Macala Wright is the publisher of FashionablyMarketing.Me, one of the leading fashion and retail industry business websites. She is a retail consultant and business strategist who specializes in marketing consulting for fashion, luxury and lifestyle brands. You can follower her on Twitter at @InsideFMM or @Macala.
Social games have begun to influence consumer behavior and purchases. According to Saatchi & Saatchi, 66% of tablet owners play social games daily, and 46% of tablet gamers are women. In fact, the largest group of social gamers is women between the ages of 35 and 44, the second largest is women between 18 and 34. Men make up the third largest group.
Marketing to these demographics in today's economy is a top priority for retailers. And ramification offers companies a chance to engage young audiences and start to build consumer-purchasing habits that aren't entirely based on continual discounts and free stuff.
In 2008, DKNY was one of the first retailers to experiment with social games by partnering with digital paper doll game Stardoll. In 2010, PopSugar created a more grown up version of Stardoll with their release of Retail Therapy. The online game made a strong debut, featuring popular brands such as Banana Republic, Barney's New York, Diane von Furstenberg, Gap, Juicy Couture, Topshop and Tory Burch. Retail Therapy's release showed that social games weren't just for tweens and teens anymore.
Now, three year later, games are growing up. Brands and retailers alike have begun to experiment with different forms of online games. Here are nine examples of companies that successfully leveraged game mechanics in consumer marketing.
1. Nike's "Winter's Angry" Perseverance Campaign
Ending 2011 with a bang, Nike launched an interactive campaign to promote its winter wear. Players assist the athlete in "beating the cold" through a series of actions. For example, players can test their reflexes to win prizes for completing certain actions. The games feature world champion wideout Greg Jennings, U.S. women's soccer player Alex Morgan and Olympic gold medalist sprinter Allyson Felix. The highest scores achieved between Dec. 9-15 were eligible to win a trip for two to meet a world-class Nike athlete.
2. Norma Kamali's 3D Movie
Earlier this year, fashion designer turned futurist Norma Kamali launched Norma Kamali 3D, a site that features her first 3D movie and ecommerce shopping experience. But you may not have noticed that there was actually a game within the movie. Kamali asked viewers to find six objects within the experience.
The first week of the site's launch, over 20,000 Facebook fans requested a free pair of custom 3D viewing glasses with the designer's signature cat-eye frames. "I am hoping that people see 3D not just as a source of entertainment, but as a shopping utility," Kamali told FMM in an interview earlier this year. "In the future, we will be able to view, shop and play with fashion in 3D."
3. ALDO's Instagram Mood boards
To promote the launch of its fragrance collection, ALDO worked with Dynamo and ALLDAYEVERYDAY to create a Facebook game. Players chose from a series of Instagram photos that, once selected, were compiled into a mood board that they could post to their Facebook Timelines.
What makes this such a truly amazing campaign is that no retailer or brand had yet combined Instagram and Facebook in this manner. In an interview, marketing director Vyara Ndejuru shared that the brand wanted to create a "visual experience for their customers" that would entice them to visit the new A is for ALDO microsite. "ALDO customers are accustomed to immersive experiences; Instagram and Flickr are huge drivers for them," she added.
In order to launch this campaign and build awareness amongst their fans and customers, ALDO promoted on its homepage with calls to action built into the microsite once the customers clicked through. They the company followed up by emailing its customer base in French and English and by engaging via Facebook.
4. Bonobos Incorporates Gamification in Ecommerce
This year the online closet solution for men, Bonobos, incorporated gamification into three of its social media campaigns. In its Easter Egg / NotCot collaboration and Twitter #secretcode campaign, the retailer hid images of models dressed in Bonobos signature pants around NOTCOT.org and NotCouture. Site visitors had to search the site to find and click the images. The first 50 people to find the pants everyday received a $25 Bonobos credit plus free shipping. As a bonus, social audience members who clicked the little guy in paisley pants received a special code for $100 off their purchase.
Bonobos is applying social engagement and gamification to engage a male customer base. "There is a new breed of male shopper online," says David Fudge, head of Bonobos social media, "While they may want to look great, they don't necessarily want to talk about fashion. They want to know how it's going to look in real life." Fudge says that when it comes to marketing to male consumers through games, marketers must "speak to their customers and audience like their one of your personal Facebook friends."
Richard Mumby, vice president of marketing, added, "The key to making gaming work within our ecommerce experience is focusing on making it social, not making it commercial (in terms of focusing solely focusing on sales). Your fans and follows are looking to interact with you, not to passively take in your content," he advises. "Provide engaging posts and tweets that solicit a response. Allowing them to take action and become involved in something is the key to a very loyal and evangelical customer base."
5. Gilt Groupe Built VIP Program On Social Rewards
In his book, Gamification By Design, author Gabe Zichermanm references Gilt Groupe, specifically how the flash sale retailer awards its top consumers with exclusive access to the site. Gilt launched Gilt Noir, a loyalty program for the top 1% of its online shoppers. The members received a scented candle and a member's card as well as the ability to shop 15 minutes before any sale begins.
Instead of offering discounts, Gilt offered access. And in retail, we know that access and exclusivity go a long way with our consumers. Once they get it, they want to maintain it.
6. BlueFly and Badgeville
Earlier this year, BlueFly partnered with Badgeville to enhance Bluefly customers' online shopping experiences and to encourage customer interaction via badges and leaderboards. Shoppers were rewarded based on the actions they took on the site, such as watching videos, creating wish lists, writing reviews and reading blog posts. As players earned higher badges, they earned early access to products and special deals and discounts, among other rewards.
7. Valentino's 3D Museum
?In Decermber luxury fashion house Valentino launched a virtual 3D museum, a downloadable desktop application for Macs and PCs. Viewers navigated through various galleries, clicking over 300 virtual dresses and pulling up original sketches, advertising campaigns, 5,000 archival images and nearly 95 fashion show videos. The virtual museum had over 10,000 downloads its first day. While the digital event lacked a fluid experience for viewers, it accomplished Valentino's goal of continuing his legacy.
8. Best Buy and CityVille
Zynga says more than 230 million active users plays its games. And more than 71 million Facebook users play CityVille.
This year, Best Buy became the first virtual branded retail store in CityVille. In the game, players build houses and roads to create a city, seeking to collect points they can use to unlock new game features. Players can place other businesses in their games, but they have generic names, like "bakery" or "toy store." Players who chose to add a Best Buy to their virtual worlds signified they wanted the brand present in their lives.
9. HSN Arcade Entices Fans To Stay Onsite Longer
Similar to BlueFly's goals, online and television retailer HSN launched the HSN Arcade to encourage customers to spend more time on HSN.com. When it launched, the HSN Arcade featured 25 video games that consumers could play for free while watching a live stream of HSN's television channel. The games enabled consumers to post their scores to Facebook streams as well. HSN's integration of shopping, social networking and gaming are largely driven by the retailer's focus on engaging female consumers online.
Making the Case for Gamification and Retail
As technologically savvy, social consumers, we solicit fashion advice via mobile apps like Pose and Fashism. We post images of things we want to buy to our Facebook page and let friends say yeah or nay. So when it comes to gaming, the next logical step is to add some retail fun.
?Basil Farano, co-creator of Stylmee, the first 3D fashion app for iPad, believes that retailers must try to make the experience as "real" as possible for players. "In Stylmee, the gaming experience is built around challenging our member's knowledge and taste in fashion as they try to build a fashion boutique and empire," Farano says. "We use the same problems that real boutique owners would face to challenge our member's 'fashion-ability.' It is a very realistic experience, which is what we believe the social gaming community is hungry for."
When brands and retailers reward players based on the success of the their actions within a game, "retailers can increase their perceived value to the player, aka shopper, through rewards that don't tarnish their brand image," adds Farano.
By 2014, a gamified service for consumer goods, marketing and retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon, says a recent Gartner report. It seems that social gaming, like social media, will become critical for nurturing customer relationships through play. Do you agree?
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