Every industry needs gamification!

Gamification is known in Spanish as “gamificación” or “ludificación.”

But how do you gamify something? Most people will answer “with video games,” but that is not always the case. You can use playful elements such as cards, badges, board games, and more. In this video, marketing specialist Trent Kennelly explains in simple terms what gamification is and why everyone needs it, regardless of their industry or number of employees.

Watch the video

Trent Kennelly.

Read the transcript below. You can also turn on YouTube captions under Settings > Subtitles/CC.

I think it is already well established that people love having fun. That means if you can create fun in your business, you can generate engagement and get more people to buy.

We are talking about gamification: simply taking fun elements from games and adding them to your product, service, or business to create interaction with your brand and generate more sales. Today, I will explain how to gamify without overhauling your strategy, and then explain why your industry does not even matter: any industry can benefit.

My name is Trent Kennelly. I am a marketing strategist, and we are going to talk about things you can do to improve your business through marketing. Let's get started.

Examples of gamification

Let's go through some examples so you can better understand what gamification is and what it is not. I will start with anything that includes an element of fun.

Competition is gamification. If you get a free sandwich after buying 10, that is gamification. If you earn a badge for completing a workout in a fitness app, that is gamification. If you are trying to get an A on a test, guess what? That is gamification.

That is why this applies to everyone. There is always a way to build competition into your business, internally or externally.

Let's talk about how to gamify

There are three basic elements in any kind of game: challenge, choices, and change. The challenge is reaching the goal, and that is what really interests us.

First, imagine you were Super Mario in a flat environment where all you did was run the whole way. There were no Goombas, no traps, and nothing that could make you start over. It would be neither interesting nor challenging, and you would get through it pretty quickly.

Choosing the direction we want to go means making decisions. If there are no choices, you might as well press play on Netflix, because it is not a game—it is television.

Third comes change. A player needs to grow with the game. If you just complete level 1-1 and then start level 1-1 over and over again, there is no change, no growth, and no new challenge. You need to keep that challenge moving forward.

You need to keep the game changing as the player evolves.

Maintain participation and engagement

These three elements have one thing in common: they drive engagement. For an app or a program, this may seem obvious. Add a reward system, people interact, and they earn rewards. A fitness app such as Fitocracy is an example.

Badges are another excellent application. People can enter information and earn awards within the app. That generates substantial engagement without a large expense for the company.

Now for a more challenging example: how could you do this as a real estate agent? This is where it gets interesting, because gamification is not only an external process. You can also look internally.

As a real estate agent, you do not expect large numbers of people to return very quickly. In an app, by contrast, you might expect people to visit every day, which is why you create all those badges.

For a real estate agent, gamification needs to look inward, because employees are the people who return every day. You want to encourage them to achieve higher turnover, improve data entry, or provide better customer service. These are the things that encourage people to buy from you, stay with you, and spread the word externally by focusing on those positive experiences.

This is why we say everything is marketing. We are almost taking on a human resources role here, because we are talking about positive outcomes for employees. But the basic principle is the same: you are gamifying how employees get the most out of their interaction with you.

Source: Trent Kennelly's YouTube channel

This is the video transcript.