UGC (User Generated Content), definition, marketing trends

UGC (User Generated Content), definition, marketing trends

UGC (or User Generated Content) is not a new marketing trend in 2024. An increasing number of brands are in fact encouraging and reusing photos, videos and written testimonials shared by their customers to enrich their marketing strategy.

But like any popular strategy, it is crucial for brands wishing to use UGC to stand out from the crowd. If you’re already capitalising on this content to engage your audience this article will take you deeper into the subject of User Generated Content.

We take a look at the ways in which UGC can enrich your content marketing. You’ll find some advice on how to boost your UGC strategy, with a focus on gamification.

What is UGC (User Generated Content)?

User-generated content (or UGC) refers to any form of content created by users or consumers rather than by brands or companies. This can range from images, videos, written testimonials to blog posts and much more.

The whole point of UGC is that, unlike content produced by companies, it offers an authentic representation of products or services offered. When a customer takes a photo wearing a piece of clothing or shares their opinion on a new beauty treatment, they are naturally doing so in an objective way. Their experience or testimonial is not perceived by other users as marketing content designed to encourage them to buy.

This is why consumers trust UGC more than brand publications to guide their decisions:

  • 85% of consumers say they turn to UGC-type content rather than branded content when making purchasing decisions.
  • What’s more, 62% of consumers are likely to buy a product if they can consult photos and videos of people buying the product.

The different objectives of UGC

As well as being an effective purchase driver, UGC (User Generated Content) encourages exchanges between the brand and its customers.

Brands that decide to integrate UGC into their content marketing strategy can use it as a lever to :

  • Gain subscribers and boost your visibility on social networks. Challenges launched by brands, photo and video competitions are an excellent way of growing your community and raising your profile. UGC allows companies to make themselves known to their customers’ friends and subscribers. And so naturally extend their visibility to audiences.
  • Increase buyer commitment, on social networks or on its online shop. Internet users spend 90% more time on a website that incorporates UGC content (on its product sheets, for example) than a site that does not. UGC acts as social proof that reassures them at the time of purchase. 
  • Collecting e-mails for reactivation. UGC campaigns can also form part of a customer data enrichment strategy. Simply launch a UGC competition offering value in exchange for an email address or answers to a survey. For example, participants can share photos of dishes cooked with products marketed by the company in exchange for a recipe ebook.
  • Stimulating repeat purchases and building customer loyalty. UGC is a powerful way of retaining customers. Once the order has been placed and the product received, brands can encourage users to share their opinion or a photo illustrating their experience. In exchange, they will receive discount coupons to trigger a new purchase or other benefits (VIP programme, etc.).
User-Generated-Content-example

How can you boost your UGC strategy?

UGC (User Generated Content) is therefore a good way of capitalising on the authenticity and creativity of your community to strengthen your content marketing strategy. But you still need to encourage your audience to share content that is relevant to your brand, and know how to use it wisely.

Here are 3 tips for optimising your UGC strategy :

1. Create a brand experience worth sharing

The first step in encouraging your audience to produce UGC is to create a brand experience that makes you want to be immortalised and re-shared on your networks. That’s what restaurants are doing by coming up with highly Instagrammable dishes that customers will immediately want to take a photo of and post on their social media.

Unboxing, for example, can be a crucial part of the customer experience. Beautiful packaging naturally encourages consumers to create and distribute UGC. The use of the product or service itself can also be an excellent way of encouraging users to produce content.

For example, a beauty products brand can share with its customers (via a series of post-purchase emails) a routine to follow. Customers will be able to film themselves using the treatment or share a before-and-after picture. The UGC will then serve as social proof and will boost sales of the item.

2. Encourage or guide the creativity of your community with a competition

Gamification is a highly effective way of encouraging customers to generate UGC. For brands, it’s also a good technique for guiding the type of content they want their audience to share. The instructions of a marketing contest will, for example, provide information about the format or the benefits of the product to be promoted.

Calvin Klein, for example, has relied on UGC to democratise its brand image, perceived as too luxurious (and therefore inaccessible) by young consumers. CK created a landing page highlighting the campaign and actively encouraging users to share their publications under the hashtag #MyCalvins.

The emphasis was on the IRL (i.e. authentic) side of the content to break down the brand’s overly upmarket image. In 2024 , the hashtag #mycalvins had over 410 million views on TikTok! This UGC competition, whose main reward was to be shared on CK’s networks, enabled the company to boost its profile among GenZ.

3. Interacting with and rewarding brand ambassadors

As the CK example clearly shows, the main reward sought by users who share UGC is not necessarily a prize. This type of interaction is more a way for consumers to create a link with their favourite brands. What they generally expect in return is recognition and privileged exchanges with the company.

The key to a viral UGC campaign is to interact as much as possible with your brand ambassadors. Obviously, this means reposting photos and videos shared by your community in stories or directly on your account. But it also means commenting on these publications, thanking them for their support and encouraging their creativity.

The most original UGC can be included in the brand’s content strategy (with the agreement of their creators, of course). They can also give access to exclusive benefits (meeting the founders, access to the ambassador programme, etc.).

This approach not only makes it possible to gamify a UGC campaign by creating healthy competition between its customers. Above all, it increases audience loyalty by strengthening the emotional connection between the brand and its consumers.

Conclusion

UGC (User Generated Content) is marketing content that is as engaging as it is effective in triggering the act of buying. To encourage customers to share authentic content, gamification remains one of the most effective levers. Discover our interactive animations to boost your UGC strategy and improve your brand image!

In just 30 minutes, we’ll show you how to launch your own high-performance interactive marketing campaign.

Recruitment method: how and why gamification?

Recruitment method: how and why gamification?

According to a recent study by Opinion Way, 29% of the 56% of companies with recruitment targets are finding it difficult to recruit. Whether it’s advertising, attracting the right profiles or convincing talented people to join their teams, organisations are increasingly exposed to a shortage of staff.

What if the solution to overcoming these challenges and avoiding understaffing was to look to gamification? That’s right, making your recruitment process more interactive and fun can be a good way of standing out from your competitors and attracting the most sought-after to work for your company.

Gamification: an innovative recruitment method

Gamification in recruitment refers to introducing a game mechanic or animation into the recruitment process. The ultimate aim of this strategy is manifold: gamification can be used to attract candidates or to improve their experience so that they don’t give up along the way.

Let’s take an example. In 2004, Google invited candidates to solve a series of equations on the assumption – rightly so – that those with the intelligence and motivation to complete the process would make excellent candidates.

Both parties benefited from adding a fun dimension to the recruitment method. Candidates appreciated being challenged in a more original way than in a traditional job interview. And Google was able to attract a wider range of candidates while selecting the most analytical and persevering profiles.

What are the benefits of gamification in recruitment?

To sum up, introducing gamified elements into the recruitment process can transform the hiring experience into something that is both more entertaining and more productive, for both the recruiter and the recruit.

But let’s look at the companies that choose to recruit through games. In practical terms, this strategy can enable them to :

  • simplify and accelerate the talent selection process,
  • reduce the drop-out rate,
  • but also to highlight the strategic skills of each candidate.

Let’s take a closer look at the virtues of interactive recruitment.

1. Gamification reduces time to hire

Gamification is an excellent time management tool. Games often only take a few minutes for participants and provide recruiters with instant results. This is an excellent way of quickly assessing the relevance of a profile in terms of the skills required for the position.

According to reports from a tech startup, simply replacing the traditional interview process with gamified assessments, such as a coding game, has made their interview cycle 40% faster. The application rate was also 62% higher.

2. Gamification of recruitment improves the candidate experience (CX)

Gamified recruitment also makes the candidate experience more enjoyable. It’s an excellent way of presenting the company’s values and encouraging talented people to join its teams.

As game mechanics are, by their very nature, highly engaging, they help to maintain candidates’ interest throughout the recruitment process. The reward (or points) system built into gamification not only helps to motivate participants. But it also makes it easier to keep them until the final selection stage. Their experience is more fun but also reflects an innovative and modern image of the company.

3. Eliminating prejudice in recruitment

No selection process is completely neutral. Nevertheless, gamification is an objective way of selecting candidates. It’s not the recruiter’s impressions that count, but the results of the game shared with all the talent. Of course, everyone comes with their own weapons, but it’s their skills (both hard and soft skills) that are judged, not the image they project of themselves.

The data generated by gamified recruitment experiences gives companies an objective basis for shortlisting the candidates most likely to be suitable for the job. This can be based on ranking by results, but also on each candidate’s interactions with the game.

The gamification of recruitment is all the more interesting for avoiding discriminating against profiles on the basis of their experience. It’s not the companies they’ve worked for or the positions they’ve held that make the difference. But their ability to solve a puzzle, think creatively and find an innovative solution to a complex problem.

Games are therefore set to replace application forms. Rather than asking applicants to upload their CV and covering letter, companies can offer them the chance to answer a quiz or take part in a competition. The candidates who stand out from the crowd will not only be the most creative, but also the most persistent and motivated to join the company.

The example of Camaïeu X Lena Situations

Following its takeover, Camaïeu decided to make a splash by teaming up with influencer Lena Situations to tease its comeback. But also to give a spotlight to its gamified recruitment campaign run in collaboration with Adictiz.

With the Be Camaïeu* operation, the influencer shared the search for a ‘communications boss’. This exceptional recruitment, which is clearly off the beaten track, is based on a participative approach. Not only are candidates not asked to send a CV, but they are also asked to answer a personality test that highlights their creativity.

But broadcasting the campaign on both the brand’s and the influencer’s social networks also helps to engage their respective communities in the selection process. Members become headhunters, recommending profiles or highlighting those they consider most relevant.

Results :

  • The brand received over 2,000 applications, far more than it had estimated;
  • The profiles were more junior than for a traditional communications manager. For the company, it’s the assurance of bringing in a breath of modernity in its teams. Mais aussi d’accéder à un pool plus large de talents (qui peuvent s’autocensurer par peur de ne pas être légitimes).
  • The press and organic response to the campaign has been spectacular: over 100 articles published (specialist and general press), radio and TV coverage, posts and conversations on social networks.
  • The EMV (Earned Media Value) of this operation was valued at 4 million euros.
Example of gamification recruitment

How can you successfully gamify your recruitment method?

To replicate the success of the Camaïeu campaign, we recommend that you :

  • Define your objectives. A strategic plan will clearly define the weak points in the current recruitment experience that gamification will help to strengthen. This could mean attracting more candidates, limiting drop-out rates or assessing their skills more effectively;
  • Make the game as engaging as possible. Le but principal de l’utilisation d’un jeu n’est pas de dérouter le candidat, mais d engage future employees. Le format utilisé doit donc être pertinent avec le poste proposé, interactif et cohérent avec les valeurs portées par l’entreprise.
  • Promote your recruitment game. Disseminating the gamified recruitment experience is crucial to its success. Influencer marketing can be a good way of doing this, as long as you work with a content creator who matches the profile of the candidates you want to reach.

In 30 minutes, we show you how to gamify your recruitment

Hosting a trade show with interactive activities

Hosting a trade show with interactive activities

Trade shows and conferences are excellent opportunities for companies to network and present their products/services to a wide audience. But taking part in these events also represents a major investment. That’s why organisations need to maximise their ROI by taking advantage of this opportunity to generate leads and sales.

In an environment where they are in direct competition with other exhibitors, how can we differentiate ourselves and achieve these objectives? Gamification is emerging as an effective lever for attracting and converting visitors.

In this article, we take a closer look at the links between gamification and trade shows. We also share our tips on how to host a trade show and win new customers.

Gamification and trade fairs: the obvious way forward

Gamification is the process of turning any activity into a game. It’s a particularly popular tool in digital marketing, but one that companies are increasingly transposing to the physical world. We have already mentioned gamification in shops, but it has long been a central element of trade show experiences.

Exhibitors didn’t wait for gamification to collect business cards to generate leads and win prizes for participants. Physical games have always been incorporated into trade show stands to make them more attractive and encourage visitors to interact with the company.

But playable marketing has come a long way since thenand so are the technologies used on exhibition stands. The arrival of mobile screens and large-format displays (such as interactive kiosks) is opening up new possibilities for businesses. These phygital devices also help to bridge the gap between the digital and physical experience, boosting user engagement on their preferred channels.

The benefits of gamified trade show experiences

Gamify your stand to host a trade show with interactive activities for visitors enables companies to achieve a number of strategic objectives. Here are some of them.

Gain visibility/awareness and engage visitors at a trade show

Trade shows are highly competitive events. Pour animer un salon professionnel, companies have to stand out from hundreds of other exhibitors. Their objective: to capture the attention of a public that no longer knows where to turn.

Gamification is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd. Exhibitors can attract visitors by creating an interactive and entertaining experience that will break the monotony of the other stands.

The public will be more inclined to engage in conversation with a company’s sales staff if they are directly invited to take part in a game. This will be all the more the case if this interactive activity can enable them to win attractive prizes (goodies in the company’s colors, a free trial period, etc.).

Mechanisms such as random drawing or the wheel of fortune are ideal for trade shows. They are clearly identifiable by visitors, who will be naturally drawn to the stand and the chance to win a prize.

Generate leads and collect data through gamification

To ensure that their efforts have an impact beyond the exhibition, companies need to put in place a lead follow-up strategy via personalised content. So one of the biggest challenges of this type of event is lead generation and data collection so that they can be reactivated with relevant information or offers.

Gamification is an excellent way of collecting data on prospects, such as their contact details. But an entry form for a marketing game or even the interactions resulting from the game itself (as with a swiper, for example), can give companies even more valuable information about their audience. This will give them more in-depth knowledge of their target audience’s preferences, buying behaviour and even direct feedback on their products.

At the French Salon International de l’Agriculture, Lidl invited visitors to take part in a one-armed bandit game. Players had to line up 3 identical symbols on the theme of the event in order to win 50 euro vouchers in the chain’s shops. Before launching the interactive game, each participant not only had to fill in a form to provide qualified information. They also had to choose whether or not to receive the company’s newsletter.

Exhibition example - Lidl

Result: Lidl used the game as an effective lever to capture qualified data and generate downloads of its Lidl Plus application. Hosting a trade show enabled Lidl to collect 152K entries and 7K shares on social networks, as well as recruiting 71K optins.

Converting through hosting a trade show

By boosting the visibility of its stand and facilitating lead generation, gamification is already a powerful conversion lever for companies taking part in a trade show. But it can also use its interactive animation to generate more sales, and so maximise its ROI.

In particular, the brand can reward visitor interaction with prizes in the form of purchase incentives. The prizes up for grabs in the Lidl one-armed bandit competition were vouchers to be redeemed directly in Lidl shops.

Similarly, promotional codes shared via an instant win can encourage visitors to complete a sale at the show. Simply adding a validity date (e.g. the duration of the event) can create a sense of urgency and boost the company’s conversion rate.

How can gamified marketing be used to host a trade show?

To maximise the impact of hosting a trade show, companies need to think through their strategy from A to Z. Here are the steps they can take to ensure that they leave no stone unturned in their conversion funnel:

  • Define the objectives of your interactive marketing game. What results does the company want to achieve through gamification? For example, it may want to increase the number of visitors to its stand, generate leads or win new customers.
  • Choosing the right gamification mechanics depending on its objectives and audience. The phygital device via which the game will be presented is also very important. Depending on its budget, the company may opt for an interactive terminalor tablets. It is also important to ensure that the game reflects the company’s identity and that it is clearly identifiable for participants.
  • Defining attractive endowments to boost the participation rate. Depending on the audience’s expectations, the company can offer benefits to all participants (100% winner) or offer physical prizes to the big winners;
  • Distribute your marketing game beyond the trade show. Companies can also use gamification to boost their visibility and their online message. The animation can also be made available via social networks or directly on the company website.
  • Analyse the results and activate the data collected. Gamifying your exhibition stand can help you generate more leads. But this does not guarantee that they will convert into customers. To do that, it will need to follow up its prospects by sending them personalised content and progressively advance them along the sales funnel. Analysis of the data collected will also enable better segmentation of its customer base.

Conclusion

Trade shows are much more than just an event at which your company presents its products and services. It’s an opportunity to connect with your audience and build a loyal and engaged community. To increase the ROI of your exhibition stand, rely on our playable marketing mechanics!

In 30 minutes, we show you how to launch your own high-performance interactive marketing campaign

Interactive surveys: the engaging solution for collecting opinions

Interactive surveys: the engaging solution for collecting opinions

With the depreciation of data and the end of third-party cookies, companies are constantly looking for new ways to collect customer opinion and feedback. Surveys have always been a very practical way of gathering data about your target audience. But its gamified format, the interactive survey, is proving even more effective.

In fact, 89% of consumers say that when a task is gamified, they are more motivated to complete it because of its competitive and playful nature.

In this article, we present the advantages of interactive surveys to better understand the expectations of your audience. We’ll also look at how to use gamification to boost engagement, obtain relevant responses and optimise your campaigns.

What is a survey?

A poll is a survey in which data is collected from a specific group of people. The aim is to acquire more in-depth knowledge about the various questions you ask yourself about your marketing target: what are its consumer habits, its budget, its preferred purchasing channel, and so on.

Why use surveys to improve your marketing campaigns?

The different types of survey

Just as there are several reasons to share a survey with your audience, there are also different survey formats :

  • Market research surveys These are used upstream of a project to gauge the needs and aspirations of the target audience. It is aimed at companies wishing to launch themselves with a new audience. It can also help them find out how they are positioned in relation to their competitors, or whether there is a demand for a new product.
  • Satisfaction surveys (or NPS – for Net Promoter Score). This type of survey is used to assess whether customers are satisfied with the company’s experience or offering. In practical terms, it involves indicating, on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely it is that the consumer will recommend the brand to friends and family.
  • Awareness surveys : They involve asking shoppers about their knowledge of the brand. This is a good way of measuring the success of an advertising campaign, for example, or identifying unexpected associations that consumers may make with the company.

Why opt for interactive surveys?

The simple act of asking someone for their opinion is already an effective way of capturing their attention and increasing their commitment. However, responding to a survey can also be a tedious task, especially if the format is not adapted to the audience.

As we have already discussed in other articles, the trend is towards interactive marketing. Users are looking for entertaining formats that introduce game mechanisms to make content more engaging.

Gamification will motivate more people to take part in a survey, which is why it’s a good idea to opt for interactive surveys.

Those surveys can serve several purposes:

  • Increase the number of participants and the survey completion rate. The main reason why users rarely complete a survey is that when the format is not interactive or is too long, it loses interest. Incorporating a game element makes the survey more engaging and attractive. This will encourage participants to complete it in order to obtain the reward that has been promised.
  • Obtain better quality data. The aim is not only to increase the response rate, but also to improve the quality of the data collected. If the survey is entertaining, participants will be more likely to give honest answers. This is particularly important if the survey includes more in-depth questions.
  • Increase brand awareness and customer loyalty. By creating fun surveys, participants will associate the brand with this enjoyable experience. They will be more likely to click, comment or even visit the brand’s website afterwards.

How do you gamify your interactive surveys?

Several interactive survey formats are available to make their feedback forms engaging. Companies can :

1. Turning a survey into a battle

example survey 1
A company that wants to know the tastes and preferences of its audience can gamify its survey by presenting it in the form of a battle. For example, rather than simply asking who their favorite influencer is (in order to optimise its influencer marketing, for example), it can create a battle of content creators by asking participants to choose a winner at each slide.

2. Replace the yes/no format with a swiper

Example-swiper

Rather than sharing a survey with closed ‘Yes or No’ questions, brands can make the experience more interactive by opting for the swiper. This format is reminiscent of dating applications. Participants drag an image to the right if they like or agree, and to the left if they don’t.

3. Transforming an awareness survey into an interactive quiz

Instead of sending out a long form to test your audience’s knowledge, Trivia is an interactive alternative. This survey format makes it possible to engage participants, who can test their knowledge and even compare their results with other players.

4. Motivating participants with a personality test

Personality tests are another very popular format for interactive surveys. It allows companies to learn more about their customers and enrich their CRM. But it’s also a way of encouraging participants to complete the survey, since the reward is learning more about their personality. For Valentine’s Day, the personality test can reveal the user’s profile and make personalised recommendations.

In 30 minutes, we show you how to launch your own high-performance interactive survey.

Drive to store: 4 strategies to better in-store conversions

Drive to store: 4 strategies to better in-store conversions

Consumer habits have changed, particularly with e-commerce and the increase in online sales. The way in which brands reach, engage and retain customers must adapt to these practices. One of the crucial challenges for companies is to increase in-store traffic, through drive to store campaigns.

These are an integral part of the harmonisation of the shopping journeys. In an increasingly omnichannel world, brands need to be able to engage and convert customers both in-store and online.

In this article, we present the 4 most effective strategies for attracting consumers to your shops and converting them into loyal customers.

What is drive to store in marketing?

Drive-to-store is a set of strategies designed to attract online customers to physical shops. It’s an omnichannel approach that combines consumer geolocation, recommendation and optimisation of the experience.

While consumer habits have tended to go digital during the pandemic, in-store shopping is not a thing of the past. Customers continue to embrace retail experience, whether to discover the world of a brand, test its products, return or exchange an order placed online.

Drive to store is a central element of modern marketing, despite the fact that 62% of consumers say they will refuse to buy from a brand if it has no online presence. The discovery stage is carried out via digital channels, but physical purchasing has not said its last word.

A recent study shows that 72% of people who carry out a local search online will go to a shop located less than 8 kilometres away of their location. This underlines the importance of an online presence in redirecting prospects to points of sale.

What’s more, 28% of local searches result in a purchase. An omnichannel promotional campaign – one that harnesses the power of multiple channels – can help businesses attract visitors to their physical shops and generate retail conversions.

What are the most effective strategies for a drive-to-store campaign?

An effective drive-in-store campaign involves using digital and physical tools to attract and convert customers in-store. Here are the most effective ways of achieving this.

1. Localised advertising campaigns

The particularity of Drive to Store is that, to be effective, it needs to target consumers who live or are located close to a point of sale. Qualifying prospects is a crucial element in maximising the ROI of your budget.

A good way of achieving this is to display your ads to a geolocalised audience near a physical shop. Social networks such as Facebook, have developed advertising targeting tools specifically for Drive to store. This is the case with Meta’s Store Traffic objective, which redirects users from an advertising insert to a physical point of sale.

Referencing your shops on Google Maps is another lever in any successful drive-to-store strategy. 86% of consumers use Google Maps to find local businesses.

2. Offer Click & Collect

The Click&Collect principle is simple. It consists of offering customers collect their online order from the nearest shop. The advantage of this strategy is that it offers an alternative to home deliveries, which can occur when the customer is not at home. It is also a way for consumers to save on postage costs.

For the brand, encouraging a customer who has already been won over (because they have just bought from the brand) in-store is beneficial in a number of ways. It’s an opportunity to strengthen its links with the company by immersing them in their world. This approach can play a part in the post-purchase conversion strategy by recommending complementary offers to customers in shop.

3. Offer exceptional discounts to in-store customers

Offering exclusive discounts to consumers in-store is an effective way of boosting your drive-to-store strategy. Sales available only in retail outlets, as well as clearance sales, are ways of attracting customers to a physical point of sale.

4. Gamification to maximise in-store conversions

Playable marketing is another way of attracting consumers to the shop, but also to convert them. Broadcast online, an interactive game can enable participants to win discount or purchase vouchers that are valid in-store.

But gamification can also be used as a lever for visibility and conversion. Whether in the form of a digital interactive terminal or tablets available at the checkout, these phygital devices make the experience attractive and fun.

Here again, it’s the opportunity to win rewards via an in-store competition that will encourage consumers to enter the point of sale and interact with the brand. Not to mention that, for the brand, it’s a way of collect qualified data. It will then be able to use this data to optimise its future drive-to-store campaigns.

Best practice for a successful drive to store campaign

Let’s move on to the practical side. To boost the impact of a Drive to Store strategy, here’s some advice to apply before, during and after the campaign.

    Before the campaign

    • Targeting the right audiences based on their geolocation to boost its conversion rate. Brands should start by drawing up a list of their points of sale so that they can target the right audience. Note that it is important to consider a radius that encompasses a reasonable walking or driving time.
    • Use attractive creative formats to capture consumers’ attention. Providing relevant information from the nearest shop also boosts the impact of the Drive to store campaign.
    • Define the right attribution window (i.e. the length of the period taken into account before conversion, during which the contribution of marketing contact points is collected and analysed). A window of between 15 and 30 days enables you to monitor footfall in your shops and focus on the effective advertising channels.

      During the campaign

      Dive into granular reports. The success of a Drive to Store campaign can mean different things to advertisers. Granular reporting tools make it possible to drill down into the data that is relevant, depending on whether it just wants to increase traffic, convert new customers, increase its re-purchase rate and build customer loyalty

      After the campaign

      Measure conversions in real time. This makes it possible to focus on 3 key KPIs: the improvement factor (i.e. the probability that a visit to a shop is motivated by the Drive to store campaign), the percentage of exposure and the percentage of visits.

      Conclusion

      The Drive to Store strategy is therefore the cornerstone for brands wishing to activate their prospects and customers across all their channels, both digital and physical. One of the most effective tools for strengthening the omnichannel customer journey is gamification. Discover our interactive mechanisms to increase the visibility and appeal of your points of sale.

      In just 30 minutes, we’ll show you how to launch your own high-performance interactive marketing campaign.

      Online sales: how to boost sales through gamification

      Online sales: how to boost sales through gamification

      Online sales are a constantly evolving sector, particularly when it comes to conversion strategies. Brands are constantly looking for new ways of raising brand awareness, boosting sales and building customer loyalty.

      One strategy that has always been tried and tested (and proven to be effective in the conversion funnel) is gamification. It plays on two very powerful emotional drivers for consumers: entertainment and the opportunity to win a reward.

      In this article, we present the advantages of game marketing in e-commerce. You’ll also find a simple, effective strategy for integrating game marketing into your sales funnel.

      What is gamification?

      Gamification is a marketing concept that involves applying the mechanisms of games (competition, points, rewards) to engage and convert consumers.

      Gamification can take the form of a loyalty program offering rewards in exchange for points accumulated. But also that of an interactive game generating traffic to its online shop.

      In short, it’s a multi-faceted approach that aims to improve the performance of sales teams and increase company revenues through innovative strategies.

      And it works! A recent study by Gigy shows that gamification boosts consumer engagement by 30%.

      One of the pioneers in this field is the Chinese marketplace AliExpress. It offers a gamified model with its ‘Coins and Coupons’ feature. Users can earn coins by completing tasks on the platform. They convert these tokens into discount vouchers for use on the site. The result: an increase in the engagement of AliExpres users, better retention and a record repeat rate.

       

      What online sales challenges can gamification address?

      For a brand that wants to increase its online sales, the best strategy is to remove the disincentives for customers at each stage of the conversion funnel. This is is why gamification is so effective in terms of awareness, consideration, conversion and retention.

      Increase brand awareness before launching a new collection

      Above all, gamification is an excellent way of increasing visibility and reach qualified leads. Thanks to gamification, brands are able to attract consumers’ attention, offering an entertaining and rewarding experience.

      Gamified applications incorporate elements such as ranking, challenges and the sharing of achievements on social networks. This encourages users to become brand ambassadors while fostering a sense of belonging around the company.

      By adopting a fun game mechanic such as the piñata (and attractive prizes), the Tape à l’Oeil brand has increased its visibility and brand awareness. Used as a data collection lever, TAO has succeeded in attracting qualified leads that can be target and retarget, while promoting its new collection.

      Example of online sales

      Generate more traffic and boost sales during the sales period

      When a brand’s customers are involved in marketing games, they are likely to be loyal and to make purchases. Gamified elements such as loyalty points, levels or badges can be linked to incentives such as discounts, motivating users to redeem.

      According to recent statistics, companies using gamification have seen an increase in their conversion rate between 15% and 50%. For the TAO brand, the introduction of an interactive game led to a 27% increase in click-through rates to its site.

      Retarget qualified leads with the right product suggestions

      The interactive nature of gamification enables companies to collect valuable data on the behaviour and preferences of their target audience. This first-party data can be used to optimise the customer experience, personalise marketing efforts… and ultimately to stimulate business growth.

      For example, the brand can trigger a segmented emailing sequence after participation in a marketing game. The participation form or the data collected as part of the game (via a personality test, a swipper or a shopping list) will enable them to better target the buying preferences of their leads. They will then be able to send them tailored content that is more likely to trigger a purchase.

      Reduce shopping basket abandonment

      One of the biggest problems facing e-tailers is shopping basket abandonment. According to recent research, the average rate of basket abandonment in the e-commerce sector is 75%, which represents a huge loss of revenue.

      Gamification helps to overcome this by creating a sense of urgency, which encourages customers to complete their order. This could be a discount coupon with a time limit.

      3 steps to boost your conversion strategy with gamification

      The results offered by gamification for online retailers will depend on their ability to choose the right game mechanics depending on their objective. Here’s our advice on how to optimise your gamified customer experience.

      Step 1: Define your objectives (conversion, lead generation)

      The first step in a gamification-fuelled conversion strategy is to identify the behaviour the brand wants to encourage. Do they want users to buy more products, share content about the brand, leave a review after receiving their order?

      By defining these objectives, the company can build a relevant gamification system. For example, Amazon encourages its users to rate its products by offering them the opportunity to become a ‘best reviewer’. This leads to a 58% increase in the number of reviews left and boosts the reassurance of new prospects arriving on a product sheet.

      Step 2: Choose the right game mechanics

      Depending on the objectives defined, the brand can then choose the right gamification mechanics. Games that are fun and clearly present the possibility of winning a reward are very effective for generating leads and increasing visits to an online shop.

      Brands will be able to opt for the winning instant with an e-mail address capture form. Thanks to a tracking pixel set up on the game, it is easy to track sales made by participants in the instant win, and thus calculate the ROI of the marketing campaign.

      The same applies to a mechanical device such as the Gatecode which implies an obligation to buy. This type of interactive game is perfect for boosting online sales, as you need to be able to show proof of purchase in order to play. This effectively increases the chances of conversion and loyalty.

      The choice of rewards is also crucial. To make sure you get it right, read our guide to offering the right gifts.

      Step 3: Test, iterate and improve to maximise conversions

      As with any online sales strategy, it is essential to test your gamification elements to evaluate their effectiveness, brands will be able to integrate a form into their interactive games to gather feedback from users. This will enable them to identify areas for improvement to enhance their experience.

      Conclusion

      In an increasingly competitive e-commerce landscape, gamification is an excellent vector for differentiation. It will enable brands to facilitate the progression of their leads through their conversion funnel and boost their growth. Find out how to get started with an effective gamification strategy, discover all the Adictiz game mechanics!