[ GAMIFICATION ]
RETAILER ATTRACTS EARTH-FRIENDLY GAMERS
Woolworths General Manager of Loyalty Pieter Twine is among those who believe that, to be fully effective, gamification must be carefully aligned with key business strategies. It is not enough simply to include it in your loyalty programme because you consider it a nice-tohave, trendy element.
“ Gamification is there to keep customers engaged, and to have fun and to add value to their lives,” he says.
Last year, Woolworths ventured into gamification for the first time in its EarthCred programme, which is endorsed by Pharrell Williams. The retailer invited members of WRewards to submit examples of sustainable projects or practices that they are involved in.
The challenge was run via social media, and members could earn EarthCred points and also challenge friends to get involved. By buying earth-friendly products, participants scored extra loyalty points, which they could use to get instant discounts on selected products.
“ We had an EarthCred barometer and tracked the leaders,” says Twine.“ As the people registered and played, their score was displayed. At the end of the game, the winning customer was rewarded with an overseas trip.”
Twine concedes that the number of participants in the challenge was lower than what the retailer had expected. This, he believes, was because the initiative primarily drew participants from a small, younger pool of environmentally focused customers in the retailer’ s customer base. He adds, however, that about 30 % of schools registered with the WRewards programme took part in the game. and international flights with associated partners. Active Rewards builds on this. Nossel says that, since its launch in September, Active Rewards has grown to 227 000 members and the company is now looking to offer free flights to those who hit their targets. The programme also uses an element of social approval, as members can invite their friends. Should these friends also achieve their goals, the member’ s rewards are doubled.
DISCOVERY HEALTH CHANGED SOME OF THE RULES ON ITS VITALITY PROGRAMME TO DISALLOW THE USE OF THIRD-PARTY EXERCISE APPS.
“ What we’ ve seen is an incredibly high percentage of those people achieving their goals and increasing their physical activity to avoid having to pay,” says Nossel.
However it’ s been a challenge to prevent certain members from gaming the system. In April, Discovery Health changed some of the rules on its Vitality programme to disallow the use of thirdparty exercise apps.
In the past, the company permitted members to send their data from third-party exercise apps like Strava to Vitality, and Nossel says some members falsified exercise data in a bid to increase their points. In addition, because Discovery Health had to process the data loaded from third-party apps, a backlog of data often built up, which sometimes frustrated members.
MAKE GAMES FREE AND FUN, AND CUSTOMERS WILL COME
To resolve these two issues members now only have the option of using Vitality’ s app, which they can then link to their exercising device.
Nossel says the company also introduces changes to the programme every September to ensure that incentives take into consideration new treatments and vaccines, and deal with new behaviour, such as vaping, that affect health. And despite the millions of rands given out in rewards, he says the programme has remained sustainable by being able to lower healthcare costs.
According to Nossel, a study undertaken by the company, which tracked a cohort of members over four years, showed that those who exercised more were able to lower their health costs – through things like fewer hospital admissions and shorter hospital stays. ■
IMAGE: MAX GRIBOEDOV / SHUTTERSTOCK. COM |
“ We see people with more friends are more likely to achieve their goals. It’ s sort of the societal nudge that is taking place,” says Nossel.
However, some friends may drop out of the challenge if others in the group are far outperforming them. To balance this, the programme uses handicaps for different members, so that one member might, for example, only have to score 300 points, while another must obtain 1 200 points to meet their goal. Active Rewards also makes use of the theory of loss aversion, where members who move up to one of the programme’ s top tiers are presented with a reward, but need to continue meeting certain goals or risk losing the reward. For example, members are given Apple watches – but each month that they don’ t achieve their set exercise goals, they have to pay in for the watch.
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Brand managers are increasingly looking at using digital games to keep customers engaged in loyalty programmes.
Designing an effective gaming platform comes down to making it free and fun and able to promote fame and fortune for those who get involved, says Mark van Diggelen, who heads up Johannesburg-based white-label gaming platform, GameZBoost.
Van Diggelen points out how Burger King provides children who purchase burger meals at its outlets with free access to a gaming platform, which enables them to score points to get discounts off further purchases or win special offers.
He says there is no“ hard and fast” rule on how games should be structured. They could include any of the five main elements – the use of a points
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system; badges; leader boards; different levels; and challenges to drive certain outcomes.
Gaming is constantly changing, driven by faster and cheaper smartphones and the increasing need from millennials for feedback and personalisation. Linked with this is an increasing trend for users to watch others game. He singles out how certain online games have even been screened live in stadiums in the US and Korea in front of thousands of fans.
He says, however, that there are two concerns that brands might have around using games. One is that it could lead to money laundering if users redeem credits and use these to sell goods or credits on the side. Another is that some games could amount to a form of online gambling, which has been outlawed in several countries, including South Africa.
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