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JAKARTA
POST, 12 Mei 2013
The term gamification (the concept of applying game-design
thinking to non-game applications to make them more engaging) is now nothing
new to most people in cyberspace. With more than 70 percent of the Forbes
Global 2,000 list of companies set to have at least one gamified application by
2014, it is clear the business community is now also putting this term into
practice.
Interaction between brands and consumers has already progressed far beyond the Mad Men-era of outbound marketing. In a few short years of existence, the social space and mobile applications have engaged almost all levels of Indonesian society in new and exciting ways. Many companies find themselves running to catch up. Add to this a growing stagnancy in traditional marketing approaches and what has emerged is an urgency to leverage social space to produce tangible business results.
Which results and how? Far from simply replacing traditional marketing efforts, social media is seen by an increasing number of companies as a way of increasing the effectiveness of existing marketing efforts, to differentiate products or services, to advocate for brands and increasingly, to recruit, motivate and raise the performance of employees.
Think of how the website LinkedIn was able to turn busy professionals into willing data entry interns in order to complete their user profiles. By providing visual reinforcement and openly tracking their progress in a way that was pleasing to the eye, LinkedIn data entry became a source of personal achievement.
While most Generation Y’s already eat, sleep and breathe applications, the overabundance of variety and proliferation of these new tools can be an issue for companies looking to stand out with their own digital forays. Simply put, effective gamification can be defined as the intentional use of intangible rewards in the digital interface design. Apply this concept to the right business objectives and it can prove to be a significant catalyst. The good news is whether it is a social network, a mobile application or a website, there are already a lot of great examples out there to study.
For example, Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting companies, with nearly 250,000 employees across 120 countries, has developed an application called Value Pursuit to help drive behavior that enhances their core values. Working with Stanford University, Accenture produced an application that helps employees chart their actions and answer questions, earning “value coins” in the process of becoming better value providers to clients.
Further corporate examples include the Nike+ application and the Volkswagen crowd-sourcing campaign. Nike+ pioneered the effective gamification of exercise applications by tracking progress and rewarding users with badges signifying milestones met and goals achieved. Volkswagen effectively leveraged crowd sourcing to design “The People’s Car Project”. In the first year of the campaign, there were 33 million site visitors and 119,000 actual entries.
With the rapid growth of smartphone ownership in Indonesia, which has currently surpassed that of landline telephones (160 million users) the potential is massive for effectively gamified digital tools. About 65 percent of Indonesians are using social media in their daily lives and with the mobile digital infrastructure only set to grow across the entire region, the real question is no longer if companies should “get in the game” but how long they can afford to stay on the sidelines.
While the digital ship has already sailed, and is not turning around, businesses need to be mindful of the cultural mindsets that exist in each market, and the best approaches for dealing with them. Technology infrastructure, device specifications and specific market needs are all great reasons to develop applications and other gamified digital tools at the regional and national level in order to find the right fit.
Developing a winning application or a social network is not enough. Bringing social media influencers on board has proven to be an effective way of reaching digital natives, increasing their participation and ultimately deciding whether a digital tool is a success or failure. “If you build it they will come” does not apply in this case.
Last but not least, companies need to strive to adopt a test and learn mentality. Modular, scalable designs are an important part of successful applications and networks.
In conclusion, gamification offers plenty of potential benefits, especially to businesses with a large and diverse customer base. Indonesia, perhaps to a greater extent than many other nations in Southeast Asia, offers the perfect testing ground to put the gamification theory into practice. ●
Interaction between brands and consumers has already progressed far beyond the Mad Men-era of outbound marketing. In a few short years of existence, the social space and mobile applications have engaged almost all levels of Indonesian society in new and exciting ways. Many companies find themselves running to catch up. Add to this a growing stagnancy in traditional marketing approaches and what has emerged is an urgency to leverage social space to produce tangible business results.
Which results and how? Far from simply replacing traditional marketing efforts, social media is seen by an increasing number of companies as a way of increasing the effectiveness of existing marketing efforts, to differentiate products or services, to advocate for brands and increasingly, to recruit, motivate and raise the performance of employees.
Think of how the website LinkedIn was able to turn busy professionals into willing data entry interns in order to complete their user profiles. By providing visual reinforcement and openly tracking their progress in a way that was pleasing to the eye, LinkedIn data entry became a source of personal achievement.
While most Generation Y’s already eat, sleep and breathe applications, the overabundance of variety and proliferation of these new tools can be an issue for companies looking to stand out with their own digital forays. Simply put, effective gamification can be defined as the intentional use of intangible rewards in the digital interface design. Apply this concept to the right business objectives and it can prove to be a significant catalyst. The good news is whether it is a social network, a mobile application or a website, there are already a lot of great examples out there to study.
For example, Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting companies, with nearly 250,000 employees across 120 countries, has developed an application called Value Pursuit to help drive behavior that enhances their core values. Working with Stanford University, Accenture produced an application that helps employees chart their actions and answer questions, earning “value coins” in the process of becoming better value providers to clients.
Further corporate examples include the Nike+ application and the Volkswagen crowd-sourcing campaign. Nike+ pioneered the effective gamification of exercise applications by tracking progress and rewarding users with badges signifying milestones met and goals achieved. Volkswagen effectively leveraged crowd sourcing to design “The People’s Car Project”. In the first year of the campaign, there were 33 million site visitors and 119,000 actual entries.
With the rapid growth of smartphone ownership in Indonesia, which has currently surpassed that of landline telephones (160 million users) the potential is massive for effectively gamified digital tools. About 65 percent of Indonesians are using social media in their daily lives and with the mobile digital infrastructure only set to grow across the entire region, the real question is no longer if companies should “get in the game” but how long they can afford to stay on the sidelines.
While the digital ship has already sailed, and is not turning around, businesses need to be mindful of the cultural mindsets that exist in each market, and the best approaches for dealing with them. Technology infrastructure, device specifications and specific market needs are all great reasons to develop applications and other gamified digital tools at the regional and national level in order to find the right fit.
Developing a winning application or a social network is not enough. Bringing social media influencers on board has proven to be an effective way of reaching digital natives, increasing their participation and ultimately deciding whether a digital tool is a success or failure. “If you build it they will come” does not apply in this case.
Last but not least, companies need to strive to adopt a test and learn mentality. Modular, scalable designs are an important part of successful applications and networks.
In conclusion, gamification offers plenty of potential benefits, especially to businesses with a large and diverse customer base. Indonesia, perhaps to a greater extent than many other nations in Southeast Asia, offers the perfect testing ground to put the gamification theory into practice. ●
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