that people watch a live broadcast.”
Warner Bros. used gamification techniques to achieve a similar purpose.
The studio recently partnered with
vendor Bunchball to increase consumption of promotional content for
its film, television, music, and interactive content. They developed WB
Insider Rewards Program where members could earn rewards like DVDs,
digital downloads, and WB merchandise by taking part in activities such as
posting reviews, viewing trailers, and
purchasing movie tickets.
“Badges are good for onboarding
people, getting them into the program
initially, but you have to give them
more meaningful rewards if you want
to keep them engaged,” says Steve
Patrizi, Bunchball’s CRO.
Insider Rewards is an entire customized program, but gamification is also
an attractive option as a short-term
marketing tool that can be added to
an existing branding effort. In those
cases basic tools will often suffice.
“We have a lot of customers who
said that they use standard platforms
and don’t need it to be customized—
they just want it to work and work
quickly,” says Patrizi. “We know that
out-of-the-box won’t require years of
development and lots of resources to
take it offline.”
Another major area of gamification
growth has been in the healthcare
industry. While video games are
frequently criticized as a cause of obe-
sity and inactivity, some health mark-
eters are finding that games can have
the opposite effect, as well. A survey
of more than 1,000 adults by United-
Health Group found that 54% believe
that physically active video games
would encourage them to be more
active, while 60% of respondents with
children in the household said chil-
dren should be encouraged to play
physically active games.
Warner Bros.
promotes on its
Insider Rewards
Program where
users can earn
points and
rewards
but we’re doing it in small ways.”
While Baby Blocks targets one speci-
fic demographic, Plourde is develop-
ing other gamification programs for
additional segments like seniors, col-
lege students, and deployed military
officers and their families.
The company’s OptumHealth partnered with Fitbit, a company that sells
pedometers and activity monitors and
built the OptumizeMe mobile app. It
allows consumers to set goals and
track their behavior and connects that
data to mobile, online, or telephone-based coaching services.
“We’re trying to take a multiplat-
form approach here,” Plourde says.
“We don’t want them to feel limited
to any specific one.”
UnitedHealthcare is now expanding
this out to employer members to fa-
cilitate workplace wellness programs.
Not only does this effort help defray
Game-changing numbers
70% Portion of Global 2000 organizations that will have at least
one “gamified” application by 2014—Gartner Inc., Portals, Content
and Collaboration Summit presentation, November 2011
$2.8 billion Anticipated size of gamification market by 2016
—M2 Research, Gamified Engagement Survey, September 2011
197% Anticipated growth in 2012 of top gamification vendors
—M2 Research, Gamified Engagement Survey, September 2011
More than 50% portion of all social business initiatives that will
include gamification component by 2013—Constellation Research,
Demystifying Enterprise Gamification for Business, December 2011
healthcare costs for the insurer’s existing consumer base, but it serves as an
outreach and marketing tool to connect with potential new members who
enjoy increasing freedom in selecting
which insurer to join.
“We want people to understand
who UnitedHealthcare is, we want
people to understand who our Optum
brands are,” Plourde says. “As the
market starts to change with reform
and starts to become more direct-to-consumer where they are actively
involved in choice, we want them to
understand who we are and that’s one
of the side effects of this.” n
