Given that marketing to the Millenials is part of every brands growth strategy marketers need to pay close attention to the gaming multiverse for clues
 
Note : Stage 1 in this effort would be gamification of the current brand experiences while Stage 2 would be creating brand games that are platform specific.
 
The commitment to gamification begins with a recognition that utility, entertainment and interaction are important parameters for millenials as they choose to interact with brands.
 
1. Size of the Gaming Multiverse : 2.6 billion gamers globally (2017). The number is only bound to increase in the future as Millenials have been exposed to gaming since birth
 
2. Time Spent : The challenges of ‘attention/ engagement’ does not seem to occur in the gaming multiverse : Time spent  by consumers in competitive and community based activity  is close to 50 mins per day in gaming activities on major platforms like Facebook (30 mins on Snap, 21 mins on Instagram).
 
Gaming has become a ubiquitous part of consumers lives globally and consumers are beginning to expect gamified experiences to be built into their brand experiences. Before adopting gamification, marketers need to first ensure that they are building robust communities on the platforms that millenials frequent. Millenials dwell within their communities and gamification is built into many of the platforms that millenials frequent (Snap, Twitch, Unity, Steam).  Finding the right fit, voice and authentic expression of the brand within that community needs to be thought through carefully.
 
A few ways to gamify your brand experience – each requires that the experience itself will be something that millenials would care about (even for a few minutes):
 
A. Ranking : Competitive rankings reward members who are skilled or who have invested their time in performing tasks. The more social the task is the more visible the brand will be. Brands that reward for loyalty and celebrate its most loyal consumers can adopt the ranking system of gamification to create excitement and visibility around brand usage.
 
B. Virtual Currency (Badges/ Stickers) : Collecting badges for specific tasks helps motivate different segments while providing for intermediate rewards that keeps them engaged. This is essentially currency that can be further redeemed for special offers. The type of badge given acts as a token of identification in enabling marketing to target consumers based on their level of involvement and propensity to interact further with the brand.
 
C. Level Ups : For consumers who have completed a certain minimum level of tasks a level up becomes a differentiator. Promising restricted access, preferential utility and engagement. Opening up special content, special invites to events and gifts can be rewards the brand uses for level ups. While loyalty cards practice this on a regular basis the actual creation and communication of the ‘level up’ can be amplified to further incentivise the community.
 
Every brand that is trying to appeal to millenials should find their preferred method to gamify their brand experiences.  And when a brand has enjoyed a level of base success with its efforts it should begin to think of stage 2 gamification – creating games for their consumers.

​Think of your favorite restaurant, bar, gym or coffee shop. You spend a disproportionate amount of time there, making choices every time you visit. Over multiple visits your choices help create a personal record that explicitly reveals your preferences. You would expect the establishment in which you are investing your time and money to remember your likes and dislikes. Make recommendations tailor-made for you. While you may agree/ disagree with their recommendations you will certainly appreciate the availability of bespoke choices created for you.

When a brand says “We remember you and will make your experience seem familiar and comfortable, we know what you like/ dislike (over time and occasion) and we will help you choose your desired experience”  its saying “Thank you for coming back, we want you to spend the least amount of time deciding and the most amount of time enjoying your time with us”.
 
We can break down Personalisation into 3 buckets – Memory, Choice and Prediction.
 
 “Memory” is the first pillar to build given that brands know when-what-how consumers interact with them. Synthesising the signals consumers transmit with every action into a cohesive pattern of individual preferences we should be able to design personalised experiences for each and every one of them. Memory helps acknowledge a relationship and makes it stronger. Memory is the minimum reward a brand can offer for your loyalty.
 
“Choice” is the second pillar. Its about offering customisation within an available sub-set of variables (choose the content you want to see, sections you like to visit on the website, length –duration of content based on your time availability etc.). Again, its not inventing anew as much as its about the giving consumers the tools to experience your brand as they see fit.
 
“Prediction” is the third and the toughest pillar to build. Here the brand is trying to serve the optimal consumer experiences based on their past behaviors or their peer behaviors and /or the current context (location, time, step). Knowledge of patterns in behaviors and the relationship between actions (what action preceeds another and how likely is it that the second action will occur) can inform a brand about the steps it needs to take to smoothen the transitions between desirable actions. 

There is too much attention being paid to the attention economy.
 
Alarming statistics abound about our shortened attention spans (12…8…6 seconds and dropping) and the mass of advertising messages (5,000 per day or 5 ads per waking minute – have you seen 5 in the last minute ?) without an equal and opposite insight on how long form content viewing (Netflix has 100 million + subscribers, 70% of whom binge watch, Hulu has 47 million subscribers and growing), reading (New York Times subscriptions grew 62% in 2016) seem to be on the uptick.
 
But is attention the right metric in the first place ? While ‘attention’ has its limited usefulness when measuring for content, its at best a proxy for ‘action’.

Scarcity of attention should be replaced by specificity of intention. An action economy approach correctly identifies and solves for the real scarcity – desirable consumers responses (outcomes).
 
Measurable outcomes or conversion – these are valuable metrics that marketers need to build for, not attention. It’s the misplaced trust in ‘attention’ that sees us spend inordinate amount of time and money in creating-curating content, rolling out  display advertising (ad nauseum), remarketing (annoyance ad infinitum) all of which are weak levers to deliver ROI. CMOs have begun to see the error in blindly praying to the digital god of attention – they want more accountability for their digital ad dollars, and by that they mean conversions.
 
The ability to create traction within an action based economy and framework will require first a deep understanding of consumer segments-journeys-action decision trees-triggers and a brand that is purpose driven and authentic in bringing utility to its community.

If ‘actions’ are what a brand wants to build towards how should they approach it ?
 

1. Segment by New Users / Current Users / Loyalists : New Users will have different actions and decisions they are making Vs Current Consumers Vs Loyalists. Segmenting consumers in this way allows a brand to understand the desired actions as well as maps out the challenges it needs to overcome to conversion.

• New Users : In certain categories, ‘new users’ may be unfamiliar with the category as the usage maybe a habit change that is required (electric cars, diet foods), a life-stage change (having a baby, buying car insurance), a mind-set change (on-line grocery shopping) or a combination of all three.  In other cases new users who are familiar with the category, might be inconsistent users (e-commerce, subscription services) and need to be coaxed into re-entering the category.
• Current Users : They are in the category at most times, have a suite of brands they choose to buy and switch between each. They are constantly comparing brands in the price-value-convenience continuum and can be persuaded to switch between their select sub-set of brands
• Loyalists : Are specific about the brand they are buying and buy regularly.

2.   Build ‘Actions’ Decision Trees: For each of the key consumer segments create an ‘action’ decision tree highlighting the types of actions consumers take when moving to purchase and the related triggers that impact their decisions. Unlike a traditional purchase funnel that highlights the different phases of the purchase cycle a decision tree connects one action to another specific action and also maps the distance (in time) of the action to the final purchase while doing so. This allows the brand to create a contextual strategy for actions and plan marketing investments accordingly.

• 1 degree from Purchase: search ‘where to buy’ locations-opening hours (offline), compare pricing, look for discounts, check on warranty, verify free delivery
• 2 degrees from Purchase: fix an appointment, visit offline store, scan QR code for information, subscribe to the newsletter, click on display, chat with customer services, visit product pages (in depth) on the website
• 3 degrees from Purchase: search within category, view a video, play a branded game, try a brand sponsored filter, read the blog, read customer-expert reviews 

3. Create Trigger Maps: Map each of the segments by their ability to convert (skill, time and money), motivation to convert (need) and triggers required (call to action). 

4. Content : created based on purchase decision tree analysis. This is meant to include content for utility, engagement and not limited to conversion alone. 

5. Programmatic : Use post-trade programmatic + predictive modeling using machine learning to optimise spends that are more likely to convert. 

A few action driven digital investments to think about with an eye towards utility driven by context and a hint of intent : 

1. Product Listing Ads : The purchase funnel can be compressed for a segment of consumers who are quite specific about their purchase, uninterested in browsing. Here, direct to sale listing of products that pops-up when a consumer is searching for specific products will offer quick and easy purchase options. Direct to sale clicks in 2017 is at 52% of retail paid clicks and growing steadily (was 29% in 2014).
2. Targeted Pins (Pinterest) : When browsing becomes buying - a form of native advertising that helps consumers ‘buy what you love’ instantly. Consumer openness to buy in this manner has doubled in 2017 Vs 2014 (12% to 24%). Especially effective for fashion, beauty and cosmetics given the visually rich environment of Pinterest and the mindset of consumers browsing for ‘looks’ within Pinterest.
3. Context x Services Mash-ups : Using different geo-services like deliveries, taxi transport and other online service offerings, how do we combine the usage of one service to incentivise the contextual use of another ? Knowledge of destination with services / offers available at the destination can drive contextual utility - restaurant, retail, sales event, time of day, type of destination (business district/ shopping district) etc..
4. Storefronts : The ad is the store – browse endlessly. The ad is the transaction-buy now. The ad unit has become the store, content, ecommerce portal and customer service all rolled into one. This offers choice for consumers to browse as needed or buy spontaniously. It promises frictionelss instant gratification.

 
While the action economy seems to overtly focus on the bottom of the funnel conversion, in reality the efforts is to make the consumer journey faster and smoother.