As social media moves towards gamification, how can brands benefit?

There’s been increasing talk on the social media circuit lately – amongst bloggers, journalists and speakers – around the concept of ‘gamification’. Put simply, gamification for brands is developing rewards/points based platforms to engage and interact with consumers. We’ve seen many jump into this space lately, with the most recent notable example being Empire Avenue. They’ve managed to stir the social media crowd into a frenzy by developing a game that lets you trade in people as if they were stocks and shares. Scott Monty offers a great analysis of how Empire Avenue is growing within the gamification space. This is clearly a growing trend within social media, as consumers increasingly look for new ways to spend their time online and get more out of their experience both with social platforms and the brands they interact with on there. The idea of introducing gaming into your social media presence might not seem like a natural fit, but be sure that this concept is going to grow massively over the next 6 months. And the smart brands are getting in on the act now…

Bringing gaming into the real world

A big consideration for brands of course, is whether their customers will want to see them on these gaming platforms, if by definition they’re a place to relax and play against friends. This depends largely on what you’re offering your consumers within this space. I think it is going to be difficult for brands to interact in social games purely for the gaming aspect alone. People have one thing in mind when they interact with customers online. They want discounts or ,even better, free stuff. Where brands are uniquely positioned, is in their ability to turn the gaming concept into a real life concept. Points can mean prizes, or contribute towards money off products and services. In this way, brands can take gamification and make it mean something to consumers.

What brands need to bear in mind however, is that this concept of gamification is still relatively new. There will likely be a lot of mistakes made, as brands risk taking their consumers on long and unnecessary journeys to build up points, distracting from the main purpose of giving them what they actually want. There’s also a decision to be made by brands : do you go to where the eyeballs are and invest in a branded section within an existing gaming platform (i.e. Foursquare), or do you try and stake your claim in this space by developing your own gaming platform to engage with consumers? At the early stages, I believe the real benefit is in finding how you can engage with your customers through an existing social game. This is how brands made Facebook work for them. Though many tried to develop their own social networks, many of these failed with the winner clearly emerging in the form of Facebook Pages. The answer is simple – find where the customers are and follow them. The question of quite how you do this is another issue altogether.

Gamification in action – Lady Gaga

A great example of a brand/celebrity using gamification is Lady Gaga’s recent joint venture to launch an album through Farmville. To announce her new album, ‘Born This Way’, Farmville have created a special themed level of the game : Gagaville. The level is due to launch on 17th May and will run for a 9 day limited period. The branding exercise includes the usual Gaga-themed madness such as sheeps on motorbikes, leather and glitter, as well as added extras such as the ability to listen to new tracks. This will also expand out of the special level itself, with branded virtual goods being available in other areas of the game – through Rewardville for example. But far from being just a quirky way to launch her album, this is very much a money-making exercise for both. Incentives have been added such as a free download link for the album in return for purchasing cards within the game.

This is an excellent example for many brands to follow, and of course it’s not the first time that Farmville have experimented with bringing brands into their social space, as their launch of the McDonalds farm last year demonstrates.

Branded goods in Empire Avenue

In his recent coverage of a gamification roundtable, Jeremiah Owyang shared with users the first example of a branded virtual product in Empire Avenue : The Altimeter. The benefit of this is directly tied to the gaming concept itself ; far more than being just a badge of honour or a mark of reputation, the Altimeter increases your net wealth by 50.00 per day (provided you’ve been active in Empire Avenue for the previous 7 days)

This is an interesting case for brands to follow, as it shows how quickly the Empire Avenue game is developing to accommodate brands. Clearly, this was part of the strategy from the start, shown through the very nature of the game being in stocks and shares, but also the fact that they have been so accommodating to brands by allowing you to create company profiles that fit so neatly alongside the individuals in there. Empire Avenue are bringing together consumers, brands and gaming in quite a new and innovative way that could see many brands jumping into this arena. Though the idea of a branded exercise in Farmville will seem attractive for many brands, this isn’t readily accessible and is currently a huge investment for brands to undertake. An activity like this through Empire Avenue, or even setting up a company profile and growing this organically is a good way for brands to experiment with gaming, provided you’re hitting the right target audience within there.

Open source gamification for brands

If you want to start experimenting with gamification, a good place to look is UserInfuser, released by Cloud Captive. It is designed more as a solution for companies with smaller budgets, that wouldn’t be able to heavily invest in branded goods or levels within existing gaming platforms. Functionality offered includes points, badges, live notifications and leaderboards :

When using something like UserInfuser of course, you need to look at carefully at why you’re implementing it on your site. If you wanted to introduce a gaming aspect around leaving comments for example (i.e. points for being first, or the frequency of comments), what are your users actually getting out of it that will keep them coming back? The biggest risk in gamification is that brands rush towards it because it’s the next new thing, without considering how it can enhance the experience and not hinder it. Think of the social toolbars that suddenly popped up on every site, distracting from the actual content because you were being pushed to bookmark it on 50+ different social networks.

Brands that want to get involved with gamification need to think how it fits with their overall marketing strategy and isn’t just thrown in as an add-on, in much the same way as social media was when it first emerged as a viable way of marketing for companies. Gaming should be a focus of your existing social media strategy, as you find ways to make it a relevant and meaningful experience for users. Smart brands will also be looking ahead to upcoming trends, to see how gamification could fit and enhance these. Mobile for example is only going to get bigger and bigger as smartphone penetration increases and this is a natural fit for a gaming strategy. As I covered in a previous post however, gaming through location based services alone won’t quite cut it with your users. There needs to be a clear consideration and mechanic to turn these gaming aspects into tangible benefits for your consumers. This is what will keep them engaged with you and encourage them to share with friends, giving you a strong gaming strategy.