Corporate gamification: a practical guide for decision makers

What corporate gamification is

Gamification is the use of elements typical of games in contexts that are not games. The definition, proposed in 2011 by Sebastian Deterding and colleagues, is the one the literature refers to most often. In a company it means taking what makes a game hard to walk away from, namely a clear objective, immediate feedback and visible progress. And putting it at the service of a concrete goal: a visit to a stand, a safety course, discovering a product.

Picture a stand at a trade show with a queue in front of it. It is not handing out gadgets and it is not offering discounts: it lets people play. Two at a time compete on a floor that reacts to their steps, the others watch and comment, and meanwhile a salesperson has all the time needed to start a conversation with those waiting. That is a game working for the company.

Gamification, serious games and advergames

The three terms are constantly confused. In gamification the activity stays what it is, a course or a visit, and gains objectives, feedback and progression. A serious game is a complete game built to train, instruct or let people experience a situation that is hard to reproduce in reality. An advergame is a game designed to promote a brand or a message, and it thrives in high-footfall places, where sessions are short. In some projects the boundaries overlap: the choice depends on how much time the audience has and on what needs to stick.

Why it works, and when it stops

The mechanics that hold up are always the same: an objective that can be grasped in seconds, immediate feedback on the action taken, difficulty that grows with skill and a visible result at the end. When one of these is missing, the game becomes a form to fill in with colourful graphics.

There is one aspect almost everyone underestimates: the prize. A large body of research on motivation, the 1999 meta-analysis by Deci, Koestner and Ryan across 128 studies, showed that expected tangible rewards tend to reduce interest in the activity itself, while feedback that makes people feel capable supports it. In plain terms: if the only reason to take part is the giveaway at the exit, attention shifts to the giveaway and ends with it. If instead the experience tells people how they are doing and makes them feel more skilled, engagement holds up even without a prize. That is the difference between a game people remember and a queue to collect a pen.

Where it adds value

Trade shows and events

The most immediate application. A well designed game stops people walking by, creates a queue that becomes an attraction in itself and gives the sales team a natural reason to start talking. We cover this in the context of events, trade shows and corporate.

Training and the sales network

Safety, procedures, product knowledge: simulation lets people practise and make mistakes without real-world consequences. For the sales network, paths with progression and assessment help when the range is broad and changes often.

Retail, showrooms and museums

In the store, the game turns trying a product into an experience worth recounting. In museums, a mission-based route holds the attention of families and school groups across the whole visit.

One warning applies to the internal life of a company: competition between colleagues encourages participation in some contexts and backfires in others, especially when it is perceived as imposed or publicly exposed. Caution is essential there.

When the game leaves the screen

The gamification we build in physical spaces does not run through an app to download, but through the environment. A floor that reacts to footsteps, a wall that responds to a gesture, a video wall that pits two teams against each other, a surface that recognises an object placed on it. The body enters the experience, the game becomes visible to others and therefore contagious, and there is no barrier: you walk up and play.

These are the principles of our interactive gamification projects. Two examples: A penalty against Gigi Buffon for TIM, an advergame created at Fiumicino airport, and Water Heroes for DAB Pumps, a trade show game in which the products become characters in a challenge on the stand.

How we build it to measure

There are no mechanics that suit everyone. A game works when it says something about the product or the message: a skill challenge says speed, a team game says collaboration, a mission says discovery. This is why we start from the objective and the audience, never from the mechanic, and design the curve of the experience on the time actually available: at a trade show it is understood in seconds and finishes in about a minute, in a training room it can go deeper.

Our IMUV touchless sensors let people play without touching anything and without devices to hand out, which matters at trade shows and in busy places. The content is drawn on the brand's identity, so the game is recognisable even from a distance. And the installation measures what matters: how many people take part compared with how many pass by, how long they stay, how many play again, how many conversations start. The most revealing figure at a trade show is how many people stop to watch someone else play: it is the pull the installation generates beyond those using it.

The most common mistakes

The first is sticking points, badges and leaderboards on top of a boring activity: it does not make it a game, and it even has a name, pointsification. The second is the prize as the only lever, which attracts those who want the reward and weakens interest. The third is a game disconnected from the message: entertaining, but it produces memories of the game and not of the brand. The fourth is complex rules: if an explanation is needed to start, someone is needed to give it, otherwise most visitors move on. The last is not providing a second round: if there is no way to improve, you lose the part that generates word of mouth.

Where to start

If you are considering an experience of this kind, tell us the objective, the context and how much time your audience really has. From there we can indicate which mechanics hold up in that space, what they can say about your product and what it takes to build them.