How to successfully implement Gamification

Brian Burke, January this year, wrote in a Forbes article that "by 2014, 80 percent of current gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives." ... Maybe this is not what you where expecting from a blog post that is titled "How to successfully implement Gamification ." ... Gamification is a great tool that according to Burke is at the peak of  the Gartner Hype Cycle (also mentioned in one of our previous posts). This does not mean that it is not a great tool for businesses to take advantage of and make money, but you do have to keep a couple of things in mind when doing so to be effective. Burke lists out four suggestions that might help your business when thinking about implementing Gamification into your business´s strategy:

1) Do not confuse activity with results - Seek out examples of companies that have achieved their business objectives. (Some examples seen below)
2) Think of the audience as players not puppets - The target audience must be engaged with meaningful incentives. 
3) Clearly identify the business objectives - To guard against this, when an opportunity to leverage gamification is identified, what must follow is a statement of clearly defined business objectives and a critical analysis of the suitability of gamification to achieve those business objectives.
4) Design for player centricity - To achieve success for companies starting in gamification, the first design point is to motivate players to achieve their goals – and those goals should overlap with the business goals.

Bunchball, one of FastCompany's 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2012, is helping many companies implement Gamification into their business in many different ways. Click on the following image see an example of Bunchball's work and listen to his founder talk about keys to success:

Other successful examples include:

Warner Brothers was able to gain a 360° view of customers while dramatically increasing user generated content, sales of WB products, and traffic to movie sites.This was done by implementing an interactive, Bunchball-powered Insider Rewards Program—to drive loyalty among existing and new fans of Warner Brothers’ content.

Created a social halo effect for Adobe web traffic, and increased Photoshop sales exponentially, delivering high resolution success. They did this by illustrating to customers how easy it is to learn. Enlist Bunchball to create a gamified Photoshop curriculum. 

The following is an example of how Pepsi is using Gamification with the help of gigya:

We hope these examples help you see how Gamification can be good for your business.