Less fighting dragons, more boosting everyday performance and knowledge retention.
People may use the term “gamification” to describe different things. When we talk about gamification at Mevo, we like to refer to a definition by Gabe Zichermann. We think he sums it up nicely by saying that “gamification” describes the process of using game thinking and game dynamics to engage an audience and solve problems.
So when we talk about applying gamification to your brand, we don’t mean that we are aiming at making a computer game with your brand’s logo. Not at all, actually. Instead, it’s about using the psychological effects of receiving rewards and tapping into what that does to our brains.
It’s nothing like entering a noisy, flashy video arcade with your brand’s logo on it.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash.
There are some common misconceptions about gamification. Let’s try to clarify (according to how we use the term at Mevo):
What gamification IS NOT:
- Marketing with video games.
- Simply displaying results on a dashboard.
What gamification IS:
- Using elements known from gaming that trigger the brain’s reward system – put in a different setting.
- Reward good efforts in order to boost engagement and knowledge retention.
So this means that by using gamification you motivate people to perform an ordinary task or activity. You turn it into a game, or a contest, where they get to play the hero by solving easy challenges and collecting points.
At Mevo we use gamification to, among other things, help brands organize sales contests. In that case, the players collect points by selling campaign products and answering quizzes.
They are not fighting dragons or saving princesses, but they are learning and staying motivated to keep on doing a great job.
