Why Game Strategy Works: Content World Marketing

From a non-console gamer, some tips about game strategy for social and content marketing...

It's a great start. I've vowed not to allow gaming consoles in my house (kids don't read this blog...really the other kids don't have them either!). At least until the kids can buy their own.

Gamification isn't new. So, says Russell Sparkman (@FusionSpark) President & CEO, Fusionspark Media, let's think about marketing as fun - even in B2B marketing.

Some of our clients at BlueChip Communication are onto this - and interestingly it's the ones talking to the most pointy headed insto audiences who are most interested.

Russell quotes The Institute for the Future, in a recent Pew Research Center report titled The Future of Gamification as saying “The development of ‘Serious Games’ applied productively to a wide scope of human activities will accelerate simply because playing is more fun than working.”

Gamers may not be who you really think they are  - 40% are female, many are 33 year old males, an some 90% of females under 18 play online games.

What are game mechanics? How and when rewards comes, gamer personalities, social network-based games and more...

Reality is Broken is worth reading if you want to know more, says Russell. 

So why do we like games? Because they put us into a state of FLOW. Goodness me...having read all that good stuff from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi I nearly leapt out of my seat. 

This is why everyone from the 5 year old to the 47 year old in my house plays Angry Birds. Because we experience moments of flow.

Moments that Russell argues we can replicate as marketers by using gamification.

Create a game experience around your story. Consider the gam personalities of your buyers. Work out how to make the game or marketing intriguing, afford layers of status and other 'game-like' qualities.

Just one example of this is the LinkedIn "profile completion" status bar - users gain psychological payoff simply by putting in more data, and thus making that status bar move further towards the left.

I'm attending Content Marketing World 2012 (#cmworld) from 4 to 6 September for BlueChip Communication. I'll be bringing back the primary insights for financial services in Australia, and sharing them with clients and colleagues. Email us to attend one of my (free) highlights presentations in Sydney during September, October this year or February 2013.