Disney Archives - Gamified UK - #Gamification Expert

Over the summer, the NHS lead programme Change4Life, ran a great campaign aimed at getting kids to do a little bit of excercise. It was called “10 Minute Shake Up” and was done in partnership with Disney.

For starters this is a great idea and one that I whole heartedly support. But the idea was just part of it, the execution is why I have decided to write about it. It was a beautifully realised gamified event.

A few weeks before the summer holidays started, an advertising campaign began for the 10 Minute Shake Up. It invited parents to sign up, for free, to get a pack for their child. Each pack was based on one of four Disney franchises: Toy Story, Big Hero Six, Frozen and Monsters Inc.

The parent and child had to decide which team they wanted to be in. In our household we were team Frozen!

After a couple of weeks, the family would receive the pack and the game could start. Each pack contained a poster, stickers for the poster, activity cards, instructions and a wearable timer – all designed around the team you had chosen.

The rules were that each day your child had to spend 10 minutes doing an activity described on a randomly chosen card. After the activity, they could put a sticker on the chart and start to build up the picture on the poster.

After that, the parent could go onto the website and enter that activity into the childs profile. This was added to the overall team score.

Below is an analysis of what basic elements and mechanics were here as well as what User Types it would engage most – followed by an explanation of why this was so brilliant!

10 Second Shakeup Analysis 500x265 10 Minute Shake Up from NHS and Disney — 10 Second Shakeup Analysis

As you can see, this focused largely on players and achievers. As we know, focusing on extrinsic rewards can be bad, however – this was a short and very focused campaign to try to keep kids active for a few weeks whilst not at school. It didn’t need to engage long-term, so here the extrinsic rewards actually were what was needed.

It wasn’t all extrinsic though. There was a theme running through and you were part of a larger team – all working towards to goal of being the most active team – showing your chosen film characters were the best. This added a level of purpose to the whole event – above the health aspects.

What I loved this was not just an example of a pure digital campaign. Individual progress was tracked on a personal sticker chart. My kids loved earning their sticker and putting it on the poster. Team progress was then tracked on the website.

Photo 23 08 2015 09 13 17 500x375 10 Minute Shake Up from NHS and Disney — 10 Second Shake Up

It wasn’t all about the stickers though. My kids loved the activities. They were fun and written in a way that fitted in with the various films they represented. You had challenges that had them creating ice sculptures like Elsa or doing Scary feet like Sully.

The whole campaign fitted together wonderfully and never felt forced.

When you are approaching gamification, you have to consider the whole picture. This was a short campaign, so could rely on simple mechanics that just helped bolster feelings of belonging and achievement. It did not chance any behaviours though, not long-term. But in this instance, that was ok – the kids are back at school now and are back to being active!

It is a great example of building the right solution for the problem presented.

Ok, this has been bugging me for years. In Gamification, there are many things you hear again and again. It’s not about games, points are bad, intrinsic motivation is king. There are more, but the one I have an issue is a quote from that most famous of nannies (and most irresponsible in my mind) , Mary Poppins:

In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and ‘snap’, the job’s a game.

This is where I cry “Bullshit!”

At the point she is singing this, she is trying to convince the miserable children she is looking after to do some tidying. Rather than creating a game of the chore, she uses magic to make stuff fly around and put themselves away.

Now, if I had magic powers, I could make pretty much any job fun – but it still wouldn’t be a game. I have worked in plenty of jobs that I hated. I don’t use that word lightly either. At least one of them was whilst I was a “Gamification Guru” (yes I dropped the double g on you). Trust me when I say, there was no fun to be found for me in that job – and I recognise the horrific irony there. Seriously, there is little motivation in being told that one of the reasons you are overlooked is because you are obviously unhappy in your job – even if you are nailing it in all other areas!

What she was doing really was distracting the children from the mundane nature of the job at hand, by adding new experiences to it. She was adding fun, not finding it within the job

So more accurately it should be something like:

In every job that must be done, there are things you can do to make it more fun. Add the fun and snap, it’s more bearable.

She even goes on to sing as much with:

A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.

I can hear the cries now though. “Ian, get over her, Andrzej just admitted it is all chocolate covered broccoli”, or “You just were not looking hard enough”.

Gamification is not about making activities fun, in the same way as it is not about creating games out of activities that are not games. Both of these things can be achieved and there is no reason not to strive for them, but the core reason for gamification is to try to improve motivation and engagement using game elements or game-like thinking.

If you can find something in an activity that is fun or engaging, then you should look to make more of that and surface it for others. If you can’t there are only a few options available.

Redesign the activity so that it is more engaging
Add things too the activity that make it more engaging

The first is the most preferable as it has the most chance of long-term success. The second is likely the most practical and ‘easiest’ in the short term.

So, stop trying to find the fun in things that are crap and instead, make them better.

In every unengaging job that must be done, there is an element that can be improved. You find that element and snap, you increase engagement, motivation, overall productivity or happiness.

Yeah, I know it doesn’t rhyme.