The gamification of marketing and branding is here to stay.
According to M2 Research, corporations spent USD$100 million on
gamification in 2010, with that figure expected to rise to $2.8 billion
by 2016. That’s a serious amount of cash—and a serious amount of fun and
entertainment. So if you feel the time is ripe for you and your brand
to jump in and explore this new marketing trend, Gamedojo (in
partnership with Idealog and NZ Marketing) is putting on The Gamification Lab, which is to be held on two consecutive half-days, 26 June and 3 July.
To
define it briefly, gamification is the application of successful game
design principles to non-game activities such as brands, social media,
loyalty campaigns or apps. The results speak for themselves: better
sales conversion rates, retention, brand affect, social sharing and
engagement with your brand.
The Lab will be facilitated by Mitch Olson, co-founder
of New Zealand’s most successful social game Smallworlds, and Stephen
Knightly, chairperson of the NZ Game Developers Association. And, not
surprisingly, they both say the market is right for New Zealand brands to invest in gamification.
“There’s certainly lots of interest in gamification locally. Many
brands have told us that they’ve conducted what they view as nice
experiments, but feel unsure about how to take the next steps,” says
Olson. “At the end of the Gamification Lab, workshop attendees will have
a business case for applying gamification principles to their brand
that they’ll be able to take back to their organisation and present to
colleagues.”
Olson sees it as a way to bridge the two disciplines of game experience design and marketing.
“We’ve
had over seven million people in SmallWorlds playing our game since we
launched. These people voluntarily choose to spend considerable hours
with our game each and every week. When was the last time you could say
that of an ad campaign?”
G-Lab will go beyond abstract concepts to
identify specific strategies that marketers can apply to their own
campaigns. The Lab is split over two Tuesday morning sessions, held one
week apart. Attendees are encouraged to bring sticky marketing problems
or upcoming campaigns, which will be worked on so attendees will have
some tasty gamification takeaways to share with their colleagues.
For more information and to register click here. And you better hurry, because the G-Lab is limited to just 20 places.
