Log in
Request a demo
How to attract new customers with a marketing game

How to attract new customers with a marketing game

by | May 28, 2024 | Audience engagement, Conversion


In an increasingly competitive environment, it is becoming more and more difficult for companies to attract and retain new customers. Traditional marketing and advertising methods are no longer as effective, so brands need to think outside the box to stand out from the crowd.

Gamification is an innovative approach to attracting new customers. This strategy involves incorporating playful elements (from the world of video games, for example) into a marketing campaign to capture the attention and engage the audience.

By making the brand experience more fun and interactive, marketing games can help companies win over new consumers. In this article, we share examples and practical advice at 4 different stages of the customer journey:

  • Lead generation ;
  • Brand awareness ;
  • Conversion ;
  • Creating a customer account.

SUMMARY

1. How to attract new customers with marketing games

Identifying and engaging potential customers is the first step in the sales pipeline of a company. The company needs to determine the audience it wants to reach (i.e. the customers most likely to be interested in what it has to offer) and develop a relevant strategy to attract their attention.

The organisation can use a mix of several marketing levers such as content marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO). Or social media marketing by sharing entertaining content on social networks.

Lead gen will then involve encouraging these prospects to interact with the brand, by giving them an email address to which it can send them personalised emails.The marketing game is a particularly interesting tool for collecting the contact details of new leads. The promise of a reward (such as a discount voucher offered via an instant win) will encourage consumers to fill in a lead generation form.

 

Which marketing game to use to generate leads?

At this stage in the sales funnel, when the consumer is not yet familiar with the brand, the key is to capture their attention through a simple mechanism that requires little commitment.

The company can therefore bet on a winning moment like a wheel of fortune. Le prospect pourra y accéder après avoir partagé son adresse mail, par exemple. Cette action créera automatiquement un profil de prospect sur la plateforme de gestion de la relation client (CRM) de l’entreprise

The participant will know instantly after launching the game whether they have won a prize or not. By focusing on a prize that encourages people to buy (such as a discount or an attractive prize), it will be easier for the company to convert this new prospect into a customer.

The choice of distribution channel is also important. For lead generation, companies can rely on social networks, which allow them to reach a wider audience. Spreading the campaign on social networks is therefore vital for reaching a large audience. The brand can also give participants the chance to maximise their chances of winning by sharing the marketing game, thereby making the campaign go viral.

how to attract new customers

2. Using gamification to develop brand awareness and recall

To attract new customers, companies also need to raise their profile with their target audience. Gamification is an excellent way of achieving this objective and making your brand more easily recognisable. Marketing games can be used to create a memorable and differentiating brand experience.

Gamification generates commitment by making each piece of marketing content interactive. Prospects can interact with the brand via a fun mechanism which, as well as entertaining them, potentially allows them to unlock advantages or benefits. attractive endowments.

But gamified marketing campaigns are also more effective in terms of receptiveness and memorability of commercial messages. In fact, gamification is already used in a learning context (known as edutainment) because it increases retention of new information.

By transforming the consumer into a player in the marketing game, the company enables them to become more actively involved in the content that she shares with him. This commitment strengthens attention and enables the information shared to be mobilised in concrete situations (such as a memory or a quiz, for example).

Gamification therefore enables marketers to educate and inform people about the brand, its products or services.

how to attract new customers

Which marketing game to use to boost brand awareness

The Memory is a very popular memory game that involves finding pairs of identical cards from a set of face-down cards. The game is entirely customisable. Companies can therefore use it to promote a new product or service. They can personalise the cards according to their graphic charter and the offers and products they wish to promote, for example. Participants will discover it in a more entertaining way, increasing their memory of its characteristics and advantages.

Another option: the puzzle, which involves reconstructing a brand logo or product image.

3. Gamification to increase your conversion rate

The next step is to turn these new prospects into customers Here again, gamification enables companies to increase their conversion rates.

As we have seen, marketing games are highly effective tools for collecting customer data. L’entreprise peut s’en servir non seulement pour obtenir les coordonnées de ses prospects. Mais elle peut aussi mobiliser des formats interactifs (comme the swiper or a form for choosing your favourite product) to identify the preferences of their audience. This customer knowledge will then enable them to retarget their prospects with personalised content that is more likely to convert.

But gamification can also provide prospects with incentives encouraging them to carry out a specific action (in this case, completing a purchase). Through a competition or instant win, the company will give its audience the chance to win discount vouchers or other benefits (such as free delivery). To take advantage of this, participants will be redirected to the company’s website or invited to visit its physical points of sale.

Which marketing game to use to increase your conversion rate

Competitions are a highly effective way of converting new prospects. The brand can offer prizes that are likely to generate a sale (such as a discount or voucher). It can also make these rewards time-limited to generate a sense of urgency that will encourage consumers to take advantage of them before it’s too late.

how to attract new customers

4. Using gamification to boost account creation

Finally, gamification can be used to encourage customers to create an account. As with a loyalty programme, the customer account enables the company to strengthen the relationship with the consumer by offering a series of benefits:

  • product previews,
  • faster, simpler ordering ;
  • vouchers after accumulating a certain number of points.

For them, it’s an opportunity to have a direct channel of communication with their customers. Elle pourra par ce biais réactiver ces derniers avec des recommandations de produits personnalisés, des offres exclusives, etc.

In addition to the benefits offered, brands can encourage the creation of customer accounts thanks to a marketing game. To access the interactive animation, participants will need to create an account.

Which marketing game to encourage the creation of a customer account

To boost the creation of customer accounts, the Ouest France media distributed an Advent calendar . Ce format très populaire en période de fêtes de fin d’année a permis à l’entreprise de capter l’attention de plus de 81K personnes. Only participants with an account could access the game and hope to win attractive prizes (holidays, high-tech equipment, vouchers, etc.).

ouest-france-example

Conclusion

Gamification is therefore a powerful lever for attracting new customers. From lead generation to increasing brand awareness, not forgetting conversion and loyalty, marketing games make it possible to capture and engage your audience. Discover our interactive game mechanics to reach and convert a wider audience.

En seulement 30 minutes, nous vous montrerons comment lancer votre propre campagne de marketing interactif performante.

Request a demo

Increase your target audience with co-branding games

Increase your target audience with co-branding games

by | May 16, 2024 | Audience engagement, Conversion

If you’re looking to raise awareness of your brand while increasing sales and expanding your audience, co-branding is a relevant marketing strategy. Partnerships are a way of reaching a wider audience.

By teaming up with other brands, companies can broaden their offering and capitalise on their partner’s visibility to boost their own brand awareness.

Co-branding has many advantages. But it is important to master this marketing strategy to avoid associating your image with a brand that is not aligned with your values or that does not address a strategic market.

In this article, we share with you some practical tips for increasing your target audience through a co-branding campaign.

SUMMARY

What is co-branding?

Co-branding is a marketing strategy that involves teaming up with another brand to promote or co-create a product or a service. This does not mean associating the names of two brands on an item. Such a partnership combines the resources, identities and stories of each partner.

Co-branding means sharing resources and expertise, but also sharing your community. The aim is to benefit from the strategic advantages of the other. This may involve a wider audience, or a new market that the company wishes to conquer. But the strategy can also transfer of technology and know-how.

What are the advantages of co-branding for a company?

Co-branding offers a number of advantages. This type of partnership enables each player to benefit from the strengths of the other company, particularly in terms of :

  • Reaching a wider audience. Brand partnerships enable companies to increase the exposure of their brand to their partner’s customers. A co-branding campaign can be broadcast across both companies’ communication channels.
  • Engage a new audience and increase sales. Consumers are likely to trust recommendations from a brand they know and have been buying from for several years.
  • Boost brand awareness and credibility. Establishing a brand partnership with a recognised player allows the company to strengthen its credibility with its target audience. For example, a street-wear brand teaming up with a luxury brand will upgrade its brand image. Its products will be perceived as being of higher quality. This could lead to an increase in pricing, and profitability.
  • Reduce the risks and costs of a marketing campaign. Developing a new product or service, entering a new market or launching an activity can be risky. Joining forces with a brand that is present in this market or that has experience in this new vertical reduces the commercial risks. This type of partnership involves pooling resources. The companies will pool their costs, which reduces the budget they have to invest in this project.

Boosting the effectiveness of a co-branding campaign through gamification

The aim of such a campaign is to increase an audience, or to develop a new one (with a persona not previously targeted).

This marketing strategy makes it possible to achieve this objective by multiplying the communication channels. Indeed, the campaign can be disseminated by both partners (publication on social networks, emailing, display format on their respective websites or in their physical shops, etc.).

However, partners can boost the effectiveness of their co-branding by making their campaign fun and interactive through gamification.

By integrating interactivity into their co-branding campaign, the two brands can capture the attention of their respective communities and engage their customers. The fun mechanics of the game and the chance to win a reward will set them apart from other content.

The marketing game can be used to help people discover the co-created product in an entertaining way (via a quiz). It can also tease its launch and optimise consumer expectations by making them win free products via a competition or instant win (scratch cards, one-armed bandit) The game also offers the chance to win a product from the partner brand, boosting brand awareness by leveraging the premiere.

Examples of gamified co-branding campaigns

The famous drinks brand Coca Cola is a master of this strategy. The company uses this strategy to develop its audience and increase sales.

For example, it has teamed up with fruit juice brand Capri Sun to convert new customers. Its co-branded game incorporated a proof-of-purchase mechanism into its prize draw form in order to boost its conversion rate. In addition to the co-branded aspect of the campaign, the choice of an attractive prize (an iPhone) helped convert more than 5,000 visitors.

Coca-Cola has also developed a co-branding marketing campaign with energy drink brand Monster. Here, the mechanic used was to upload a proof of purchase to access the game in order to generate sales. As the two brands’ universes are similar, this campaign had a participation rate of 75% and over 1,000 visits.

Example of co-branding

4 tips for a successful co-branding campaign

Before embarking on co-branding, it is important to consider the right factors to choose a partner that will enable the brand to achieve its objectives.

  • Target markets. The thing is to make sure that your audience and that of the brand with which you are planning to partner overlap. The partnership will not work if the companies are both targeting different audiences or if they are too similar.
  • Brand image. The personalities and worlds of the two brands must be compatible. The partners must share common values, at the risk of losing their community.
  • Market needs. A co-branding campaign must respond to a market need. This partnership can enable the brand to address a need of its audience that it has not yet met.
  • Adapting the mechanics of your marketing game to the challenges of co-branding. This means choosing a prize that reflects the two brand universes. It means announcing the winners on their respective channels, or providing an opt-in for the partner brand, etc.

Once the company has found the right partner, it is crucial to define everyone’s roles and responsibilities in the roll-out of the co-branding campaign. To achieve this, it is important to be able to count on a reliable and transparent partner who will contribute to the project.

Conclusion

Gamification is an excellent way of boosting the impact of a co-branding campaign. It will boost your brand’s reputation and its ability to develop a new audience. Discover our interactive competition mechanics to make your campaigns even more engaging and convert these new prospects more effectively!

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

Request a demo

Wait marketing: make the wait worthwhile with gamification

Wait marketing: make the wait worthwhile with gamification

by | May 14, 2024 | Audience engagement, Engagement, Engagement, Audience engagement

Think about the last time you went shopping, went to the doctor or took a plane…

Although these activities are $ different, they have one thing in common : waiting. You’ve probably had to wait at the checkout to pay for your shopping, wait outside a concert hall to see your favourite artist or queue to scan your hand luggage before boarding a plane.

For users, this waiting time is often a test of patience and a waste of time. And yet.., the wait can be transformed into a qualitative experience thanks to wait marketing. It can even turn an unpleasant moment into a playful experience thanks to gamification.

In this article, we give you tips on how to improve your customer journey and engage users interactively using wait marketing.

SUMMARY

What is wait marketing?

Wait marketing involves companies capitalising on consumers’ attention at this moment to engage them. It can be defined as a non-intrusive communication strategy, and even a timely one, since it takes shape at a time when any form of distraction is welcome.

According to a survey by Pew Research, 77% of people use their smartphone when they are waiting for a call. 53% use their smartphone when queuing, mainly to avoid boredom.

Broadcast a marketing animation in a queue does not disturb the user by interrupting their activity (as when an advert is broadcast between two stories on social networks). On the contrary, it allows them to distract themselves during a time that is perceived as boring or unproductive.

The benefits of expectation marketing

Waiting time, in itself, is the ideal time to capture consumers’ attention and remember a commercial message. This is the case with posters in the metro or at bus stops. But by adding a touch of creativity to these formats, brands can turn waiting into an engaging brand experience, and convert new prospects.

It’s also a way of making the most of areas where consumers spend a lot of time, but which are not used as communication channels. The queuing space in a physical shop, can be used to highlight products and boost the cross-selling rate. But it does not convey an interactive experience with the brand, which would be more engaging for the customer.

The non-intrusive aspect of this form of advertising also enables companies to create a closer relationship with consumers. Brands can offers them a real experience and enables them to pass a time that was considered unpleasant or pointless quickly. They become a source of entertainment as well as a commercial organisation promoting its products.

This waiting period is no longer a constraint, but an opportunity. To achieve this, companies can create an interactive experience based on insights customers. The challenge is to understand your audience and how the brand can ensure that they have a good time.

Companies can take advantage of wait marketing to :

  • Motivating customers to come to the point of sale;
  • Keep customers entertained while they wait and prevent them from abandoning their purchase;
  • Reward waiting time with instant wins;
  • Collect data on purchasing intentions to personalise the customer journey
  • Develop your sales.

Boost your wait marketing strategy with gamification

If the traditional waiting experience is considered to be unpleasant by individuals, it is because it is often considered to be boring or a waste of time. The challenge for companies wishing to take advantage of this moment to engage consumers is mainly about entertaining them.

This is where gamification comes in. This marketing strategy involves offering users playful experiences, incorporating mechanisms traditionally used in the world of games.

Rather than taking advantage of consumers’ attention to broadcast an advertisement, companies can engage them via an interactive and entertaining animation such as :

  • An instant win: this format allows the company to liven up a queue while rewarding its customers for their patience. In practical terms, it allows them to instantly win discount vouchers (or other prizes) by playing a game such as the wheel of fortune or the one-armed bandit.
  • Action games (like a quiz, a survey, a vote or a swiper). This format allows the company to entertain its customers while they wait. Once again, it can reward their patience by offering prizes or other benefits. But it is also an effective way of collecting data on the preferences of its audience and, for example, analysing their purchasing intentions.

With a Playable Marketing solution, companies can capitalise effectively on their customers’ expectations. For example, the geolocation function makes it possible to restrict access to the game to customers in the queue.

The CRM connection tool, for its part, makes it possible to exploit the data collected at a point of sale (particularly on purchase intentions) to offer personalised in-store or online support. The brand can then turn this data into a sales opportunity.

Expectation marketing: scenarios and inspiring examples

In practice, the typical scenario for a wait marketing event will take this form:

  1. Drive to store. The customer goes to the shop and finds himself in a queue;
  2. Access to the game. They can find out about the game using the posters in the queue and access it using the QR code or URL. The game can also be presented on an interactive terminal.
  3. Registration. They register using a simplified form and can decide to become opt-in for the brand and its partners.
  4. Participation. They can play a game and discover their prize more easily. What’s more, the brand can customise the game to suit a wide range of scenarios.
  5. Revelation and gain. In the case of an instant win, the customer wins a discount voucher that can be used at the point of sale. If the brand chooses a prize draw mechanism, customers can receive their prize by email or SMS. Again, this could be a voucher to encourage them to repurchase from the brand.

An example of a marketing campaign to keep people waiting

Auchan supermarkets have set up a wait marketing campaign. To coincide with its sales peak, the chain gave away the following for every purchase over €10 in shop a scratch card with a unique code as well as an additional card for loyalty card holders. The campaign attracted almost 183k registrations in 2 weeks and 325K codes were used.

Eurotunnel, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, has capitalised on the expectations of its users to raise its profile and generate new leads. To do this, the company used a one-armed bandit with a registration form, accessible only to holders of a ticket number. This format and the use of attractive prizes (smartphones and earpods) boosted the participation rate, with a total of 29K games played.

Wait-marketing-example

Conclusion

Wait marketing is therefore a profitable strategy for capitalising on customer expectations and taking advantage of the opportunity to engage them through interactive activities. Take advantage of this opportunity to improve your customer experience and strengthen your brand image with more than 60 gamified formats offered by Adictiz.

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

Request a demo

How to boost in-app purchases for your e-commerce brand

How to boost in-app purchases for your e-commerce brand

by | Apr 9, 2024 | Audience engagement, Conversion

In-app purchases has become a major trend among consumers. In fact, 74% say they use mobile applications with the intention of making a purchase. Mobile purchases also accounted for 44% of e-commerce revenues in 2023.

Therefore, creating your mobile application is a way of differentiating from your competitors and attracting an audience that buys via a smartphone. But this new acquisition and loyalty channel means that you need to adapt the shopping journey and offer a unique experience, different from the web and retail.

In this article, we present some practical advice and inspiring examples of how to boost your in-app sales.

SUMMARY

What is in-app purchasing?

As the name suggests, in-app purchases are transactions carried out via an e-commerce application In the early days of mobile technology, the majority of these transactions were purchases of :

  • features (such as new filters for a photo editing application);
  • or consumables in a mobile video game (such as extra lives or accessories to boost your avatar’s powers).

But with the ever-increasing use of mobile shopping, brands have started to develop their own shopping applications. In-app purchasing offers many advantages for e-commerce companies.

By encouraging consumers to download a dedicated application, they create a much closer relationship with their audience. But above all, it’s an excellent way of creating a much more immersive bubble. With a web browser, it’s much easier for customers to leave the shop, for example to compare the brand’s offer with that of competitors.

How in-app competitions can influence users’ purchasing behaviour

Whether in retail, on the web or in mobile marketing, gamification offers brands a range of tools for capturing the attention and retaining the loyalty of consumers. Brands that want to boost in-app purchases can use the mechanics specific to the world of games at every stage of the customer journey.

To boost app downloads and drive buyers to the app

The first challenge for brands looking to boost their in-app sales is simply to increase the number of downloads. This can be achieved through a number of different strategies. App-Store Optimization (or ASO), involves optimizing content so that the application is promoted on the dedicated shops (Play Store, App Store, etc.).

Also, brands can offer attractive benefits to their prospects or customers to encourage them to buy in app. For example, downloading the app will entitle them to a discount voucher on their purchase, a selection of exclusive products or lower delivery charges than on the e-commerce shop.

Marketing competitions are also a way of raising awareness of your application and encourage its audience to download it. A winning instant (such as a Wheel of fortune) can enable the brand to encourage its customers to make their first in-app purchase. The prize will take the form of a voucher that can be used on the app.

in-app marketing game

Building customer loyalty in app

Once the application has been downloaded, the next step is to encourage users to make their first in-app order. As we’ve seen, offering a discount after each new download, which can be used on the mobile purchase, is already a good conversion driver.

But the brand can target other relevant triggers to convince user. These might include the first product selected or a shopping basket abandonment.

For each of these pre-determined actions, the company can send an in-app message or SMS that redirects to a marketing game encouraging the customer to validate their order in exchange for benefits (discount, access to the VIP club, etc.)

Playable marketing is also effective in retaining new in-app buyers. It allows a game to be shared directly in the application’s purchase path, without any redirection. This is a crucial factor in boosting brand sales. In fact, a study shows that mobile users make 37% more purchases than other customers (e-commerce and retail).

Competitions with a purchase obligation or reserved for loyalty programme members are a good way of encouraging repeat orders. By activating the reward circuit, gamification mechanisms make shoppers want to continue consuming in order to reap new and ever more attractive benefits.

Tips and examples for boosting in-app purchases through gamification

We have seen that playable marketing is a strategy for increasing sales. To achieve its objectives, the brand can draw on the best practices of companies that have succeeded in optimise their mobile marketing.

Using transactional data to personalise the in-app shopping experience

As with any sales channel, personalisation is a key driver of conversion and loyalty for brands. They need to adapt their purchasing path from the behavioural and transactional data they have on their customers. With this information, they can make targeted recommendations, present more relevant content.

Supermarket giant Lidl has understood this well, and has integrated it into its in-app strategy. The Lidl Plus application enables the company to centralise customer purchasing data. Users can find their receipts, making it easier to monitor their budget. The brand is boosting its in-app purchases by offering discount coupons based on the consumption habits of each customer.

Lidl is going a step further by using this customer data to personalise the gaming experience. Based on in-store purchases, users can access tailored games and rewards. As a result, the application has over 5 million active users and records millions of games played every week.

Example-purchase-in-app

Offer games with an obligation to buy or accessible based on a volume of points

Playable marketing is a good way of building customer loyalty, whatever the channel used. With the aim of increasing its re-purchase rate, the brand can make its experiences accessible only to customers who have already made an in-app purchase. Or for the ones that have accumulated a certain number of loyalty points.

This is the strategy adopted by Coca Cola for its mobile application. To be eligible for attractive prizes (such as tickets to a football match), mobile customers must have accumulated 100 loyalty points.

The same goes for FuzzTea, which launched a competition with an obligation to buy. To take part, the brand’s customers had to enter the code shown on their receipt.

Conclusion

Gamification is an effective way of influencing consumer behaviour in a fun and subtle way. Your brand can use this lever to boost the number of downloads of its application and its volume of in-app sales. Find out how Adictiz can help you gamify your in-app journey.

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

Request a demo

Playable marketing: how to gamify and optimise the consumer buying proces

Playable marketing: how to gamify and optimise the consumer buying proces

by | Mar 26, 2024 | Audience engagement, Conversion, Conversion, Audience engagement

A brand that can maintain its profitability over the long term is a brand that knows how to engage its customers. Notably by optimising the customer buying process. Indeed, engagement (the depth, quality and frequency of interactions) is the indicator of commercial performance.

In fact, engagement boosts a brand’s visibility, converts prospects into customers and builds loyalty. Engaged customers are more likely to buy regularly from the same brand and to recommend it.

To activate the neurons and engage their customers effectively, brands can rely on Playable Marketing. By taking up the elements traditionally associated with games (points, competition, level progression), brands can optimise the purchasing journey and boost their revenue.

In this article, we explain how you can make the most of the advantages of playable marketing at every stage of your customer journey!

SUMMARY

What is playable marketing and what impact does it have on consumers’ buying process ?

Whether in education, healthcare or marketing, organisations are looking for tools to capture and maintain the attention. Gamifying the way they speak to their audiences is a relevant strategy for achieving this objective.

Why ? It’s all in our brains. During the discovery phase, when a consumer starts to become familiar with a brand, the elements borrowed from the game can, improve information retention.

Neuroscience has shown that gamification acts as a catalyst, which encourages the store of new data in long-term memory. We also know that our brains are likely to retain information when it is associated with positive experiences.

During the consideration phase, when consumers are comparing an offer with that of its competitors, gamification can be a a differentiating element. The fun aspect, as well as the opportunity to unlock rewards, strengthens customer commitment.

In fact, Gamification releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that creates positive associations when we win something or achieve a goal. The feeling of happiness and satisfaction increases. We are therefore more motivated to buy from a brand that offers a gamified experience. Playable marketing is therefore a powerful loyalty-building lever.

By increasing the number of interactions, gamified campaigns enable comprehensive data to be collected. This information gives a detailed understanding of the needs, preferences and motivations. The brand can use this information to optimise the purchasing journey, improve customer experience and even perfect products.

Creating an engagement loop in the consumer buying process through gamification

One of the key mechanisms in gamification is the engagement loop. Users are motivated to carry out an action (e.g subscribing to a newsletter, buying a new product or leaving a review) because this action unlocks a reward. With each new action, customers can access even more interesting prizes. This strengthens their bond with the brand and their sense of belonging. Gamification also activates the reward circuit. Indeed, it makes customers prolong their interaction with the brand (by continuing to consume) to continue to reap the benefits.

The reward, but also the recognition offered by the brand (via a badge or access to a VIP club) becomes a motivating factor in itself. And the commitment loop starts all over again.

This is why Playable marketing is not just about converting new customers. More importantly, it builds loyalty among customers who have already bought from the brand and boosts their Lifetime Value. Brands that use gamification to optimise customer experience and their purchasing journey will see their incomes increase.

For example, with its gamified application Run Club, Nike has increased its customers’ sense of belonging. It encourages more frequent interactions and a higher re-pruchase rate. The same goes for Starbucks, whose loyalty program consists of accumulating points to move up to higher levels. This program has generated 40% of the company’s revenues and a 7% increase in sales in 2019.

Best practices for designing a gamified shopping experience for your customer buying process

Interactive marketing formats and the gamification of marketing content enable companies to optimise their purchasing journey. However, simply introducing game elements is not enough to move a prospect up the conversion funnel.

Here are the best practices to keep in mind to maximise conversions thanks to Playable marketing.

Getting to know your customers

The first step in designing a gamified experience is to understand your target audience. This knowledge is facilitated by gamification as a tool for data collection and enrichment. Brands can collect qualified data from forms or by asking their audience to choose their favorite product.

Using the data at its disposal, the company will be able to adapt its interactive animations. It’s also a good time to segment the data collected in order to personalise and boost the performance of its campaigns.

Setting clear objectives

The brand will then need to determine which stage of the purchasing journey it wishes to reinforce. It is more relevant and affordable to determine the strategic contact points where gamification will enable the company to boost its results.

Depending on which part of the conversion funnel is most problematic (awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty), the company can determine which marketing games to offer and when.

Incorporate relevant game elements for each stage of the customer journey

When a brand adds gamified elements to its purchasing journey, it is crucial that they make sense in the context of the customer experience. For example, introducing a points and reward system is relevant in the post-purchase phase to build consumer loyalty.

On the other hand, interactive formats such as competitions and instant wins are effective at the moment of discovery and consideration. They will help to boost brand visibility and convert new prospects.

Enhancing the added value of gamified elements

The final step is to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of gamification of the purchasing journey. Tracking precise metrics (conversion, lead generation, retetention) will enable the company to optimise its shopping experience and achieve its objectives.

Conclusion

By following these best practices, you can create a gamified customer experience that is engaging for your customers and effective for your brand. We provide a complete catalogue of interactive formats to target buyers at every stage of your customer journey. Whether you want to engage your audience, convert prospects or build customer loyalty you’ll find a gamified animation to meet your needs!

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

Request a demo

UGC (User Generated Content), definition, marketing trends

UGC (User Generated Content), definition, marketing trends

by | Mar 14, 2024 | Audience engagement, Engagement, Engagement, Audience engagement, Non classifié(e)

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.

SUMMARY

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.

Request a demo