What drives people to pay attention to your brand? Is there a way you can get people to engage with your product and come back, over and over again?

In marketing, companies use different tactics to create advertisements that not only use elements that are attractive to the general audience but also help recall their brand’s identity. 

Today, billion-dollar companies like Nike, Coca Cola and Google amongst others leverage Gamification as a way to increase engagement and ROI on ad spend. Every company uses a different plan whether it’s a short interactive ad, a brand activation campaign, or in-game marketing. 

How can gamification help companies succeed in marketing?

According to MarketsandMarkets, the gamification industry in 2020 had a global value of $9.1 billion and is estimated to mark an impressive growth rate of 27.4%, reaching $30.7 billion by 2025.

In general, gamification is the application with typical elements of game design including point-scoring, level, leaderboard in non-game contexts; it is defined as an online marketing technique to solve problems and enhance customer engagement with a product or service.

Gamification is an excellent strategy to help you spice up your content marketing and engage your target audience in new ways by providing a great user experience, fostering consumer loyalty, and building a positive image of your brand.

93% of the marketers say they love gamification  

We have been familiar with gamification for some time; it is adaptable and applicable to almost all types of corporations. The allure of gamification can be used for many diverse objectives, whether it involves marketing, creating a company profile, project supervision, hiring, employee management, and much more. 

Let’s go through the eight perfect examples of gamification in a business environment. 

1. Lay’s Doritos – Can You Handle the Doritos Roulette Challenge? 

Lay’s Doritos are renowned for their wide range of flavors and addictive taste. It’s no surprise that they’re the number-one go-to snack in parties and other crowd settings. In order to engage and promote their snack to the general public, Doritos launched a potato chip campaign that asked customers to taste their new pack of spicy Doritos named ‘Roulette.’ Just like the name implies, people could get a chip anywhere between mildly spicy to super spicy.

The response was outstanding, and the brand acknowledged many short videos of consumers playing Doritos’ Spicy Roulette Challenge. This idea is nothing new, but it aims to a market that likes potato chips, making it a prosperous flavor. 

2. Flavor Inventor By Vitamin Water – Taste It! Rate It!

Another excellent example of gamification that attracted everyone’s attention is Vitamin Water’s marketing campaign for Flavor Inventor. In order to be direct with the public, Vitamin Water asked its Facebook followers to support the company so as to help the company invent the upcoming flavor of the drink. 

The audience helped this process wholeheartedly, and the event was widely recognized by fans, surprisingly many celebrities, including 50 Cent and Steve Nash, who also participated in the contest. This campaign not helped the general public engage with the company directly but also gave people a choice to create their own product flavors.

3. Samsung Consumer Engagement Program – Chat and Discuss  

Samsung uses an excellent gamification strategy that helps the company get in touch with their consumers and helps the consumers engage with each other. Samsung provides a feature on its website that allows users to discuss existing problems by simply engaging in a conversation. The idea was to build a strong and supportive community that rewards users who help their fellow Samsung users.

The liveliest contestant receives an honored badge which creates a sense of accomplishment inside the mind of the user – The more you help, the more you’re rewarded for.

4. America’s Army – Play, Experience, Join the force. 

You don’t always have to be smart when you want to integrate gamification advertising into your business. Take a simple approach and include actual miniature games in your promotional activities, and portray the brand image to your audience. 

Another fascinating example of gamification is the U.S. Army’s approach to developing an interesting recruitment tool where anyone can register for free and download a game that helps them strategize and test their skills. Candidates may set up multiplayer settings and participate in the shooting environment and evaluate their capabilities.  

This community is called Army Online. In the game, capable players will be honored with different ranks and badges, similar to the actual method of gratitude granted by the U.S. military. 

Apparently, a simulated game is just a fun element, which can barely replicate the actual nature of the battle. This is why the goal of this gamification strategy is double: it is mainly used as an advertising tool that can promote the U.S. Army, thereby growing the number of recruits. 

The brand created a digital online game reminiscent of Super Mario. However, every website has a built-in actual competitive environment.

5. Magnum BonBon Hunt – The Heroic Online Experience

Ever wondered why you loved Super Mario as a child? Did it have anything to do with collecting gold coins as you progressed through the game? 

Different game companies capture the concept of collecting gold coins, and while many might not have been successful, Magnum Pleasure Hunt thrived on becoming as big as Super Mario itself. 

Magnum’s quest takes place in a unique environment where users can ride, glide and slide their way to collecting coins shaped like chocolates. Users can accumulate points and build their rankings. When the player returns to the Magnum central location, the game is finished, and your chocolate becomes a delicious Magnum Temptation bar. 

6. NikeFuel – Lively Activities 

For the massive Nike+ community, Nike introduced a campaign named NikeFuel. On NikeFuel, visitors compete with other members in the amount of daily physical exercise. They can install Nike App on their smartphone, record all visitors’ activities, and transmit them into loyalty points. 

After accomplishing each level, NikeFuel presented its users with various trophies and prizes. These have brought great inspiration to Nike consumers to engage in sports, share their achievements on social networks, and strengthen brand awareness. 

7. My Starbucks Rewards – Collect More Stars and Shine Bright

Starbucks effectively implements gamification technology through its “My Starbucks Rewards” loyalty program to expand buyer engagement and motivate them to come again. Consumers who become members of the Starbucks Rewards Program will collect rewards such as free food and beverages and earn Stars points for each order. 

Customers can exchange these stars for different products or prizes listed by Starbucks. As customers get more stars, they will receive other astonishing rewards, like free birthday snacks and free top-ups. Those who get a gold medal position can get the best return. In this case, Starbucks offers enticements to make consumers feel fulfilled and supports the notion that they will be more pleased if they are loyal to the company. 

8. M&M’s Pretzel Special Campaign, Puzzle Candy

M&M’s Eye-Spy Pretzel app is a decent illustration of how an elementary gamified promotion campaign can cause a sensation. It is suggested that you always easily keep your game and don’t make the game too difficult or contain lengthy rudiments. This way, you can guarantee that your visitor will not be overwhelmed or upset, which means they are more prospective to like and share your campaign. 

The inkling of ??the advertising campaign is around M&M’s pretzel-flavored, which was one of its most popular bonbons. Mainly the idea is to promote M&M’s pretzel items; that’s why the company initiated this marketing campaign. 

M&M’s impression was ingenious: the user must hint at a hidden pretzel in M&M colorful bonbon pictures. This simple puzzle game that only runs on Facebook has taken hundreds of thousands of new likes and shares to M&M. We have never witnessed that kind of admiration in any other activity in a short period of time.