Gamification stuff we love: branded mini-games
Branded Mini Games allow companies to design their own advergames in a quick and easy manner. The purpose of the mini-games is typically around marketing objectives such as brand awareness, growing market size, creating a following on social media, promotions, etc. The campaign duration can be set to any duration from a few hours to weeks to months.
One of the case studies given by the company is for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, where player had to twist and turn layers of an image and turn the various parts into a complete strawberry doughnut. The campaign was aimed to launch the doughnuts and equally to create a further presence on social media. It ran for 5 weeks.
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Krispy Kreme’s mobile advergame was played with over 21,000 game impressions from 8000+ users, and more than 18,000 game engagements that lasted for at least 5 secs.
- 2,936 additional Facebook page ‘Likes’ generated
- 36.4% of game users engaged with Krispy Kreme’s Facebook Page with ‘Likes’ or ‘Shares’
- 88% engaged with the advergame for at least 5 secs
- 78% completed the game
From a gamification perspectives they used puzzle game elements to recreate the images and asked people to share and like the campaign online and it also included a leaderboard of players.
What I like is that each of the case studies given shows an increase in engagement by players and people exploring a game at some point in the duration of the campaign. In marketing short term benefits may sometimes over-ride longer term retention and engagement, which may mean you engage a following and then let them hang. I would always recommend using advergames as part of a more community building based approach, so you players have somewhere to go after you engaged with them. It allows for further brand building and targeted promotions.
What games have you played in the name of marketing?
