Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Introducing Gamification Marketing 5
Chapter 1: Gamifying Your Marketing Strategy 7
Seeing What Gamification Can Do in Marketing 8
Understanding gamification 8
Gamifying your marketing 9
Looking at some examples of gamification 9
Understanding How Gamification Differs from Other Online Marketing Tactics 10
Looking at the advantages of gamification 10
Taking your current user experience to the next level 13
Stepping Up Your Current Marketing 14
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Gamification Models 17
Exploring Your Options 17
Discovering game types 18
Creating the Perfect Gamification Campaign Settings 26
Choosing the right game for your audience 27
Determining duration and frequency 29
Avoiding the Big Mistakes 31
Depending on desktop 32
Going rogue 32
Complicating the gameplay 32
Creating too many rewards 32
Misusing game mechanics 33
Banking on virality 33
Creating a campaign that can’t be played at work 34
Assuming your audience will understand games 34
Part 2: Beginning Your Gamification Marketing Quest 35
Chapter 3: Identifying Your Target Audience 37
Defining Your Audience 38
Throwing out everything you think you know about your audience 38
Conducting research to find your audience 39
Taking a Closer Look at Your Current Customer Base 40
Establishing existing data points 41
Tailoring for B2B 42
Mining Your Social Media Accounts 43
Identifying key data points 43
Tracking unique metrics from each platform 45
Choosing meaningful social media data versus vanity metrics 48
Chapter 4: Increasing Engagement in Your Campaign 51
Establishing User Rewards and Achievements 52
Rewarding your players 52
Creating loyalty 55
Encouraging Sharing among Your Audience 58
Using a unique hashtag 58
Providing more than just a link to share 64
Chapter 5: Budgeting Your Development 69
Setting Your Budget 69
Estimating the costs 70
Aligning your budget with your goals 70
Anticipating risks 70
Gathering Your Team 72
Accounting for your gamification model 72
Outsourcing talent 72
Chapter 6: Getting to Know the Technology 83
Choosing a Foundation for Your Campaign 83
Building in HTML5 84
Recognizing the downsides of building an app 88
Keeping Up the Communications 90
Checking your email deliverability 90
Making sure your emails don’t end up in the spam folder 92
Continuing with your campaign 93
Complying with the General Data Protection Regulation 98
Considering Testing Issues 101
Looking at testing methods 101
Checking on browsers 103
Part 3: Executing Your Gamification Plan 105
Chapter 7: Making Your Game a Reality 107
Choosing the Perfect Gamification Model for You 108
Determining Your Target Market 112
Conducting your own audience research 112
Considering what the research is telling you 114
Embedding Goals into the Game 115
Creating SMART goals 115
Devising your gamification objectives 116
Building in Loyalty Rewards 118
Deciding on your options 118
Using rewards in your game 119
Chapter 8: Selecting the Right Components 121
Making Sense of the Game Development Process 122
Understanding the stages of the game development life cycle 122
Deciding which life cycle model is right for you 125
Assembling Your Team 129
Working out who does what 129
Balancing everyone’s role 131
Choosing freelancers, agencies, or in-house employees 132
Preparing the Technical Strategy 134
Understanding the available choices 135
Comparing the platforms 138
Chapter 9: Launching and Promoting Your Game 141
Scheduling the Right Time to Launch 141
Perfecting Your Landing Page 143
Leading Up to T Minus Zero 145
Building pre-launch interest 146
Devising a game-launch marketing strategy through social media 148
Launch Day: Aiming the Spotlight on Your Game 150
Reaching out to your current audience 150
Grabbing media attention 154
Giving influencers and bloggers a sneak peek 157
Using your existing social media channels (or not) 160
Getting your game onto other sites 163
Part 4: Monitoring Real-Time Events and Data after You Go Live 165
Chapter 10: Capturing All the Data 167
Establishing a Portal to Your Data 168
Developing your portal 168
Securing access 169
Building your reports 172
Knowing Which Data You Should Be Capturing 173
Progress tracker 173
Interaction 174
Duration 174
Percentage of new sessions 174
Goal completions 174
Views versus sessions 175
Bounces 175
Location 176
Returning versus new 176
Referrals 177
Following the User Journey 177
Watching all their moves 178
Learning what the users don’t tell you 179
Gaining Valuable User Feedback 181
Providing a dedicated feedback form 181
Installing live chat support 182
Rating your campaign’s performance 182
Creating an online forum 182
Displaying positive customer feedback 183
Using polls 183
Monitoring social channels 183
Chapter 11: Analyzing and Applying Data 185
Understanding the Why and How of Data Analysis 186
Extracting Your Campaign Data 187
Sourcing your data 187
Locating your data 191
Applying Intelligent Big Data 191
Deconstructing big data 192
Benefiting from big data and data analysis 193
Getting Help from Predictive Analysis 194
Installing a predictive analytics tool 195
Using predictive analysis 195
Maintaining Control of Your Data 196
Keeping your audience’s trust 197
Protecting your data 198
Securing your database 198
Chapter 12: Avoiding Data Overload 201
Watching Out for Maximum Capacity 201
Identifying the effects of crashing 202
Preparing for increased traffic 203
Dealing with Data Failure 206
Identifying the cause 206
Fixing the problem 207
Preventing problems from happening again and minimizing the damage 207
Applying the Best Development Practices 210
Optimizing the gamification code 210
Focusing on the purpose of the data 212
Part 5: Preparing for Your Next Gamification Quest 213
Chapter 13: Failing Up: Learning from Your First Quest 215
Taking a Hard Look at the Results 216
Using data to your advantage 216
Using analytics the right way 219
Researching for the Future 221
Shaping the Future 225
Cleaning your data 225
Using artificial intelligence 226
Chapter 14: Relaunching Your Gamification Marketing Campaign 227
Understanding Why You May Want to Relaunch Your Campaign 228
Tweaking Your Gamification Campaign 230
Checking your exit points 230
Assessing whether the gamification option you chose was right for you 231
Redefining your target audience 234
Building a seasonal version of your campaign 235
Knowing When to Shut It All Down 239
Part 6: The Part of Tens 241
Chapter 15: Ten Best Gamification Marketing Examples 243
Starbucks: Starbucks Rewards 243
Chipotle: A Love Story Game 244
Nike: Nike+ FuelBand 245
M&M’s: Eye-Spy Pretzel 246
Target: Wish List 247
Citroën: Game of Scroll 247
Coca-Cola: Shake It 248
Netflix: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch 248
Nissan: CarWings 249
Magnum: Pleasure Hunt 250
Chapter 16: Ten Common Gamification Marketing Mistakes 251
Offering an Unengaging User Experience 252
Leaving Your Audience Screaming, “Help!” 252
Having a Flawed Game Structure 253
Leaving the User Waiting 253
Scoring Pointless Goals 254
Not Establishing Clear Big Data Goals 254
Looking Great on the Desktop, But Not So Much on Mobile 255
Not Checking Up on Absentees 257
Missing Out on Social Interaction 257
Launching without Marketing 258
Chapter 17: Ten Benefits to Gamifying Your Marketing 261
Building Brand Awareness 262
Increasing Reach 262
Instantly Appealing to a Younger Audience 263
Driving Engagement 264
Injecting Fun into Your Brand 264
Influencing Customer Behavior 265
Accruing Big (Customer) Data 265
Personalizing Brand Experiences 266
Building Customer Loyalty 266
Gathering Great Customer Feedback and Research 267
Index 269
