Gamification, Gamified – Terms that Daily Dealers in the Know Need to Know

If you are going to start an entirely new industry, you can bet a whole herd of new words and phrases will pop up. In a very short time, many of them are becoming household words. Groupon – Chatterfly – Foursquare – Living Social – are just a few but today I want to talk about gamification and being gamified.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. Although being gamified appears to be contagious, praise the powers to be it’s not a disease. As more and more companies merge onto the Daily Deal Highway, many companies are realizing they need to do something to set themselves apart. In today’s marketplace, if you are the gorillas in the industry you are gold. Niche players are also doing fantastic.

As Chad Randall of DealCanada so eloquently stated “ OK, there are like a bazillion deal sites now” . While I have no idea what a “bazillion” is, I do believe that each new daily dealer had better bring his or her ‘A’ game. And that’s exactly what companies like O’Reilly and Badgeville are hoping and counting on – the continued growth of gaming platforms being integrated into daily dealings.

Chad saw the signs and has made DealCanada not only informative but also fun and rewarding.

So how does gamification help a daily dealer ?

Badgeville summarizes what they hope to accomplish. “Industry-leading brands across eCommerce, Media & Entertainment, Education, Health & Fitness, Enterprise and more turn to Badgeville to help drive user engagement and lifetime user value. The Badgeville Platform makes it easy to reward any behavior with any reward. Clients use our platform for a wide range of rewards programs, from modern social loyalty to fun, gamified experiences.”

As our society becomes more and more accustomed to the deal of the day, we are going to want more. We are already being subconsciously programmed to expect at least a 50% discount on hundreds of thousands of items and services, Here’s what I am hearing in the street: “Ok, everyone and their brother are offing 50 to 90% off merchandise and services, so what else ya got?” The “what else ya got ” is the latest being addressed and focused on.

You show me a site that offers discounted goods and services, that keeps it’s users engaged and socially interactive, that offers rewards and bonuses, and I’ll show you a success story. That doesn’t mean giving away the Farmville… oops, I mean farm. Gamers know the feeling of conquering levels – powering up – being named ruler and masters of their domains. The same can now be said for not only daily deal consumers, but also the daily dealers themselves.

Below are just a few names of companies that participate in game platforms and the sectors they represent.

* Retail & eCommerce

Retail brands such as Bluefly.com, Moxsie, Kings Hawaiian and more rely on Badgeville to reward shopper loyalty beyond transactions, and measure shopper site activity & behavior. Using social game mechanics to increase repeat and longer visits to your digital storefront equates to more dollars spent per customer.

*Enterprise

Smart corporations know that the best way to motivate employee success is by offering rewards for contributions. These rewards may be financial, but they can also be just as motivating to your employees if they offer status-based rewards. Find out how companies including Deloitte are using Badgeville to drive innovation & success.

*Agency

Badgeville offers advertising and interactive agencies access to the most flexible, lightweight gamification platform on the market. Innovative agencies, including Razorfish and The Buddy Group, use Badgeville to develop unique real-time rewards experiences to drive and track behavior across their client’s web and mobile sites.

My final thoughts on this topic are ask yourself what works for you and what kind of experiences you are looking for. Computer users know there is a ton of information available with the click of a mouse. The gamifiers like Badgeville and O’Reilly are more than willing to help answer questions regarding the integration of gaming and daily dealing. Check them out.

About Badgeville:

Badgeville is the leading Social Loyalty Platform, and the team behind it has global expertise that spans Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), game design, social media, social gaming, user experiences, and building innovative, large-scale applications.

Source: www.badgeville.com