the gaming multiverse of experiences

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.

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