How Gamified Marketing Services Turn Campaigns Into Games

Gamified marketing services are used by companies to engage with customers through games and competitions. Instead of simply watching advertisements, people can choose to play games, complete challenges, earn points, or win rewards. These kinds of interactions increase engagement levels in a campaign. Abhiwan Technology has created interactive campaigns for various brands like Coca-Cola and Thums Up. This article provides information on the various kinds of gamified marketing campaigns, selecting the best way for businesses to use such campaigns based on their objectives, and all other things that need to be considered when looking for a development company. How businesses can measure the success of their campaign and verify the results provided by the vendor is also discussed.

What Are Gamified Marketing Services?

Gamification refers to using points, levels, and rewards to make ordinary activities interesting. Gamification marketing services use this concept by turning campaigns into a game whereby a quiz, contest, or loyalty card becomes a form of play. A gamified marketing company creates the game, designs the game, and analyses how players participate in the process. The result is always increasing participation rates, retention rates, and activity levels among the participants. These marketing services are always based on the goals of a business, for example, an increased number of users or increased visits.

Why Traditional Ads Struggle to Hold Attention 

Here are the three challenges that gamified marketing services solve and which normal marketing campaigns cannot deal with:

People ignore ads

Banner and video ads are often ignored within just a few seconds after viewing them. When it comes to games, people have an incentive to keep watching them.

A passive audience does not do anything

A normal advertisement requires no action from people, while games require them to tap, respond, or win a prize.

Difficult to see results

Views and clicks do not indicate true interest. The game collects the choices of players and their time spent on it. Teams receive information to make the next campaign.

Recalling the brand is not Easy

People tend to forget the advertisements once seen. Interactive activities keep them busy and engaged. A good game design would help in making the brand memorable.

Customer Engagement Can Fall Rapidly

Customers can lose interest when there is nothing more than an advertising message in the campaign. Rewards, progression levels, and challenges keep them going.

Types of Gamified Marketing Campaigns 

There are basically five types of campaigns from most gamified marketing services:

Loyalty Games

Players collect points and earn rewards for their repetitive actions. Since the reward is known, the customers come back. The points can be connected to your customer system.

Product Promotion Games

The gameplay gives information on the product features. People get to know about it without reading the brochure. A call to action can be there at the end.

Event & Contest Games

They generate a short hype period during the product launch or event period. Sharing hooks make people talk. Tracking entries becomes easy.

Gamification of retail stores

Customers receive points or rewards when they visit zones or scan products within a store. This game connects the onscreen game play with physical store activities.

Survey and Feedback Games

A short quiz serves as an alternative to the lengthy questionnaire. More participants complete it. The responses are directly fed into your research database.

Which Game Fits Which Goal?

Pick the game after you pick the goal. This table shows common matches. Most brands start with one row and add others later.

A good gamified marketing company will help you choose and will tell you if a simple quiz does the job better than a large build.

Gamified Marketing Services: Facts and Figures 

• Gamified marketing services include rewards and challenges as part of the campaign. Participants get involved as opposed to just observing. Each participant's activity can be tracked.
• According to Abhiwan's website, industry benchmark statistics show up to a 30% increase in engagement compared to traditional campaigns. This is a vendor-provided statistic and should be considered as such. You should test it yourself with your target audience.
• The development of the campaign usually takes between four and eight weeks. More CRM integrations or additional markets require extra time. A quick prototype can be deployed faster.
• According to Abhiwan, the vendor provides 98% customer satisfaction, a 4.8/5 rating, and 90% of projects delivered on time. These are the company's own statistics.

Choosing a Gamified Marketing Partner

When evaluating gamified marketing services companies, here are five factors to pay attention to before hiring a gamified marketing development company.

Playable Campaign Samples

Ask the team to show their previous campaigns that can be played on your smartphone. Pay attention to the loading time and usability of the game to get more information.

Performance Metrics

Find out how the team measures the performance of gamified marketing campaigns, including participation rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate. Figure out the relevant metrics before starting the development process. Then compare the performance to your previous campaigns.

Integration with the Existing Systems

See if the game can integrate into your CRM system, your website, or loyalty program. Learn who is responsible for the integration and testing processes to make the process error-free during the campaign.

Mobile Compatibility

Make sure the game can work seamlessly on different mobile devices. Check the speed of loading the game, usability, and the ease of control.

Post-Launch Support

Find out what kind of post-launch support the company can provide. Learn about the process of fixing technical issues and performance monitoring.

Gamified Marketing Projects by Abhiwan Technology 

Founded in 2018, Abhiwan Technology is a gamified marketing company that develops interactive experiences to help brands engage audiences and promote their products. Its project portfolio includes branded experiences such as Coca-Cola's FaceSwap AR kiosk and Thums Up's Biryani Hunt. The company supports different gamified marketing formats, including brand engagement, loyalty programs, product promotion, events and contests, retail experiences, educational games, surveys, and mobile and web games. It involves a six-step process of goal discovery, mechanics design, development, testing, launch and optimization, and maintenance. Small tests are offered by the company, allowing you to see a sample of your campaign before making the payment for the full-scale execution. The team uses Unity, WebGL, React, and other technologies. The first step usually involves a brief discussion about your goal and target audience. The next stage is the proposal of the mechanics and timeline.

What Is an Example of Gamified Marketing?

An example of gamified marketing would be a loyalty program that rewards users with points and gives them discount coupons based on their purchases. Companies can also hold some type of interactive games during the event to draw people’s attention. For instance, Abhiwan Technology conducted a face-swap campaign for the Coca-Cola company where event participants were offered the chance to interact with the company in a fun way. Thus, gamified marketing services help to transform routine brand interaction into something special.

How Is Gamified Marketing Different From a Regular Ad Campaign?

A traditional ad is mostly about transmitting a message, whereas in gamified marketing, the goal is to make customers engage with the product. For example, they can do something to win a prize or participate in some sort of competition. This will provide consumers with motivation to stay involved with the marketing campaign for longer and make it memorable. But the game itself needs to be simple and fun. Good gamified marketing services put emphasis on clarity of goals and simplicity of the process.