Deck from presentation at GfK Tech Scouting conference 2012 in Berlin.

1. « Games Are The New Normal »

2. RAF KEUSTERMANS
Co-Founder, CEO Plumbee
(Interim) VP Marketing Kobojo 2011
Independent Social Gaming Consultant 2010-2011
Global Marketing Director Playfish (EA) 2009-2010
Marketing Director EMEA Pogo.com (EA) 2008-2009
Head of Marketing Western Europe Unibet.com 2005-2008
Strategic Planner at BBDO, Grey and Publicis 1998-2005
raf@plumbee.com
Twitter: @raf_keustermans

3. Games & Gamification Timeline
Gamification
PONG Social Games
1972 1980’s 1994 2005 2007 2010 2012
Brands
« Golden Age (re)discover
of Arcade XBOX 360
PS3 Games
Games »

4. « Games are the new Normal »
• Generations since mid°70’s, 80’s grew up with
videogames, many of them still play today.
• All of them are consumers and potential clients.
• A lot of them are today’s decision-
makers, managers, influencers.
• Game mechanics are not a novelty, it’s ’how it should
be’.
– Levels
– Points
– Achievements

5. Social Games
Image from CityVille, Zynga

6. Before 2008:
- Games = Niche
- Big, But Closed Industry
- Brands & Non-Gamers Not Welcome

7. Number of gamers exploded:
2000: 250M
2012: 1B+
• New fast-growing ‘open’ platforms (Fb, iOS)
• Metrics-led design, new generation of game devs
• Broadband penetration
• Free!

8. What Is It?
Games using social graph
Fb/iOS Game Centre/OpenFeint/…
No End/No Winner
‘Multi-Player’ (real-time or turn-based)
Users always aware of others’ activities
Free (Ad-funded/Virtual Goods)
Image from menagamer.com, Restaurant Story

9. Why Should You Care?
• 150B minutes spent EVERY MONTH on social games
• That’s an average of 25 minutes for everyone on the planet!
• Or 3,4M years are spend/wasted on social games every year.
• Wow!
• Next-Generation Marketing
• Gamification, Social media, Earned Media, Conversational,
Metrics-Led Design, Micro-Segmentation

10. A diverse audience
• 7 to 77
• F>M
• 30+
• ‘Non-Gamers’

11. Emerging Markets!
Brazil 2nd largest Fb
market after US.
India #3, Indonesia
#4, Turkey #7, Philippines
#8

12. Brands Are Welcome!

13. Gamification!
Image from Flickr

14. Gamification?
• Gamification is the use of game mechanics for
non-game applications/businesses.
• Game mechanics:
– Level structure
– Reward (feedback) systems: points, badges, …
– Competitive elements (leaderboards, tournament)
– Appointment mechanics
– Virtual currency
– …

15. It’s not (always) about making stuff FUN
Gamification =! Making a game
Gamification =! Making a boring
business/activity more fun
Gamification = using game
elements or mechanics to
improve businesses or
experiences

16. Gamification ingredients
Image from free-photos.biz

17. 1. What motivates the user/customer?
2. What are the mechanics/rules?
3. Is there Social Interaction?
4. How do you Win/Level Up? (victory
conditions)

18. What motivates the user?
• Power
• Personal development
• Being recognised, Status
• Curiosity, learning, creating
• Winning (prizes, cash)
• Competition
• Affiliation, social interaction (‘making friends’)
• Ownership, control
• Achievement

19. TripIt - leaderboards
Status & competition (brag about your business trips, show how ‘global’ you are)
Changes dynamics of travel planning.

20. Credit Cards - Levels
• Basic but effective Level design
• Unclear, vague victory conditions add to status

21. Game mechanics
• Resource Management
• Auction
• Luck, Random elements
• Time (against the clock)
• Rewards (badges, points, achievements)
• Risk (penalty vs reward)
• Levels
• Collecting
• Leaderboard
• Points, Virtual Currency
• Capture (remove opponent’s tokens/resources)
• Appointment mechanics (come back in 15 minutes or else)
• …

22. B2B - DevHub
• Gamified website creation
• Make the process fun and rewarding

23. • Badges, Achievements
• Characters
• ‘Virtual World’

24. And Even Badges Can Work!
• Nothing new
• Relevant tool if
there is a
context/meaning

25. Social Interaction
• Social Graph
• Gifting
• Feedback (internal/external)
• Status, peer recognition
• Communal collaboration
• Leaderboard
• Self-expression (Avatars,
customisation)
• Exchange
• E.g ‘Share to Unlock’

26. Nike+

27. Victory Conditions
• Elimination (wipe out competitors)
• Score (most points win)
• Race (first player wins)
• Territory control (biggest area)
• Game-specific rules

28. McDonald’s Monopoly Promotion
• Victory = collect the right sets of streets

29. Klout

30. • Criticism:
– ‘Pointsification’
– Fluffy metrics (‘engagement’)
– Re-inventing loyalty systems
– Ugly word
• Most gamification projects are
‘glorified loyalty programmes’.
• Game mechanics can’t fix broken
businesses!

31. Raf Keustermans
@raf_keustermans
www.plumbee.com