We have recently seen a sharp rise in the digital world with the explosion of various new social media platforms, brands allowing their customers to shop online, and even the digitisation of many mundane admin tasks such as filing taxes or paying bills.
No wonder brands need to fight harder to grab and hold their customers’ attention, which is why gamification is becoming a popular tactic for brands to engage with their audiences.
The digital space allows for more meaningful conversations with an audience, and gamification makes that happen on a much deeper level.
ln gamification you want to get the user to engage with a content piece in a fun way, while achieving goals and tasks that either give them a sense of achievement, or simply provide them with a pleasurable experience.
Users want to engage, and be part of something unique. They don’t want brands to simply feed them information.
By gamifying content, you are asking them to engage with the brand in an entertaining way, and that sometimes that was all a brand aimed to achieve.
hoola recently developed and launched Africa’s first online school shoe store and included some gamified elements in the shopping experience.
We love creating content that is fun and gamification allows us to create new, engaging experiences that offer audiences an opportunity to play rather than consume.
Apart from making it possible for parents to purchase their child’s shoes online, the site also offered them a fully functional fitting room and measurement tool to help them find the perfect size for their kids.
To make the shopping experience even better, a helpful little character was always available to guide shoppers on their online journey.
For brands and agencies, it is clear that gamification provides new and exciting opportunities to engage with audiences and, according to Bell, there are always new emerging target markets.
Their experiences are new and so is our chance to reveal ‘new’ creative content that speaks to them on a different level.
Jamie Bell is head of creative at hoola Modern Agency. hoola is a strategic brand, advertising and design agency based in Port Elizabeth, Durban and George. It specialises in the development of tailored marketing solutions by offering strategic planning, creative design, management and implementation of communication and marketing projects across a broad range of industries.
