Download the PDF: https://www.demandmetric.com/content/gamification-technology-overview A new, younger generation is now entering the workforce, bringing with them different mindsets and technologies than their Baby Boomer predecessors. For this new generation, video games, social media and all things digital and interactive have been an integral part of their everyday life. Engaging this new generation and the generations that follow is a serious challenge for businesses in the present. When seeking to engage an Online Community, particularly one consisting of millennials, Gamification is an approach that creates an environment of real-time feedback, benefits and rewards to which the digital generations have become accustomed. Quite simply, Gamification incorporates game-design mechanisms into non-game applications and environments to make them more engaging while adding a dimension of fun and competition. Gamification is a means to an end and, in broad terms, that end goal is behavior change. More specifically, companies gamify applications, websites or communities to better engage customers, employees or both. The insights and analysis presented in this Vendor Landscape are given to provide marketers with an overview of Gamification platforms and tools that enable Modern Marketing Organizations (MMOs) to make effective purchasing decisions about Gamification solutions that best fit their broader Customer Engagement strategy. Our look at this technology landscape focuses on the primary applications for Gamification, which broadly fall into the categories of Customer Loyalty or Advocacy, Customer Engagement and Employee Engagement.

1. GAMIFICATION
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

2. Table of Contents
1 3
2 5
3 8
Executive Summary
Gamification Vendor Landscape
Evolution of the Landscape
GAMIFICATION
Technology Overview
11
10Analyst Bottom Line
Technology Overview Methodology
About Demand Metric 12

3. Executive Summary
GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

4. 4GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEWEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A new, younger generation is now entering the workforce, bringing
with them different mindsets and technologies than their Baby Boomer
predecessors.
For this new generation, video games, social media and all things digital
and interactive have been an integral part of their everyday life.
Engaging this new generation and the generations that follow is a serious
challenge for businesses in the present.
When seeking to engage an Online Community, particularly one consisting
of millennials, Gamification is an approach that creates an environment of
real-time feedback, benefits and rewards to which the digital generations
have become accustomed.
Quite simply, Gamification incorporates game-design mechanisms into
non-game applications and environments to make them more engaging
while adding a dimension of fun and competition.
Gamification is a means to an end and, in broad terms, that end goal
is behavior change. More specifically, companies gamify applications,
websites or communities to better engage customers, employees or both.
The insights and analysis presented in this Vendor Landscape are given
to provide marketers with an overview of Gamification platforms and
tools that enable Modern Marketing Organizations (MMOs) to make
effective purchasing decisions about Gamification solutions that best
fit their broader Customer Engagement strategy.
Our look at this technology landscape focuses on the primary applications
for Gamification, which broadly fall into the categories of Customer Loyalty
or Advocacy, Customer Engagement and Employee Engagement.
Executive Summary

5. 5GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Gamification
Vendor Landscape
GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

6. 6GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEWGAMIFICATION VENDOR LANDSCAPE
In this study, we focused on vendors that offered platforms that,
generally provide a Gamification utility that integrates with a variety of
application environments.
Most commonly, the integrations are with CRM, websites and social media.
There are some vendors in this matrix with specialization. For example,
LevelEleven works just with Salesforce.com. Similarly, LiveCube is specific
to events.
Gamification features exist in other solutions as well, most notably
Customer Advocacy and Loyalty platforms.
To review these features, refer to Demand Metric’s Advocacy and Loyalty
Vendor Evaluation and Advocacy and Loyalty Vendors Matrix.
Gamification Vendor Landscape
Download Demand Metric’s Gamification Vendor Matrix
to review the key vendors in this technology landscape.
This matrix includes target industries, key offerings, unique
strengths and current customers for each vendor.
V I E W R E S O U R C E

7. 7GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Evaluate solutions you are considering with Demand
Metric’s Gamification Vendor Evaluation.
Gamification Plataforms
Virtually all Gamification platforms offered today are
hosted. They enable the integration or incorporation of
game mechanics into existing applications, websites and
communities.
For popular applications, such as Salesforce.com, the
integrations are often “canned” and easy to implement.
In other cases, an API supports custom integration.
There are two broad classes of Gamification platforms.
The first, represented by vendors such as BunchBall and
Badgeville, are general-purpose Gamification engines
that are utilities for gamifying a wide range of applications.
The second are solutions, represented by vendors such
as Lithium and LevelEleven, that use Gamification to
drive Customer or Sales Team Engagement, Loyalty or
Advocacy.
V I E W R E S O U R C E
GAMIFICATION VENDOR LANDSCAPE
LEVEL 1

8. 8GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Evolution of the Landscape
GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

9. 9GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEWEVOLUTION OF THE LANDSCAPE
As a concept, Gamification is not new, having its roots in airline and hotel
customer reward programs that go back several decades.
Then, as now, the goal was to encourage a desirable behavior. In the last
decade, Gamification has infiltrated the world of web pages, applications,
online communities and social media. Early implementations were often
simple badge and/or point systems.
Today, they have evolved into seamlessly integrated systems that
encourage and track behavior by providing status updates, monitoring
goals, offering rewards and creating competition about specific behaviors
or completed actions.
Integration with social media often makes participation in gamified environ-
ments fast and easy.
As Gamification continues to mature, marketers can expect to see it become
an integrated feature of many other solutions, as it already has for Customer
Advocacy and Loyalty solutions.
There will continue to be a need for a standalone Gamification platform that is
capable of being integrated with other solutions.
However, Gamification in the future will more commonly exist as a feature of
CRM, Marketing Automation, Customer Advocacy, Loyalty and other systems
in use by customers, partners, sales representatives, support technicians and
other groups.
As the world of gamified environments continues to evolve, the data and
analytics dimension will grow in importance.
Analytics and reporting, once an afterthought, are now helping companies
gain precise insights about the behavior of users and participants in their
gamified environments.
This understanding provides a competitive advantage by providing insights
for enhancing Employee Engagement, building Customer Loyalty, increasing
interaction or advocacy and taking other actions that create mutual benefits.
Another area of Gamification evolution is occurring around Personalization.
No longer must gamified environments be “one size fits all.”
Instead, many vendors are providing technology that enables the
presentation of personalized rewards or other dimensions of a gamified
environment.
Evolution of the Landscape

10. 10GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEWANALYST BOTTOM LINE
Analyst Bottom Line
Gamification is a powerful approach for incentivizing and
rewarding certain behaviors. Since it is a means to an end,
marketers should first have a goal(s) in mind for Gamification.
Some common applications for Gamification are to
Increase Customer Loyalty
Increase Employee Engagement
Increase customer or event attendee interaction
Encourage social media sharing
Encourage employees to complete training
Increase employee collaboration
Reward employee communication or collaboration
Reward Customer Advocacy
Once you’ve determined a goal, carefully study the audience you
seek to influence through a gamified application, community or
website.
This audience represents your “players” and you must know what
motivates them. The challenge is to develop a narrative for your
gamified environment that makes participation fun and meaningful
and keeps the focus on the player yet accomplishes your goals.
Most vendors have experience that marketers should exploit
when implementing Gamification. Your gamified environment is
ideally easy to participate in and play, yet difficult to complete.
Once you’ve rolled out a gamified application, community or
website, keep close tabs on it through analytics.
Be prepared to make modifications and adjustments
to the environment so it remains interesting to the
players and still meets your goals.

11. 11GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEWTECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW METHODOLOGY
Technology Overview Methodology
The Modern Marketing landscape is an ever-changing, ever-evolving
environment in which new strategies, technologies, vendors and
products appear continually.
Demand Metric Technology Overviews provide marketers with a
focus on a specific technology solution set or focus area so that
they are armed with the knowledge, information and tools they
need to develop effective strategies for their organizations.
Each Technology Overview involves hours of analyst research
(mainly publicly available information), is for a specific technology
solution, and is usually accompanied by several practical tools.
Our Customer Engagement series includes Technology Overviews on
Online Event Marketing
Online Communities
Advocacy and Loyalty
Our practical tools are designed to provide marketers with the tools
and templates they need to plan for an initiative in a given focus
area, analyze the vendor landscape and select the best vendor for
their organization.
We provide a comprehensive overview of Customer
Engagement in the companion report Customer
Engagement Best Practices Report.
V I E W R E S O U R C E

12. 12GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEWABOUT DEMAND METRIC
About Demand Metric
Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving
a membership community of over 120,000 marketing profes-
sionals and consultants in 75 countries.
Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and
500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric
resources and expertise help the marketing community plan
more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions
about their work with authority and conviction, and complete
marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence,
boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it easier
to justify resources the team needs to succeed.
To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit
www.demandmetric.com

13. 13GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
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