Gamification Technology Overview

1. GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

2. GAMIFICATION Technology Overview Table of Contents 1 2 3 Executive Summary 3 Gamification Vendor Landscape 5 Evolution of the Landscape 8 Analyst Bottom Line 10 Technology Overview Methodology 11 About Demand Metric 12

3. GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Executive Summary

4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 4 Executive Summary A new, younger generation is now entering the workforce, bringing with them different mindsets and technologies than their Baby Boomer predecessors. The insights and analysis presented in this Vendor Landscape are given to provide marketers with an overview of Gamification platforms and tools that enable Modern Marketing Organizations (MMOs) to make effective purchasing decisions about Gamification solutions that best fit their broader Customer Engagement strategy. For this new generation, video games, social media and all things digital and interactive have been an integral part of their everyday life. Our look at this technology landscape focuses on the primary applications for Gamification, which broadly fall into the categories of Customer Loyalty or Advocacy, Customer Engagement and Employee Engagement. Engaging this new generation and the generations that follow is a serious challenge for businesses in the present. When seeking to engage an Online Community, particularly one consisting of millennials, Gamification is an approach that creates an environment of real-time feedback, benefits and rewards to which the digital generations have become accustomed. Quite simply, Gamification incorporates game-design mechanisms into non-game applications and environments to make them more engaging while adding a dimension of fun and competition. Gamification is a means to an end and, in broad terms, that end goal is behavior change. More specifically, companies gamify applications, websites or communities to better engage customers, employees or both.

5. GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 5 GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Gamification Vendor Landscape

6. GAMIFICATION VENDOR LANDSCAPE GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 6 Gamification Vendor Landscape In this study, we focused on vendors that offered platforms that, generally provide a Gamification utility that integrates with a variety of application environments. Most commonly, the integrations are with CRM, websites and social media. There are some vendors in this matrix with specialization. For example, LevelEleven works just with Salesforce.com. Similarly, LiveCube is specific to events. Gamification features exist in other solutions as well, most notably Customer Advocacy and Loyalty platforms. To review these features, refer to Demand Metric’s Advocacy and Loyalty Vendor Evaluation and Advocacy and Loyalty Vendors Matrix. Download Demand Metric’sGamification Vendor Matrix to review the key vendors in this technology landscape. This matrix includes target industries, key offerings, unique strengths and current customers for each vendor. V I E W R E S O U R C E

7. GAMIFICATION VENDOR LANDSCAPE GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 7 Gamification Plataforms Virtually all Gamification platforms offered today are hosted. They enable the integration or incorporation of game mechanics into existing applications, websites and communities. LEVEL 1 For popular applications, such as Salesforce.com, the integrations are often “canned” and easy to implement. In other cases, an API supports custom integration. There are two broad classes of Gamification platforms. The first, represented by vendors such as BunchBall and Badgeville, are general-purpose Gamification engines that are utilities for gamifying a wide range of applications. The second are solutions, represented by vendors such as Lithium and LevelEleven, that use Gamification to drive Customer or Sales Team Engagement, Loyalty or Advocacy. Evaluate solutions you are considering with Demand Metric’s Gamification Vendor Evaluation. V I E W R E S O U R C E

8. GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 8 GAMIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Evolution of the Landscape

9. EVOLUTION OF THE LANDSCAPE GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 9 Evolution of the Landscape As a concept, Gamification is not new, having its roots in airline and hotel customer reward programs that go back several decades. However, Gamification in the future will more commonly exist as a feature of CRM, Marketing Automation, Customer Advocacy, Loyalty and other systems in use by customers, partners, sales representatives, support technicians and other groups. Then, as now, the goal was to encourage a desirable behavior. In the last decade, Gamification has infiltrated the world of web pages, applications, online communities and social media. Early implementations were often simple badge and/or point systems. As the world of gamified environments continues to evolve, the data and analytics dimension will grow in importance. Today, they have evolved into seamlessly integrated systems that encourage and track behavior by providing status updates, monitoring goals, offering rewards and creating competition about specific behaviors or completed actions. Analytics and reporting, once an afterthought, are now helping companies gain precise insights about the behavior of users and participants in their gamified environments. This understanding provides a competitive advantage by providing insights for enhancing Employee Engagement, building Customer Loyalty, increasing interaction or advocacy and taking other actions that create mutual benefits. Integration with social media often makes participation in gamified environ- ments fast and easy. As Gamification continues to mature, marketers can expect to see it become an integrated feature of many other solutions, as it already has for Customer Advocacy and Loyalty solutions. Another area of Gamification evolution is occurring around Personalization. No longer must gamified environments be “one size fits all.” Instead, many vendors are providing technology that enables the presentation of personalized rewards or other dimensions of a gamified environment. There will continue to be a need for a standalone Gamification platform that is capable of being integrated with other solutions.

10. ANALYST BOTTOM LINE GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 10 Analyst Bottom Line Gamification is a powerful approach for incentivizing and rewarding certain behaviors. Since it is a means to an end, marketers should first have a goal(s) in mind for Gamification. Once you’ve determined a goal, carefully study the audience you seek to influence through a gamified application, community or website. Some common applications for Gamification are to This audience represents your “players” and you must know what motivates them. The challenge is to develop a narrative for your gamified environment that makes participation fun and meaningful and keeps the focus on the player yet accomplishes your goals. Increase Customer Loyalty Increase Employee Engagement Most vendors have experience that marketers should exploit when implementing Gamification. Your gamified environment is ideally easy to participate in and play, yet difficult to complete. Increase customer or event attendee interaction Encourage social media sharing Encourage employees to complete training Once you’ve rolled out a gamified application, community or website, keep close tabs on it through analytics. Increase employee collaboration Reward employee communication or collaboration Be prepared to make modifications and adjustments Reward Customer Advocacy to the environment so it remains interesting to the players and still meets your goals.

11. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW METHODOLOGY GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 11 Technology Overview Methodology The Modern Marketing landscape is an ever-changing, ever-evolving environment in which new strategies, technologies, vendors and products appear continually. Our practical tools are designed to provide marketers with the tools and templates they need to plan for an initiative in a given focus area, analyze the vendor landscape and select the best vendor for their organization. Demand Metric Technology Overviews provide marketers with a focus on a specific technology solution set or focus area so that they are armed with the knowledge, information and tools they need to develop effective strategies for their organizations. Our Customer Engagement series includes Technology Overviews on Online Event Marketing Online Communities Advocacy and Loyalty Each Technology Overview involves hours of analyst research (mainly publicly available information), is for a specific technology solution, and is usually accompanied by several practical tools. We provide a comprehensive overview of Customer Engagement in the companion report Customer Engagement Best Practices Report. V I E W R E S O U R C E

12. ABOUT DEMAND METRIC GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 12 About Demand Metric Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 120,000 marketing profes- sionals and consultants in 75 countries. Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about their work with authority and conviction, and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed. To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit www.demandmetric.com

13. GAMIFICATION: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 13 © Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. www.demandmetric.com Follow us on Twitter Join Linkedin Group Like us on Facebook