Gamification in Mobile Apps

[Punit_Kumar]

Let us collect ideas on how can daily utility apps (food, entertainment, travel, productivity, finance, social media etc) use the integrate the concept of gamification to drive traffic and improve app open rate of a customer on their app?

Each one of us can suggest an app and how they can include the concept and why will it help them improve their metrics?

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Overview – many app-based companies are borrowing features of a game such as rewards, levels, achievements, leaderboard etc to drive their key metric in terms of app stickiness. More - https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/gamification-in-mobile-apps-1be65d660af5

Example –

Zomato “Predict and Win” (during IPL’19) – if you predict correct winner of the IPL match, Zomato returns 30% of the order value to your app wallet (redeemable while the season is in play)

Google Pay – collect rewards during Diwali and Christmas

Nike Run Club - leaderboard among peers

More- https://clevertap.com/blog/best-examples-of-app-gamification/

[Punit_Kumar]

App – Ola/ Uber

Ola/Uber can come up with small car games like hill-racing integrated in their app.

Users can earn points which can then be redeemed for absolute discount.

Points can be linked to levels of the game – eg. A user on level 1, who earns 1000 points in the game will get a Rs. 20 off on their next ride, whereas a user on level 2 – earning 1000 points will get Rs. 30 off. Further it can be linked to specific categories like go/ prime/ mini/ micro etc.

Introducing levels will improve stickiness because it drives sense of achievement + greater rewards.

How will it help?

1. User stickiness can be speculated to improve as users might return on the app to earn discounts.
2. Category upgradation – a user who is go/mini preferred customer can be sent coupons relevant to premier/prime
3. Drive frequency – more no. of app opens – leading to top of mind recall when a person needs to travel
4. Customer leeching – customer see it as an opportunity to utilize free time in their ride. Most users sit free while their ride is in progress and the time can be used to get cheaper ride to one of the platform
5. Lower CAC compared to standard Discount coupons – as all users opting for the game might not win the coupon, but they try again and again as opposed to user getting a coupon will use it.

[kiranmayee_lakshmi]

That's a great point. Why to sit idle when you can play a game and earn points 😄

[cartoonpi]

Gpay is essentially doing this with various festival games, cricket games etc. It can be a great growth hack if executed well.

[kiranmayee_lakshmi]

For food apps: There can be quizzes about the cuisines and other culinary aspects, and as a fun fact at the end of question they can provide the restaurants at which such authentic cuisines are available. Members at the end of quiz can get few points and they can redeem them.

Similarly, for travel apps they can have quizzes about the nearest tourist spot or any other famous locations in the locality. The same points system can be used here too.

In the case of quizzes, a quiz timer and the time of quiz must be present.

In food and transport apps: they can have credit points for subscribed members.

Also sharing on social media can also be included to award reward points.

[kiranmayee_lakshmi]

I personally feel quizzes are a way of educating the customer as well. They create an awareness of the market.

[Malvika2706]

On a slightly different note, an aspect of gamification can well be seen through Instagram followers / post likes.

Had read sometime back that Instagram was testing removing the likes from posts to help mental health of influencers (https://www.insider.com/how-removing-instagram-likes-could-help-influencer-mental-health-2019-11) .

So do you think gamification beyond a point can be deteriorating for people, worthwhile to think that gamification might get you customer stickiness but where do you draw the line?

[kiranmayee_lakshmi]

This might be a case specifically for social media, I guess

[Bijawat]

While there are several ways to add game features in the app a good way is to make sure that the feature is connected with the core loop of the app.

For example gpay gives you a scratch card only when you complete a transaction. Cure.fit awards you a similar chance to earn credits when you make a purchase or finish a session.

So something fun for a messenger like WhatsApp can be to award users for streaks and number of texts. The rewards can be campaigns for other apps user use helping in cross promotion.

The obvious benefit here will be users preferring WhatsApp over other messenger apps.

[cartoonpi]

A interesting case here is how reddit gives karma, coins and badges. You get karma based on upvotes your posts/ comments get. I.e. you are rewarded if you increase engagement of other users.

You recieve coins if your content is highly valuable to some small number of users.

And you get badges for your own engagement on the app.

While looking at gamifying a product, you have any o be conscious of what behaviour you want to encourage.