Mary Poppins' Guide to Gamified Marketing

“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and - SNAP - the job's a game.”

Those words of wisdom from Mary Poppins are backed by science that finds that when people are interested and engaged in a subject, they enjoy a shot of dopamine to the brain. Marketers can capitalize on that effect when utilizing gamification to engage customers and deliver a fun experience that associates warm and fuzzy feelings with a brand.

Home decor and shopping get gamified

 Design Home: House Renovation  is the name of the game. That offers an irresistible combination of video games and shopping.

Some of the pieces can be purchased virtually for the game alone. But the real big money would come through buying actual sofas, rugs, tables, etc. for one’s real life home. And that would be quite the payoff for the affiliated sellers and brands.

This is marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing because it draws the shopper in through active play. To get players even more motivated, it offers“Daily Design Challenges.” There is also a social aspect to it with  voting on rooms and the possibility of borrowing from friends through the Facebook connection.

FOMO or an addictive component is also baked in with the possibility of advancing levels, gaining access to unlocked rewards, and the  promise of discovery of “brands and trends,” as well as the “new pieces added every day.” 

Generating excitement for new offerings

Building on brand loyalty is fundamental for sustained business. When you add in a crossover with another brand associated with play, you can add some fun to that fundamental strategy.  

Adidas did that in partnering with LEGO for a range of products. 

This past spring, when it introduced its  Adidas Ultraboost DNA X Lego Plates shoes, priced at $200. While the collaboration alone generated buzz, LEGO pushed for even more engagement by sharing ideas for customizing the shoes on the “adults welcome” section of its site. 

See 6 incredible ways to customize your LEGO® adidas Originals Superstar for ways sneaker collectors, designers, and just creative people who wish to share their passions on their feet found to use the shoes as a medium for imaginative arrangements. The idea is to inspire others to follow suit, engage more with the shoes and the possibilities inherent in connecting LEGO bricks.

Promoting products via virtual games

  Speaking of LEGO and gamification, the brand aims to engage kids with a section of its site showcasing LLEGO® video games available for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch™ and other consoles.. Those are searchable by theme, which also leads to all related products.

For example, the  Star Wars will direct you to the Rise of Skywalker game, where you could choose to be on the light or dark side. It also leads you to a view of the many LEGO characters and sets within the Star Wars universe. The same holds true for other themes for which there are many sets available. 

LEGO also offers a range of apps, some of which are specifically designed to bridge the virtual game and the physical world. Among these offerings is what is called “EGO Hidden Side,” which promises live participation in a ghost story that can involve  a number of players.. 

Playing the game of FOMO

For its 25th anniversary, Pokémon collaborated with OREO to Issue a limited-edition collectible cookie that generates FOMO.  The 16 distinctive Pokémon designs are promoted as collectible, motivating customers to buy multiple packages to be sure they get them all. 

The OREO site  warned fans of the cookie or the game that only some the limited edition packages will have  all 16 version inside. And to truly complete their collections, they will have to buy enough to even obtain the “super rare Mythical Pokémon.”  

I Infusing new life into an old product 

Mary Poppins using a magic snap to clean up the room

Gamification elements like AR can also be used to revitalize interest in a product that is usually not front-and-center of a person’s cooking experience. Table salt is a good example of that.

Nearly all of us use some in cooking and baking but don’t think all that much about the brand involved.  Morton Salt wanted to get their attention, particularly as more people were taking up cooking at home when not eating out during the pandemic.

 

To that end, the brand introduced an integrated marketing campaign across all channels combined with QR codes on labels to activate an AR experience. That idea was to give customers  “several fun and educational ways” to engage with the brand. 

You can see the short video about it here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1091572674646934

For a warning about how just jumping on the gaming bandwagon can backfire --as it did for Coke -- see Major Marketing Missteps from Adidas, M&M's, and Coke

Related: 

Don't just aim for different
Visualizing the customer journey

What makes content marketing effective
What the Little Prince teaches us about marketing

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Sustainable Loyalty: Reaping the Rewards of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 “It’s not easy being green,” a fact that Kermit has bemoaned. But for brands that do it well, it can foster greater customer loyalty.

Brands jump on the circularity bandwagon

Circularity is the name of the game of keeping products in use rather than throwing them out. For the clothing market that means avoiding the wastefulness of  fast fashion in favor of clothing that endures for many uses and that applies sustainable practices in production and recycling. 

The online consignment shop, thredUP,  shifted the paradigm of thrift shopping from trawling through racks in-store to scrolling through options on your phone or PC. In addition to making buying pre-owned clothing that much more convenient, it branded it as not just economical but socially responsible, as it explained on a blog post:

Here’s the facts:

-Fashion will drain a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050.

-26 billion pounds of textiles are dumped into global landfills each year.

-A single T-shirt takes 700 gallons of water to produce.

Here’s what we can do:

-Consume less.

-Reuse more.

-Choose used.

Over the years, thredUp has partnered with popular brands that gain a halo effect from participating in the resale market due to its green cred. Brands like Adidas are even using their partnership with it to launch their own Give Back initiative xclusively on their own branded app. 

Clothing for a better future

One of the brands to embrace sustainable standards for clothing is Primark. In the Primark Cares section of its website, it details its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint in production and increase the longevity of its clothing. 

As Primark explained in  Love Your Clothes, Love Your World:

“When it comes to fashion, durability — how long a product lasts — really matters. It’s not just about getting better value for money by keeping your clothes longer, it’s about improving our impact on the planet so there’s less waste.”

For proof of progress, Primark said it would be working with WRAP and will follow a "’Target, Measure, Act’ approach, where businesses set targets, measure their impact and track progress, both on an individual basis and towards national targets” for the UK.

,Primark already uses recycled or sustainably sourced materials in 25% of its clothing lines. It has pledged to increase that to all its product lines by 2030. 

The brand’s CEO, Paul Marchant was quoted i the ncorporate pledge,, saying. “ Our ambition is to offer customers the affordable prices they know and love us for, but with products that are made in a way that is better for the planet and the people who make them. We know that’s what our customers, and our colleagues, want and expect from us.”

Gaining by losing a million pounds

It’s not just the clothing industry that is concerned with going green. The beauty industry has also woken up to the imperative to reduce waste..

 One way to make it happen is by cutting out unnecessary packaging. That’s what e.l.f. recently announced in sending out an email with the subject line, “e.l.f is committed to sustainability.”

It promised that it was shedding unnecessary waste in its packaging. “Say Goodbye to 1,000,000 Pounds of Packaging” was the way it phrased it, and it illustrated that point with an image and a gif.

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There’s a double advantage to reducing excess waste from packaging. Of course, it generates less waste of paper and plastic. But also the lighter weight means greater efficiency in transportation and fuel consumption. 

Finding new approaches to make clothing and beauty products more sustainable is a win-win. One win for the planet and another win for brand loyalty. That's why it’s a good bet that  we will see many more brands communicating their pledges to improve their environmental impact.  

Related:
Don't just aim for different
Visualizing the customer journey
What makes content marketing effective
What the Little Prince teaches us about marketing





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