With most of us housebound and working from home where possible, it’s unsurprising that we’re all jumping online to keep ourselves occupied, distracted and entertained: internet usage is up 70% and streaming has increased by 12%.
Now, more than ever we need to understand the importance of keeping connected and relevant to our audiences. With that in mind, you might be looking for new ways and new ideas to engage with your audience who are stuck inside, unable to travel to a physical location. Games present an alternative, interactive and digital way to stay connected and boost audience engagement .
Games in marketing
Brands have been using games in marketing since games were a thing. Technology has moved on since those early days and now games are more accessible to play than ever and can be used in a much more cost effective way.
Here are a few ways to utilise games as a way to entertain, create connections and keep your brand relevant.
1. Competition giveaways
Using a game as a competition mechanic gives people real motivation to play and engage with your brand.
Offering the chance to win something is a powerful engagement incentive. This could be anything from prizes related to the products you sell, online gift vouchers for your e-commerce store or even Amazon vouchers or tech gadgets.
Amplify engagement by hosting your game online, sending a link to your mailing list and sharing it on social media. Something different and entertaining like a game will help you cut through the noise and offer a little light relief for your customers or clients.
2. Leaderboards for the win
The simplest way to get the competition going is to use a leaderboard. If your players want to enter the competition they have to submit their score to it. Players will be able to see where they rank and aim to climb it. And also offering you some lead generation data to boot.
If you have global audiences, add another level to the competition and see who’s the best collective performing country.
Not only is some friendly competition great for engaging customers and clients, leaderboards are a fantastic employee engagement tool. A little head-to-head competition between various offices helps connect and motivate all those teams working from home!
3. Collectable special offers
Collectables and pick-ups are a prevalent engagement tool in any game. Creating a need to progress and come back to play and giving players a sense of achievement at the results!
Top tip: Want to boost your engagement even more? Include an ‘unlocking’ function in your branded game. Where players have to find or collect an object within the game or hit a minimum score criteria to unlock a specific product related prize or a game exclusive special offer.
Players will follow a dedicated link to a landing page on your website to claim it, driving traffic and increasing leads or revenue.
Next steps…
These are just a few ideas that can help you stay connected with your audience in a way that is interactive, entertaining and fun. You can check out some of our games and get in touch if you’d like to know more – we’d be happy to discuss how games could fit into your strategy.
