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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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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. |
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October 2017
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