Retailers Gamify Holiday Promotions

All signs suggest that gamification, the act of leveraging game mechanics and psychological motivations to engage audiences, is here to stay. Gartner Research recently released a study predicting that by 2015, 40 percent of Global 1000 corporations will use the process as the 'primary mechanism to transform primary business opportunities.'

With Facebook still acting as a critical and central hub for social media marketing, brands are using the platform to implement gamification and drive results. Rue La La, Dunkin' Donuts and Best Buy are a few of those brands doing it successfully.

Q4 and never-ending holiday promotions are flooding Facebook newsfeeds. Go back and take a look: how many posts have you missed in the 'Brand and X others posted about Christmas' clusters? Some brands, however, have relied on gamification to play a major role in differentiating their promotions from your standard run-of-the-mill giveaways' and not only because they feature interactive gaming components (though, it helps!).

See how these retailers have managed to stand out in the crowd:

Rue La La: The Rue Reveal Instant Win Game

The premise is simple: Enter your Rue La La email address into the designated entry box every day for the chance to win one of nearly 75 prizes. Not a Rue La La member? No problem! Register to become a member right from the promotion. After entering a valid email address, entrants can play the Instant Win Game by selecting one of three identical boxes in hopes of winning. A deeper look reveals that the promotion uses some gaming mechanics to amplify engagement and participation:

• Achievements: Rue La La announces the multiple instant winners every few days via Facebook updates, proving that the prize is, in fact, attainable. It allows winners to feel special, while those who haven't yet won feel a sense of desire to be featured in that elusive winners' status, and as a result, continue to come back to play.
• Behavioral Momentum: The status updates serve as reminders that winning is useful and entering is effective. Therefore, entering the contest each day will continue to be useful. The updates act as reinforcements for the excitement about prizes and the value of re-entries, amplifying entrants' daily energy and directing it towards participation.

Dunkin' Donuts: Dunkin' K-Cup Packs K-OuntDDown

Similar to Rue La La, Dunkin' Donuts is running a promotion through the month of December offering fans the opportunity to enter to win every day. Each day the brand gifts one lucky winner a Dunkin' K-Cup prize pack and the opportunity to win the grand prize' $2,500 toward rent or mortgage payments in 2013. All you have to do: Click on the day's K-Cup and enter your information. The more times you enter, the more shots you have to win.

• Countdown: The promotion's countdown features, including the daily updates to the calendar and even the name of the promo, instill a sense of urgency. Because fans are only given a certain amount of time to win (31 days), they are initially motivated to enter and then engage at an increased rate as time runs out.
• Lottery: The lottery mechanic implies that entrants will be willing to participate in games that require no skill, but instead come down to chance or luck. While the likelihood of winning the Grand Prize increases with each daily entry, the daily giveaway is determined by chance, creating a high level of anticipation.

Best Buy: Best Buy Gifted

Running simultaneously with the 'Gifts That Do' campaign, Best Buy's holiday Facebook promotion is overtly social. The contest offers participants the chance to 'unlock the potential' of their Facebook friends by nominating them to win a gift card in one of six categories: photography, music, design, filmmaking, cooking and gaming. The winning nominee wins a $500 gift card, while the nominator takes home $100.

• Virality: While winning any prize is great, the competitive psyche in individuals would always prefer a larger prize. Therefore, in this giveaway participants are inclined to nominate friends in hopes of receiving a nomination back. Logically, the more friends an entrant nominates, the more nominations, and shots at winning, the entrant will receive in return. The integration with Facebook sharing grows the participant base even further.
• Free Lunch: The Free Lunch dynamic is based on the theory that 'winners' will get something for free as a result of others doing work. In this promotion, the 'big' winners are those who have been nominated, not those who do deliver the nomination. The winners benefit from the work done by their own Facebook friends. The result is a boost of engagement, loyalty and virality.

In addition to these gaming mechanics, all three promotions have clear rules, a desirable prize, expert design and social support. Interested in how Media Logic can help your brand, run a successful, engaging and gamified promotion? Get a hold of us!