Gamification
When I speak to both old school brick and mortar merchandisers as well as some front-leading tech companies, I’m still amazed how few know about Gamification.
Back in 2008 I remember pitching to British Airways all about the brandability of games for their in-flight entertainment systems. Back then, companies like BunchBall, the now self-proclaimed inventor of the term ‘Gamification,’ were little more than casual game publishers. Games are highly immersive, particularly when you’re sitting on an 11-hour flight, so the idea of strategically placing your own brand within a game seems like an exciting proposition. Particularly when you can tie the game into compelling promotions.
But alas, few real-life examples existed at the time, and it was a hard concept to communicate. Many companies just don’t “get” gamification, just yet.
The Gamification Summit is coming up. Perhaps they can create an educational track entitled, “How to Explain ‘Gamification’ in Terms People Understand.”
This sounds like a brilliant idea. What a creative way for companies to advertise. Is this something that is already being done, or just an idea looking to gain traction? I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed any “gamification.”
This post kinda made me laugh because me and my friends always joke about gamification as one of those startup buzzwords that gets rolled out as the silver bullet for anything (oh hi Quora!)
But I’d never thought of it as a branding opportunity before. Really interesting. I feel your pain in trying to sell the concept though – getting businesses to ‘get’ something before it’s mainstream (and therefore saturated) is tough.
You constructed a handful of remarkable tips inside ur blog post,
“Gamification What? Social Marketing Fella”. I’ll you should be coming back again to ur website before long. Many thanks -Anthony