Gamification is the process of using gaming thinking and mechanics to solve problems, and engage users. And it is fun! Fun sells and drives engagement.
While some think this is just marketing http://www.bogost.com/blog/gamification_is_bullshit.shtml, I asset that the concepts have merit for our new Millennials as do many others who view this is the next big Social thing (http://kotaku.com/5833631/gamification-is-here-to-stay-and-its-not-bullshit).
And you cannot argue with the facts. A lot of games have bigger audiences than TV shows do , and much stronger engagement.
For examples include IBM. We use gaming for onboarding, demand generation, and education.
Farmer’s Insurance uses gaming to generate new clients using Farmville as a sticky hook. They have a “blimp” with Farmer’s on it that can be used to protect your crops and if you click on it, takes you to Farmer’s landing page.
And Weight Watchers uses the point system to drive motivation .
What are your thoughts on gaming? Do you use it? Do you think you will?
During our IBM Social Business JamCanp Bustour we stopped at United Prototype visiting my buddy Ibrahim @ibo Evsan. He and his co-founder created Fliplife – a social game under fliplife.com – and are quite successful with it. It is a great example to use a game to extend skills and competencies. They just won Daimler and Bayer as sponsors with own spaces, one for recruitment. Great examples and I am sure more is coming …
No doubt it works and it will continue to grow. Look at MMORPGs like EVE Online, World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic. There are many clans and guilds that use programs like Mumble, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo to talk realtime. Some players get to know their guildmates better than their own family members.
There are other “games” like Second Life where companies even have a presence, create advertising and sell items. TV channels like HBO, Showtime and AMC are coming out with apps for mobile devices where viewers of certain shows can chat during the latest episode. The city of San Francisco Office of Emergency Management is creating an app for iOS and Android called SFHeroes that allows citizens to gain points for completing disaster preparedness tasks while remaining aware of issues that arise in the city.
Wii Fit, The Biggest Loser and Dance Central are more examples of gamification to lose weight.
Apples iTV should take this one step further into society. Companies will either embrace the concept of gamification or fall behind.