Gamification for Brands and the Future of Engagement

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The platforms that now let people farm online, change diapers, and take the helm of air traffic control in the job with the highest suicide rate of all is predicted to grow into a 14 billion dollar industry by 2014. Two thirds of that market is bound to be wrapped up in virtual clothing but the future is more than just buying branded virtual goods. Gamification is set to reconstruct how brands interact with consumers in ways we have yet to imagine and L2 Facebook In Depth speaker Gabe Zichermann is at the forefront of it all.

In Zichermann’s world the future of marketing is about capitalizing on user motivation to create engagement which in turn breeds loyalty. This isn’t about wrapping brands into pointless flash games, it’s about tapping into our inherent desires as humans to design interactions. When marketers turn skeptical of how gaming can be applied to their brand Zichermann reminds them of the top games today that let people become farmers or air traffic controllers. In Zichermann’s words, “It’s not the window dressing it’s the interactions” that motivate people to participate.

Zichermann’s thought leadership also has the backing of experts that predict a combined annual growth rate of 250% in the gaming industry. For him gaming is a fundamental reversal in how loyalty is built and maintained. While consumers in the past only earned loyalty points for making purchases, now game mechanics allow people to design interactions that lead to desired instead of accidental results.

“Games are the only force in the universe that can get people to do something they didn’t know they wanted to do without the use of force,” Zichermann says. The interactions he builds for brands like the New York Times and Time Inc capitalizes on consumers’ inherent desire for status, access and power and free stuff to design experiences to add meaning and value to our current views of loyalty programs today.

This entry was posted on Friday March 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.