehensive service differentiates between a product and a solution, and elevates the latter to provide publishers with even more lift in engagement. Gamification is more than points: it’s a system that shows the user why those points matter. A solution creates a unique experience for the user that is ever changing and adaptable to publisher and brand needs.

While gamification products are traditionally implemented and left alone, solutions are continually managed. In our experience, this level of service is what has ensured success in our implementations. After all, we design, build and deploy our product all the time, but it’s our continued adjustments and attention to detail that turn a deployment of our product into lasting success. So, what happens after launch? How is “success” of a program determined? What is the process of making changes?

The most vital piece to our gamification solutions success is our dedicated team of gamification-minded account managers, implementation specialists, and loyalty experts that work with our partners to analyze user behavior and adjust gamification content. This team exists to make sure that our partners are receiving the best ROI, service, and support for their site. Using past experience, data from the BigDoor analytics dashboard, and a close look at every partner’s goals, we strive to find the winning combination of parts for a successful gamification program.

Here is a look at some of the questions BigDoor account managers look at in order to make adjustments to a partner’s solution:

 -What are the activities that the site’s user’s are normally engaging in while on the site?

-What is the average user’s passion level for the site content?

-What is the purpose of the user’s visit to the site?

-What are the expectations of the user in terms of implementation content, flow, branding, and design?

-What existing features and functionality especially “speak to” and resonate with the sites users? (i.e., leaderboards for a competitive user audience, or rewarding users heavily for commenting on topics in a tech support forum)

-What is the goal of the solution? To drive registration, retain a certain level of traffic of registered users a month, have users perform one specific activity (or several in a particular sequence), etc.?

-What aspects of the solution are under-performing or performing well, and by what metrics does our partner determine “success”?

We use the answers of these questions to justify possible changes within the solution. With every implementation, our team gets a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. This knowledge informs not only specific implementation changes, but also product-level features. Our account team is accessible for a partner during the entire lifecycle of a solution, from when a solution is first being designed, built and deployed, to testing/QA, and from the launch onward.

Ultimately, solution management is a necessary part of the puzzle for gamification success. We havve talked before about the benefits of site-wide implementations, and we recognize the level of commitment that an implementation takes from a partner. That commitment requires that extra level of support from our end. At BigDoor, we recognize that there is value in creating long-lasting relationships with our partners: They know we are clearly invested in their success. A loyalty solution is a living breathing organism; just like the site’s users. Our partners are smart enough to recognize that as their audience’s behavior changes, so to should their solution. Does any website that is trying to engage their users want to be left with an antiquated, buggy, and irrelevant loyalty program?

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Success

Happy Tuesday! If you are in the USA, happy election day! If you are old enough to vote we highly encourage that you take the time to do so today! While Twitter, Facebook and pretty much every other news outlet are focused on election results, we decided to take a break from politics and compile some of our favorite gamification news articles from last week.

Reveal By L’Oreal, Recruitment Gamified! Business2Community 11/3/2012 This past September well known beauty and cosmetics brand L’Oreal launched a new interactive game called Reveal, to educate users on what it’s like to work for the global brand. The game, features mini challenges incategories including marketing, R&I, product development which challenge players to learn and earn achievements in various categories. Upon completing the game, users can send their scores to L’Oreal recruiters, who can select from high scorers for internships and job opportunities at the company. Using game mechanics to test and educate potential employees reduces the amount of time recruiters need to spend filtering candidates and ensures that candidates are up to speed about the brand they are applying for. Nice work L’Oreal!

Using Gamification to Curb Children’s Anger Issues Gamification.Co 10/29/2012 The field of games for social good has been growing rapidly over the past few years and is an interesting sub-category of the gamification trend. A new game called RAGE Control has been designed to help children with anger issues control their emotions. The game monitors children’s heart rate and forces them to stop playing when their heart rate peaks higher than an acceptable level. The idea being that it teaches children who want to continue playing, to keep their emotions and heart rate in check.

9 Stragegies to Gamify Your Startup Mashable 11/2/2012 This is a great compilation of 9 entrepreneurs advice on implementing gamification. If you have a startup or smaller business, these tips are a great place to start. Plus, since they come from a variety of backgrounds and applications, they are pretty universal in their approach.

Gamification – Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter’s new book Concurring Opinions 10/30/2012 Hundreds of people have taken Kevin Werbach’s gamification course online at Coursera.org. Now his expertise on gamification will be able to reach even more people with his new book co-authored with Dan Hunter called For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business. Read a summary of the book, and order a copy if you are interested!

Health Insurer Humana Gamifies Fitness TriplePundit 10/29/2012 Gamification is a great way to motivate people. Health Insurance companies like Regence and now Humana have caught on and are now using gamification to motivate their customers to make healthier decisions as well as encourage employees to volunteer in their local communities. This is an comprehensive look at their various gamification programs across mobile, game consoles and web platforms.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty

I get excited every time I see an announcement for a new gamification program on the web. Each new implementation is a chance to witness the industry growing as well as experience the individual creativity and innovation from various companies around the world. Far too often, I head to websites to check out their gamified programs, only to have to spend time searching for how to join and participate. What good is a loyalty program if users can’t find it?

Gamification Tip #5: Make sure to onboard new users

Customers coming to your site may or may not know that you have implemented a gamification program. Either way, they can’t participate if they can’t find it. Publishers should be notifying incoming customers of their loyalty program as well as outlining its value. Will the gamification implementation help the user meet their goals? Will it give them access to exclusive content? Whatever, your customers want, it should be clear that your program can help them achieve it.

In addition to concisely communicating the value, make it easy for users to sign up. Customers shouldn’t have to spend more than a few seconds deciding and joining your program. A simple sign-up that guides the user through the registration process (or social sign-in authorization) means that customers can start participating in your loyalty program while they are still excited about what the program can do,

Onboarding your new users shouldn’t stop at registration. Publishers should be sure to educate newly registered users on what actions they can be rewarded for, how the program works and how to navigate around. Good design and quests can help guide new customers, giving them hints at what actions will help them meet their goals.

One of our favorite examples of excellent onboarding into a gamification implementation is the NFL website, what do you think?

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Success

It’s Friday again! The shorter days and fall weather made the week seem like it flew by. If you missed out on gamification, customer loyalty or social media marketing news, you can catch up with our favorites below.

When is Gamification Not Gamification? Business2Community 10/25/2012 Gamification evangelist Andrzej Marczewski asks and attempts to answer some open ended questions about gamification. How many game mechanics should an implementation use? Should you tell users that they are participating in gamification? Find out what Andrzej thinks, and add your comments to his post.

Marketers rely too heavily on social, need to diversify digital into gamification Marketing Mag 10/25/2012 Marketers and the brands they represent have begun to heavily rely on building customer relationships through social media channels, but what happens when Facebook and Twitter aren’t enough? “Gamification can be coupled with social media and existing online content to add an extra layer and greater motivation to engage in digital programs”. Gamification is a great way to encourage customers to engage with content on multiple social media platforms as well as explore brand websites.

Gartner Reveals Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2013 and Beyond Daily Finance 10/24/2012 Last year, Gartner predicted that, “By 2015, more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes.” This week, Gartner released its top predictions for IT organizations and making the list was none other than gamification. “By 2015, 40 percent of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations.”

Using “social” and “gamification” to provide UX improvements Ovum 10/16/2012 Implementing gamification often includes a lot of UX improvements that guide and improve the user experience. Ovum analyst Somak Roy discusses the relationship of social, gamification and UX. This is an interesting read on the role of UX in gamification solutions and features.

Apple, Amazon, Samsung, YouTube, and Twitter Are 2012 Loyalty Leaders Forbes 10/25/2012 BigDoor’s platform is all about increasing customer loyalty and what better way to improve our platform, than by taking a look at the loyalty leaders of 2012. No surprise, Apple tops the charts, but Starbucks, Call of Duty and Costco also made huge gains in the list this year. Many of the new arrivals to the list were brands that create connections in industries like social media, smartphones and tablets. Check out the Forbes article to see the full list of loyalty leaders.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media

Happy Friday! Here is the gamification and customer loyalty program news from the past week.

How Gamification Can Improve Customer Loyalty Programs Entrepreneur 10/9/2012 Gamification expert Gabe Zichermann talks about using gamification to improve customer loyalty programs, a topic that is near to our hearts. Here at BigDoor, we have seen great success in making customer loyalty programs more fun and engaging by applying game mechanics and design principles. It is great to see Gabe endorsing that concept!

When research is a game, and politicians seize the social media BizCommunity 10/12/2012 The use of gamification in politics is a relatively new idea, but one that seems to be sparking a lot of interest. At a recent conference of the SAMRA (Southern African Marketing Research Association) Kyle Findlay argued that gamification can produce significantly more effective and valuable market research, by ensuring that respondents are more engaged. Findlay says of his research, “It is important to stress though that gamification generally does not imply turning research applications into video games with bright colours, flashing lights and cute mascots. It can be far more subtle than that. Gamifying a research methodology could rely on something as simple as changing the way in which a question is worded by framing it as a challenge to respondents.”

Three More Views on #Gamification Kapp Notes 10/8/2012 In case your eyes are strained from reading too much, you can jump over to Kapp Notes and check out their compilation of gamification videos. Everything from TED talks to animated comedic shorts.

LinkedIn Decides Recommends Aren’t Worthless Enough, Adds Endorsement Gamification Business2Community 10/13/2012 If you are on LinkedIn you might have noticed this change and wondered what the point was. You aren’t alone. Chris Voss talks about the decision and why it is an example of poorly thought out gamification.

The Gamification of Philanthropy Calgary Herald 10/13/2012 A new app is under development in Vancouver called iBeg and its purpose is to help users understand the difficulties of homelessness while raising money for charity. This is a great example of the ‘games for good’ trend and it will be interesting to see what the app looks like when it is released.

Gamification: Some More Views Business2Community 10/15/2012 A few weeks ago Andrzej Marczewski posted an article that featured various experts opinions on gamification, what it is and how to use it. He has posted the same article, featuring random people who filled out his survey. This is definitely an interesting read that highlights how different people think about the gamification trend.

Maximize your collections! BankersLab gamifies debt collection (exclusive) VentureBeat 10/16/2012 A new training simulation has been created to help teach bankers the ins and outs of collections. It’s called BankersLab and it uses gamification principles to coach bankers through the complex process of debt-collection. While many people facing collections may not appreciate the idea of better training for bankers, this is definitely a new and interesting use of gamification.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media, User engagement

I saw The Dark Knight Rises last night for the second time and spent much of my drive into work this morning trying to come up with a way to relate that movie to gamification or customer loyalty. If you have been reading here long, you might remember my Hunger Games post from earlier this year and my love of connecting gamification with things in my daily life. Unfortunately, my pre-coffee brain was unable to come up with anything coherent enough to be worthy of a post here on mygamification.com. Instead, I turned my attention to something with much more value to the readers: another gamification tip! The Batman post will rise (ok, that wasn’t funny).

Gamification Tip #4: Analytics Matter!

Gamification in its best form allows publishers to increase engagement and loyalty, while creating benefit and reward systems for their users. The ongoing maintenance and success of a customer loyalty program should rely heavily on analytics allowing publishers to see what works and what doesn’t. Just as you should know your users before implementing gamification, good analytics should help you grow your program and understand its strengths and weaknesses. Not to mention analytics are key to justifying the expense/effort of implementation and program management.

I don’t feel anyone would argue that analytics don’t matter in the context of brand success, but check out any good gamification example and you will see that all of them provide either the user or the brand with analytics. Gamification of fitness sees its biggest success when users are given simple ways to understand their fitness data and progress. Enterprise gamification succeeds when employers and employees can measure their progress and understand failings, trends and set goals. Consumer focused gamification often relies heavily on understanding user actions and channeling those actions into successful advertising and content.

How your company measures the success of its program will vary greatly depending on the end goal, which means that analytics must be flexible enough to be valuable to all types of publishers. BigDoor’s analytics provide both at a glance and drilled down measurements measuring your user’s engagement with your program, loyalty to your program and virality. Our platform features RAMP technology which creates a no-exposure control group used to compare data between users seeing and participating in the program to those who haven’t been exposed.

Whether your company is seeking more user registrations, looking to track employee progress or any number of other valuable actions, analytics is the backbone of gamification strategy and success.

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Success

With every publisher we work with our understanding of how rewards programs and gamification can positively affect customer loyalty grows and changes. While loyalty programs are nothing new, the application of game mechanics to online loyalty programs provides lots of new and interesting ways to change the way that users interact with brands they love. Much of the things we learn, are applied to our product to make it more user friendly as well as provide publishers with the tools and powerful analytics they need. With that said, there are things publishers can do to make their own gamification and rewards programs a bigger success. We’ve highlighted a few tips for publishers (#1 and #2) and now here is the third installment in our ‘Gamification Tips for Publishers’ series.

Tip #3 Gamification should encourage social behavior

Gamification and social media are nearly always talked about together, but many gamification implementations seem to neglect to understand what social really means. Customer rewards programs that utilize game mechanics to increase engagement and loyalty should include seamless integration with major social networks. This is beneficial for a number of reasons. Users can often sign in with a  familiar login (Facebook authentication), share achievements/proud moments, and use the power of their existing networks to boost their status in the program, as well as encourage their friends to join in. For publishers, this means more people seeing their brand, more people participating, and more people talking about their favorite brands on and offline.

It is easy to say gamification should be social, but what does that mean in actual practice? Many brands have offered points or badges for users who like them on Facebook, or tweet about them when joining the program, but this neglects a huge chunk of what social is capable of. Programs should be rewarding users for posting, liking, sharing and recruiting their friends, while also having the ability to compare themselves and their progress to their friends and others in the program. These features allow users to be encouraged and rewarded not just for liking a brand on Facebook, but for getting their friends to sign up, joining the conversation on social media and endorsing brands through their social networks.

BigDoor’s gamification rewards program offers all these features for publishers who want to engage users on their website, as well as through social media channels. Recruiter points encourage users to get their friends to sign up, and can reward users who come to the site through a social connection with extra points. Users can also be rewarded for sharing content through their social networks, and rewarded again when those shares lead to click-backs from their friends. For smaller sites that don’t yet have a login system, BigDoor can power a login using Facebook sign-in, making the barrier to join even more familiar and easy for today’s average web user. For users with a competitive edge, leader boards that can provide site-wide or localized rankings are a great way to create some extra drive to participate and earn rewards.

What do you think about the importance of social media in loyalty and rewards programs? How important do you think social integration is for users participating in gamification? Let us know!

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media

Happy Friday! We know lots of people are standing in line for the iPhone 5, or maybe just patiently waiting for it to be delivered to their door today. This is the perfect time  to catch up on some gamification, customer loyalty and social media news. Check out our favorite articles below.

How to Use Gamification to Reward Customers and Engage Prospects MarketingProfs 9/20/2012 This is a great article focusing on the need to retain existing customers, as well as engage potential customers. While many marketers focus on new customers, “it’s six to seven times more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to retain an existing one”. If you have been focusing on new customers more than your existing customers, this article gives you some advice on how to engage and retain the customers you already have, without abandoning the quest for new customers.

Can Gamification Make Customer Support Fun? Forbes 9/18/2012 There has been a lot of buzz about gamifying customer support to improve agent performance and Freshdesk is doing just that. The platform gives agents points, badges and trophies for hitting goals set-up by managers. The platform also adds a competitive edge for employees, displaying a leaderboard with top ‘players’. This looks pretty awesome initially, and boasts extensive analytics for managers to monitor their employees progress and performance. It will be interesting to see this in action and what kinds of improvement they see in employee performance.

5 Gamification Rules from the Grandfather of Gamification Forbes 9/18/2012 Charles Coonradt has been talking about game mechanics in the workplace for approximately 8 years, long before BigDoor, or anyone else was really aware of the potential of gamification. While he focused mainly on increasing employee productivity, the core concepts in his book “The Game of Work” are directly related to the concepts we talk about in gamification today. This is a great reminder to stay focused on simple gamification as well as a great recap of his book and principles for anyone who hasn’t read it.

Driving Kids to Succeed through Gamification Business2Community 9/17/2012 For many companies utilizing gamification, the next step seems to be a blending of virtual and real world tasks. Sports fans might get the chance to earn points for attending games or even purchasing food within a stadium. A new app called Munzee is embracing this trend to encourage kids to get outside and explore using their geo-rewards program. The app turns people into scavenger hunters who must explore their environments to find items highlighted through the app. Hunters are then rewarded for their discoveries through the app and social integration.

Is Consumer Trust Eroding? Convenience Store Decisions 9/18/2012 While the content of this article might be a bit depressing for many marketers, it highlights exactly the trend that BigDoor has continued to talk about. People are not trusting of brands, and they are less willing to provide brands with their information and details. We see this all the time and have seen huge benefits in gamification to help customers overcome this hurdle and register to websites. These are important stats to look at and valuable when understanding how big a problem marketers are facing.

Does (Customer) Loyalty Drive Referrals – OR Do Referrals Drive Loyalty? Social Media Insider  9/14/2012 On a more positive note, here is a great look at customer loyalty and how the referral system works to build your brand. The article focuses on retention, advocacy and purchasing loyalty and looks at the effect of customer referrals on brand loyalty and success. There are some really good tips in here for anyone focused on building loyalty through referrals.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media, User engagement