Excelling at what your company offer is often synonymous of success, but having a loyal customer base is not easy. Applying gamification elements to products or services can help brands to keep customers engaged, but it's not exempt of risks. This talk will present an introduction to gamification and will show success stories, specially focusing on apps promoting a positive behaviour change. Manuel will also share some lessons learned from app development and what opportunities gamification can bring to multiple disciplines.

1. Brand engagement
with mobile
gamification apps from
a developer
perspective
Manuel Martin Salvador
R&D Engineer @ Base
AI researcher @ Bournemouth University
05/12/2016
CMC Masterclass Series
Bournemouth University

2. Outline
1. Introduction
2. Gamification
3. Apps encouraging a positive change
4. Lessons from a developer
5. Opportunities

3. Let’s play a game!
6 questions
Every right answer = 1 point
Prize = a box of Heroes (raffle between top winners)
Self-assessment: please write down your answers

4. Introduction

5. Question #1: What is this logo?
Introduction

7. Source
The Logo Company

8. Branding
● Logo
● Colour scheme
● Font
● Language (formal, informal)
● Culture (e.g. open, cool, modern, formal)
● Physical shop: window and decoration
● Online shop: layout and images
“Inconsistency is a brand killer” → Design brand guidelines
Introduction

9. Question #2:
What company has this tagline?
“every little helps”
Introduction

10. Loyalty
Do people often think in your
company when need to buy a
product or hire a service?
E.g. soft drink, detergent, barber
shop, mobile phone
Introduction

11. Engagement
How often do customers interact with your brand?
● This will vary depending on the life span of the product (e.g. milk vs car)
How do customers react when you offer something new?
● E.g. you may want to try a new Oreo’s flavour
Introduction

12. Main challenges
Brand recognition: can people identify my logo/tagline?
Customer loyalty: how can I keep a customer and avoid him/her to go to a
competitor?
Customer engagement: how can I make customers like my brand and react
positively to my offer?
Introduction

13. Gamification

14. Definition
“Gamification is the use of game-design elements and game
principles in non-game contexts.”
Deterding et al. From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification". MindTrek 2011
Gamification

15. Main applications
Marketing: loyalty (e.g. Tesco Clubcard), customer engagement.
Workplace: motivate employees to complete tasks.
Education: encourage students to learn.
Health: encourage people to exercise more (e.g. Fitbit).
Crowdsourcing: collect hard-to-get information from many users (e.g. Foursquare).
Gamification

16. Point system
Users get points based on their actions
You can choose a word that fits well within
your strategy (e.g. coins, health points,
experience points)
Source
Gamification

17. Incentives / Rewards
Give value to the points (e.g. 1000 points = £10 voucher)
Known rewards (rules)
● E.g. get a free coffee with 300 points
Unexpected rewards (because reasons)
● E.g. happy birthday! Have a free cookie on us!
Gamification
Source

18. Leaderboards
Being part of a community
Competitive: beat your friends
Refresh it periodically (e.g.
every week) to avoid frustration
Gamification
Source

19. Badges
People like collecting things
Don’t confuse badges with value
Gamification

20. Unlock achievements
Set stages to complete
(e.g. level 1 in
Spanish)
Feeling of progressing
Gamification

21. Risks
If used badly, gamification has the potential to be counterproductive
Moral drift / cheating
Addictive behaviour
Illusion of fun: Just pretending something is fun does not make it fun.
Anxiety vs Boredom
More
Gamification

22. Flow
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
Flow: The Psychology of
Optimal Experience, 1990
Source
(too easy)
(too hard)
Gamification

23. Apps encouraging a
positive change

24. Change of behaviour
Most humans try to avoid boring or difficult tasks
Learning a new skill or create a new habit take time
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

25. Question #3
How much time does it take to create a new habit?
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

26. Change of behaviour
Most humans try to avoid boring or difficult tasks
Learning a new skill or create a new habit take time:
● 21 days to build a new habit (Maxwell Maltz. Psycho-Cybernetics, A New
Way to Get More Living Out of Life, 1960)
● 66 days to build a new habit (Lally et al. How are habits formed: Modelling
habit formation in the real world, 2009)
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

27. Wellness / Fitness
Nike+ Fitocracy
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

28. Environment
Oroeco Recyclebank
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

29. Public Transport Apps
encouraging a
positive change
My Open Road SASAbus

30. Productivity
Habitica Supper
Better
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

31. Finances
Smarty
Pig
Mint
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

32. Question #4:
What’s the name of this app? Apps
encouraging a
positive change

33. Education
Duolingo Brilliant Khan
Academy
Apps
encouraging a
positive change

34. Lessons from a
developer

35. I want to gamify my business
What’s your goal?
What’s your budget?
Do you have an app?
A. My app is my business
B. My app is a complement to my business
C. I don’t have an app
Lessons from
a developer

36. “The perfect plan”
Source
Lessons from
a developer

38. Be Agile
Source
Lessons from
a developer

39. Be Agile Lessons from
a developer

40. Notifications
Don’t abuse
Smart notifications: notify at the right moment (e.g. Subway does at lunch time)
Lessons from
a developer

41. UX / Design
Make your gamification strategy consistent with your brand
Lessons from
a developer

42. User feedback
Listen to your users (and answer them)
Accept critics → Improve
Help to prioritise roadmap
Lessons from
a developer

43. Question #5: What’s the
Android market share in UK?
Source

44. Question #5: What’s the
Android market share in UK?
Source

45. Track everything*
Analyse events and flows
Source
Fabric
Lessons from
a developer
* Everything you need

46. Privacy
Respect people's privacy. Not everybody wants to share his/her progress.
Check the Data Protection Act (in the UK) and international legislation if you
operate abroad.
Be specially careful when you audience are kids
Lessons from
a developer
Source

47. Backwards compatibility
People don’t update apps as often as developers would like
Source
Oct 2016
Lessons from
a developer
Question #6: In what year was
Windows 7 launched?

48. Backwards compatibility
People don’t update apps as often as developers would like
Source
Oct 2016
2009!
2011!
Lessons from
a developer

49. Opportunities

50. Is gamification dead?
Opportunities
2015 2016
?

51. Steady rise in the market growth
2012: $242 million
2015: $1700 million
2016: $2800 million
Source
It’s effective!
● Domino’s Pizza: created the gaming app Pizza Hero and increased sales revenue by 30% by
letting customers create their own pizza with an app.
● Popchips: uses games to personalize mobile advertising and has seen its sales rise 40%
leading to $100 million in sales.
● Bell Media: increased customer retention by 33% by incorporating “social loyalty” rewards on its
website.
Source
Gamification is here to stay
Source
Opportunities
Interest over time

52. Multidisciplinary
Psychology
Software developers
Marketing (e.g. increase brand awareness, re-engage with users)
HR (e.g. increase productivity, engage employees with some activities)
Opportunities

53. Think out of the box
Tram in Amsterdam (Daniel Disselkoen)Piano stairs in Brussels (Dole)
Opportunities
66% more people used the stairs!

54. Thanks!
Email
manuel@wearebase.com
msalvador@bournemouth.ac.uk
Twitter: @draxus
Who’s the winner?