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From board games and sports to modern-day video games and virtual reality, people have always been drawn to the thrill of competition and rewards. Imagine turning aspects of your marketing program into a game—one that keeps customers engaged, motivated, and coming back for more.
At the heart of a well-designed game is a clear goal, measurable milestones to track progress, and a meaningful reward when the goal is achieved. This instills a sense of purpose, fuels ongoing participation, and creates the pride and satisfaction of achieving something.
Marketers can use these powerful elements of gaming to build deeper, more lasting relationships with consumers. By integrating gamification techniques – such as points, badges, and leaderboards – into marketing strategy, brands can transform routine interactions into rewarding experiences.
Here’s how to play—and win— with 5 gamification marketing ideas.
1. Loyalty Programs
Loyal customers are your most valuable brand advocates.
Not only is it five times easier to retain a customer than acquire a new one, but loyal customers also spend 67% more with your brand – and more often.
They’re also much more likely to tell their friends and family about you and be willing to pay higher prices for the products and services they love.
Designing an effective loyalty program should therefore be a core part of every marketer’s strategy. This is where gamification marketing comes in. Integrating elements from games, such as earning points or badges and progressing through higher tiers to unlock rewards, is a compelling way to hook your customers and keep them engaged.
Top-performing loyalty programs can boost revenue from customers by 15 to 25 percent a year, by increasing either their purchase frequency or basket size – or both.”
Essential elements of successful gamified loyalty programs include clear goals, with simple routes to achieving them, the ability for users to track progress, and rewards that are relevant to your customers. Think points or stamps for every purchase, with a freebie when enough is earned. Or tiered membership levels, that unlock exclusive perks and discounts as participants progress up the ranks.
studioID Tip: Use customer data from loyalty programs to test and optimize your offering. Perform A/B testing to experiment with different tactics and rewards to see what resonates best with your audience.
Best-in-Class Example
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Vitality, a UK health insurance provider, empowers customers to take ownership of their health and well-being through a points and rewards-based loyalty program that incentivizes users to make healthier choices.
Why It Works
Vitality’s loyalty program is based on a system of points and tiers that reward all users for making healthier choices. But what really makes the program stand out is the holistic approach Vitality takes to health and wellbeing. By partnering with numerous other health and wellness brands, the insurance provider offers a huge range of perks to participants at every level.
Users with a small number of points might get free tickets to the movies. Those with more points can indulge in a spa day. Whether it’s buying more fruit and veggies from the grocery store or getting in more steps each day, anyone can rack up Vitality points and track their progress, giving participants plenty of opportunities to strive for more.
2. Achievement Badges
Achievement badges reward users for accomplishing goals or completing challenges. Bages tap into the innate human desire for recognition, validation, and achievement. Unlike tangible rewards, badges consider that the status and satisfaction they bring will encourage participation and engagement.
Celebrating goals and milestones with badges can create excitement and anticipation, which makes it more rewarding to engage. And there are many different ways they can be used. A fitness app might award badges for consecutive workout days, or distance milestones, incentivizing users to maintain an exercise streak and push their limits. Similarly, a language-learning platform might award badges for daily practice or mastering new vocabulary.
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When using achievement badges, make them relevant to the action they represent and reflect different levels of progression, such as bronze, silver, and gold. Making them shareable on social media or within a brand’s community adds another level of engagement, as users proudly showcase their achievements, amplifying brand reach. Ultimately, a well-designed achievement badge system can transform routine tasks into exciting challenges, driving loyalty, engagement, and community-building for your brand.
studioID Tip: Expand brand reach by designing clear, highly-visual badges that are easy-to-share and attribute to your brand.
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Best-in-Class Example
Nike Run Club is a mobile app for runners with no experiences to the most seasoned athletes. The app shares training tips and advice from experts, records user fitness data, and enables participants to create and share challenges with friends and family.
Why It Works
Nike Run Club uses achievement badges across the app to reward milestones and goals. This could be a badge for your first 5K run or for running every day for a week. It also has ‘challenge’ badges that incentivize users to complete goals such as running 50K-a-month, and global and community badges for participating in Nike-sponsored events.
What makes it particularly effective is that runners can share their achievement badges on social media and within leaderboards on the app, where you can see other runners’ badges. This gives the app a competitive edge, motivating users to hit new personal records and outrun others.
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3. Competitions
Nothing sparks excitement like a little friendly competition. Whether it’s the thrill of winning a prize, gaining exclusive access, or simply earning bragging rights, people love to compete. By tapping into this competitive spirit, brands can not only deepen engagement with existing customers but also draw in new ones.
An average of over 34% of new customers are acquired through contests.
Competitions can be a powerful tool for amplifying brand visibility and capturing user-generated content. Often, participants share their achievements or entries on social media, while also encouraging friends and family to participate, creating buzz and exposing brands to a wider audience.
Competitions can also be a great way to collect valuable customer data, with participants sharing personal details or preferences as part of entry requirements. It can be as simple as asking your Instagram followers to leave feedback, through to more sophisticated competitions that require a deeper-level of participation. Brands such as L’Oreal, run innovation competitions to source new talent in their Brandstorm Innovation Competition.
studioID Tip: Only offer relevant rewards. Be choosey about rewards to ensure they reflect your brand values and audience motivations. For example, access to exclusive reports or early-bird event RSVPs for B2B audiences, and discounts or free products for B2C.
Best-in-Class Example
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Doritos ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ competition originally ran for a decade between 2006 and 2016, before being re-launched again this year. The contest challenges fans to create their own Super Bowl spot.
Why It Works
Challenging fans to create their own Doritos advert, the ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ competition requires a hefty commitment from participants. But the payoff is huge — the opportunity for their spot to be showcased during the Super Bowl, a large cash prize, and a trip to the game.
What makes this competition so effective is that it goes far beyond the event itself. More than a single commercial spot that will run a couple times duing the big game, Doritos employed an entire advertising campaign that runs for several weeks and months. Entrants to the competition rarely just submit their commercial. They share their story on social media, creating months of Doritos-related content. Plus, the brand allows fans to vote on the winner, boosting engagement and brand interaction even further — creating a game within a game.
4. Challenges
Challenges, similarly to competitions, motivate audiences to participate, with the promise of achieving a goal. The subtle difference is that challenges focus on personal goals, whereas competitions involve outperforming others.
Well-designed challenges combine motivations like personal growth, pleasure, or the desire to master a new skill, with extrinsic rewards such as points, badges, or a tangible prize that compels users to keep going. They should reflect your brand values and be meaningful to your customers. Krispy Kreme, for example, stays true to its playful and cheeky side with simple challenges that require fans to don wacky outfits in return for a free donut.
Unlike competitions, challenges are easier to integrate into your marketing on a regular basis to increase interaction and boost engagement. For instance, you can share daily challenges – perhaps to complete a specific task – and monthly challenges, to achieve a larger milestone. As participants accomplish their goals, they will associate your brand with feelings of wellbeing and pride. Plus, they’re likely to share their achievements with friends, families or employees.
studioID Tip: Know your audience’s motivations and use these to design regular challenges that resonate. If you’re a B2B brand, focus on challenges and rewards that support personal and professional growth and development. If you’re B2C, you can keep it fun, competitive, and rewarding in ways that align with your brand values and your customers’ lifestyle and purchase behavior.
Best-in-Class Example
The Salesforce Trailhead platform is a free online learning resource for any user of Salesforce. It aims to support developers, businesses, and sales teams to develop their Salesforce expertise and skills.
Why It Works
Trailhead uses several gamification techniques to inspire users to participate and develop their skills, but one element that stands out is their monthly Trailblazer Quests. These quests combine educational content with game-like elements, such as challenges, to allow users to earn badges and points and progress through higher ranks. Each quest runs over a limited time period and requires participants to carry out specific tasks and problem-solving exercises with the chance to win a fun prize. They’re easy to follow and give a motivational boost, encouraging determination and persistence.
5. Employee Engagement
Employee engagement in the workplace saw its first annual decline in a decade in 2021, dropping further still in 2022 in the U.S. Gamification offers an alternative approach to keeping employees happy, productive, and engaged.
As many as 72% of employees claim gamification inspires them to work harder.
Gamification can transform mundane tasks and stale training exercises into fun, interactive experiences. For example, rather than mindlessly cold-calling customers, employees can compete for the highest sales, tracking progress in real-time and earning rewards along the way. Instead of sitting through tedious compliance training, workers can participate in quizzes and interactive challenges and climb the ranks of leaderboards.
Given that compensation and benefits are among the top factors influencing job decisions, brands should consider integrating gamification elements into their bonus compensation schemes. A gamified marketing example in the workplace could be points, badges, or levels tied to key performance metrics that could be converted into tangible rewards, like an extra vacation day or gift card. You could even gamify referral programs by awarding points for every successful candidate referred.
The key is to tailor rewards to each team and skill level, ensuring that new or less able employees feel motivated rather than discouraged. Whether through achievement badges, performance-based rewards, or leaderboards that foster healthy competition, incorporating gamification marketing into the workplace can significantly boost employee motivation, productivity, and overall job satisfaction.
Best-in-Class Example
HP created its own mobile app, The HP Uni App, to train sales teams and help them develop their skills.
Why It Works
The HP Uni App provides interactive modules, video tutorials, and quizzes to support sales teams, boost their product knowledge, and hone the skills needed to better support customer needs. Gamification elements like leaderboards and skills-based challenges, along with a tiered reward system, motivate users to continuously participate and improve their performance. By using a gamified approach, the app effectively boosts learning and competition among team members, driving improved performance and ultimately, increased sales.
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