Gamification Examples and Case Studies

Firstly and apology. This is just a copy of a chapter in my book (Gamification a Simple Introduction). I had meant to post this some time ago, but have been saving it for a day such as today. At the moment I am research a little for my next proper article as well as trying to do the next tutorial video! So, some may find this interesting, others may have already seen it!

Examples and Case Studies

What follows are a few examples of gamification in use in the real world.  There are many, many more – just search Google for gamification case studies! However, these should give you an idea how some of the largest companies in the world are making use of gamification.

SAP RoadWarrior

SAP seem to be using gamification more and more.  There are examples of them gamifying their accounts payable, sustainability and also their sales people.  This is the example I wish to use, as I think it is a great sign of how you can make learning and on boarding much more interactive and even enjoyable! They have created a computer game called Roadwarrior that takes sales people though a series of simulated sales meetings.  Using videos and multiple choice questions, Roadwarrior takes new sales reps through various situations that they may encounter in real life.  As they correctly complete a section, new ones are opened up to them.  Points and badges also help to increase the engagement during the game.  What’s more, scores a are shared with their peers, feeding into the spirit of competitions and also encouraging them to socialize with others in the same boat as them.

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SAP’s RoadWarrior

This drip-feeding of information and the fun aspect of the game all combine to increase understanding and retention of the ideas.  In addition, as this is a very reusable resource, financially there is less long-term outlay than having multiple face-to-face classroom style sessions. 

Deloitte

There are two examples I would like to use here, they make use of the Badgeville gamification and behavior management platform.

Enterprise Social Media Gamified

Deloitte is one of the world’s largest consulting firms, with over 180,000 employees across the globe. They wanted a way to connect their workforce together, so that they could share their knowledge no matter where they were on the globe and so that they were less likely to miss important information. Using a combination of enterprise social media platform, Yammer, their own geo location system Who, What, Where and Badgeville’s mobile SDK – they created a mobile application that rewarded their consultants for “checking in”. This allowed them to share who they were with, what they were there for and where they were.

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Rewards and reputation were then showcased for all to see, including managers and executives.

The results?

According to Deloitte they have seen an increase in knowledge sharing, and crucially “Better alignment between the company and its employees, reducing turnover”.

Leadership Academy

The Deloitte Leadership Academy is an executive training program that Deloitte has rolled out to more than 50,000 executives. Their business challenge was to encourage busy executives to take the time to go through the training available. They have again used the Badgeville platform to embed gamification mechanics into the whole of the website. Using things such as missions, rewards, rank, status and more they have been able to greatly impact the usage of the site.

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Taken directly from the case study:

Increased User Retention

  • 46.6% increase in the number of users that return to DLA daily
  • 36.3% increase in the number of users that return to DLA weekly

Active User Engagement and Adoption

  • An average of 3 achievements unlocked per active user
  • Top users have earned as many as 30 achievements already

Accenture

Accenture wanted to increase adoption of their social and collaborative platform (SharePoint).   They noticed that there was a correlation between the number of customized user profiles and the amount of internal collaboration.  Initially they ran an internal competition to encourage users to customize their profiles.

They then developed an employee recognition system that gave users points and badges for certain activities, such as rating content and blogging. Users were also given badges that could be displayed on their public profiles. The top 100 bloggers were also added to a public leaderboard.  They found that this combination of gamification ideas increased the usage of their internal systems.

Chamillionaire

Rapper, Chamillionaire wanted to find a way to reward his fans. He got in touch with Bigdoor  to gamify his website and u. People can earn badges and points by sharing stuff from his site. He has cited that there has been a 25% lift in fan engagement since he started to gamify their experience. Each badge that is awarded from the site has some kind of special meaning to the fans. The leaderboards tell other fans who the biggest fan actually is (a point he has used when people have actually approached him proclaiming to be his biggest fan).

The really interesting thing with Chamillionaire is that he manages his social presence himself. He runs his own brands community and directly engages with fans as much as possible. He has combined the points, badges and leaderboards available from Bigdoor, with proper community to cover both engagement and retention. When the fans have collected everything they can, they will still be loyal because they now that he is loyal to them through his constant, direct involvement with them.

Speed Camera Lottery

This example is a common example of thinking outside of the box in gamification. Volkswagen runs a website called Fun Theory. They premise of the site is that simple, fun ideas can be very powerful at changing behaviors.  People submitted their ideas for the chance to win €2500, one of which in 2009 was the Speed Camera Lottery. Submitted by Kevin Richardson, the idea was simple but brilliant. Rather than just fining people who were caught speeding, offer those abiding by the law the chance for a reward. Money raised from speeding fines could be added to a lottery fund. At random, people seen to be driving at the correct speed would be entered into this lottery.

This award winning idea was actually then trialed by Swedish National Society for Road Safety in Stockholm (41). They installed cameras that showed you your current speed and also took a photograph of you. Over the course of the three day trail they captured the speed of 24,857 cars. Previous to the experiment, the average speed in that area had been 32 km/h. Over the course of the experiment, this was reduced to  25 km/h – a 22% reduction.

It is worth considering a few factors here. The first, it may well have been the idea of winning money that helped reduce peoples speed.  However, it could also have just been the fact the drivers were suddenly being publically shown their speed and prompted into slowing down a little.

In the UK, certain towns have a similar way of signaling speed. Signs show you how fast you are going. For the most part, they just flash up with your speed if you are breaking the speed limit – a handy signal if as you may just have been unaware.  However, there are some that go a step further and actually thank you for sticking to the speed limit.  It never hurts to say thank you after all!

MTV Europe Music Awards

In 2011 MTV wanted to build anticipation for the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards. They chose gamification company Bunchball to help them. They integrated several layers of gamification into the MTV EMA site, to create a “MegaFan Competition”.

Users could earn points in various ways, such as voting in audience choice categories, watching past performance videos, viewing flip books and more. To add a social element, user could join teams, for instance “Team Bieber”. They could then face off against other teams to earn more points for their teams.

Points could win users real world prizes – the top price being a trip to the EMAs

The results were very good. They saw a 530% increase in EMA related page views on the MTV UK website compared to the previous year!

giff gaff

I have mentioned Giff Gaff a few times in the book so far, but for those of you who have skipped straight to the examples page I will go over their use of gamification again!

Founded in 2010 by the head of brand strategy at O2 by Gav Thompson, giff gaff is a UK based mobile phone service provider, with a unique business model. Everything from sales to support is community driven. You buy a SIM card either from the site or another members page and use it with your current phone. Buying from an existing members page gives that member points (once the card is activated).

When you need support, you go to the giff gaff forums, rather than calling a service desk. Other members then offer you help and advice, from simple phone set up to how to cut the SIM card to use it in an iPhone. Some users have even set up a service for cutting SIM cards for you. Contributing to the community can earn you more points.

1 point is equal to 1 pence and can then be redeemed in 3 ways once you hit certain thresholds.

  • Get the cash
  • Pay for airtime
  • Donate it to a charity chosen by the members

This gives so many forms of motivation to all types of users, from status to altruism.

Ice Pilots TV Series

PugPharm used their Picnic platform uses real gameplay to engage people. In this case they used a sort of Pokémon style trading card game. Players collected cards about members of the cast by doing certain tasks and playing games on the site. They could then create decks to enter certain competitions. Theses decks were then be used to connect you to other players with similar decks and interests.

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The results were really positive.

  • Page views: 59% increase
  • Time on site: 25% increase
  • Conversion rate: 87%
  • Participation in complex tasks: 48%

They also demonstrated that the collection/scarcity elements in the project were 13x more effective at creating meaningful engagement than just their badge/points features.

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11 thoughts on “Gamification Examples and Case Studies”

  1. Pingback: Blog: Is ‘serious games’ too broad a term to be meaningful? | Gaming Blog
  2. Pingback: Blog: Is 'serious games' too broad a term to be meaningful?
  3. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if the Speed Camera Lottery became a natural part of our lives. Then the intrinsic motivation of driving responsibly (according to law) would be replaced by the extrinsic reward, meaning that people would stop driving responsibly in situations where they have no chance of winning money?

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