Long perceived as targeting a young audience, gamification in marketing is still subject to stereotypes. Yet, marketing campaigns that include interactive elements see an increase in user engagement of 100 to 150 % compared to traditional approaches. A figure that shows the potential of this lever for all marketing targets.

Game-based marketing is now recognized as a powerful tool for activation, engagement, and loyalty. But to effectively reach each segment, the challenge is to adapt campaigns to the marketing target you want to reach.. Storytelling, mechanics, visuals, rewards: each element can be designed according to the expectations, habits, and barriers specific to each consumer category and industry sector.

This article provides you with the keys to adapt a gamification strategy to different profiles. The goal: activate the right lever, at the right time, for the right audience.

SUMMARY

• Why gamification works for all marketing targets
• A gamification marketing strategy tailored to each audience
• How to tailor a gamified campaign to your marketing target

Contrary to popular belief, gamification marketing is not only aimed at young people or the general public. Many premium brands, B2B companies, and those targeting seniors now use gamification to boost engagement. Indeed, the effectiveness of this approach, regardless of the audience, lies in its ability to engage universal cognitive mechanisms.

First, the game captures attention. In a content-saturated environment, capturing interest becomes a challenge. However, playful mechanics activate the brain’s reward system, especially through dopamine, which boosts motivation and enhances focus. This neurological activation explains why gamified content holds attention longer than traditional formats.

Beyond attention, this approach stimulates curiosity. It introduces an element of mystery and interaction, two factors that boost user interest and enable interactive formats to outperform traditional advertising content.

In addition, Playable marketing helps generate positive emotions.. According to a TalentLMS study, 83% of users feel more motivated when a process includes playful elements. These emotions promote memorization and brand attachment.

Lastly, such experiences encourage action. Whether it’s completing a form, visiting a point of sale, or sharing an offer, interactive mechanics multiply conversions. Gamification is therefore not just a simple distraction or a tool for brands to diversify their content. It is a powerful engagement driver, provided it is tailored to the targeted marketing audience.

In summary, gamification marketing is effective thanks to the following elements:

• Capturing attention (through reward and dopamine)

   

• Stimulating curiosity (mystery and interaction)

   

• Generation of positive emotions (motivation and attachment)

   

• Incentive to action (increased conversions)

Not all marketing targets play for the same reasons. Some audiences, often considered less receptive to gaming (seniors, high-income professionals, B2B), can still be fully engaged with the right levers.

The challenge is to understand their specific expectations and adapt the game mechanics accordingly.

Through concrete examples, we will demonstrate that gamification knows no age, status, or industry.

1. Gamification for seniors

Often seen as distant from digital technology, seniors are wrongly considered to be unreceptive to game mechanics. However, their appetite for useful, simple, and interactive content makes them a perfectly targetable marketing audience through gamification, provided the experience is adapted. Clarity, accessibility, and usefulness should guide the design of gamified campaigns aimed at seniors.

The example to follow: Christine Laure

The ready-to-wear brand launched a game called “Vote your shopping list” aimed at its predominantly senior female customers. The goal: to engage the community in selecting the products to highlight, while gathering information about their preferences.

Result: over 28,000 registered participants, with half taking part in the voting. An effective campaign to engage this target audience, refine product recommendations (and enrich the brand’s CRM), as well as strengthen brand loyalty.

2. Gamified B2B marketing

Often seen as too serious for gaming, the B2B target is nevertheless an audience receptive to gamification. Indeed, decision-makers are often overwhelmed. To capture their attention, Playable marketing can inject emotion into campaigns that are often too rational and help improve the memorization of the advertising message.

A well-designed mechanic helps stand out while collecting qualified data.

The goal: to add value at every step. Playful content (shared, for example, through a serious game) should enrich thinking, simplify the discovery of a service or solution, and refine the diagnosis of needs.

Key takeaway:

• The approach must remain understated and premium in style.
• The game must serve a clear objective: lead nurturing, qualification, or appointment scheduling.
• The call-to-action must be naturally integrated into the playful journey.

3. Reaching premium targets through Playable marketing

Often seen as less receptive to gaming, the premium target primarily expects experiences consistent with luxury standards : exclusivity, elegance, sophistication. To engage this audience, gamification must prioritize subtlety over excess.

Immersive formats that emphasize storytelling or stimulate curiosity help increase memorization while respecting brand image expectations. Here, the game offers access to exclusive rewards to extend the brand experience.

The example to follow: Moser & Cie

Moser & Cie has designed a digital campaign in the form of a playful quest.
Internet users had to find clues hidden on the site to answer an exclusive quiz.
The result: a high rate of engagement and an enriched database of qualified users attracted by the brand’s unique universe.

4. Institutional marketing with a gamification twist

Institutional marketing is often seen as too serious to incorporate gamification elements. However, gamification helps humanize communication and engage audiences that are often less receptive.

By adapting the mechanics to educational content, it is possible to make knowledge more accessible and even raise awareness about complex or sensitive topics.

Local authorities can, for example, rely on serious games such as educational quizzes or simulations to raise awareness within their community about waste sorting or risky health behaviors. In addition to conveying valuable information, the game also becomes a data collection lever that allows the organization to better understand its audience and needs.

No magic formula: success relies on strategic adaptation to each marketing target. Here are the key elements to adjust to maximize the performance of a playable campaign depending on the audience you want to reach:

Identify the specific barriers and expectations of the marketing target.

Each audience has its own specific barriers and expectations that must be identified beforehand. For example, some targets prioritize simplicity, while others focus on interactivity or social engagement. The choice of mechanics should address these specificities to maximize the impact of the gamified campaign.

Choose mechanics suited to the audience profile.

Simplicity for seniors, challenge for high-income audiences, immediate rewards for families. A platform dedicated to gamification such as Adictiz will make it easier to personalize the message, visuals, and game journey.

Adapt the advertising message and tone

The advertising message must speak the language of the target, with an appropriate tone and content. A B2B audience expects useful or value-driven content; a younger audience prefers a more friendly tone focused on shared values.

Carefully time the release

The right timing is also a key factor to effectively engage your marketing target. Launching a campaign at the right moment enhances its relevance and audience receptiveness. For example, it should coincide with a strategic peak period (commercial event, product launch) or follow seasonality (back-to-school, summer holidays, etc.)

Simplify the game journey as much as possible

Finally, the game journey should remain smooth and simple to avoid any frustration. Intuitive design and clear rules make participation easier and increase conversion chances, especially for audiences less comfortable with digital.

The power of the game lies in its ability to adapt. A tailored approach transforms gamification into a powerful marketing lever. The challenge is to personalize each playable experience according to the expectations and behaviors of your audiences. Discover Adictiz’s solutions and activate each marketing segment with precision, creativity and efficiency.

These days, it’s increasingly difficult to find qualified profiles to strengthen your teams, but also to retain talent within your company. It is therefore crucial for organisations to strengthen their employer brand, not only to boost their attractiveness to candidates, but also to better engage and retain their employees.

Gamification is a tool that can help create a strong employer brand, at every stage of the employee experience. In this article, we share with you some best practices and concrete use cases for gamifying your employer brand and responding to the HR challenges you are currently facing.

SUMMARY

• What is an employer brand?
• Why consolidate your employer brand?
• Why gamify your employer brand?

Simply put, employer branding is the way companies present themselves to their employees. While a company’s brand image is primarily designed for and communicated to its customers, its employer brand is also aimed at its employees and the talented people who might consider joining its teams.

It is therefore an organisation’s unique value proposition
as a recruiter and an employer. An employer brand includes a range of very tangible elements, such as the conditions and benefits that the company offers its employees (salary policy, financial and intangible bonuses, etc.). But it also includes more intangible elements, such as the company culture, the values espoused by the organisation and its employees, the career prospects for both the company and its employees, etc.

The employer brand is also built around the image that the company conveys through different
communication tools (career page, LinkedIn profile, presence at trade fairs). But it is also co-constructed by all employees, past, present and future. This involves feedback that they share via their own networks or with a wider audience (on a site such as Glassdoor, for example, but also via their LinkedIn profile, etc.)

The employer brand is a key element in a company’s ability to grow in the long term. The stronger the employer brand, the more likely it will be to attract, engage and retain the best performers in its teams.

Building your employer brand means you can :

• Optimise your talent acquisition strategy. The employer brand helps to attract, engage and retain the most talented people. Not only will talent be more likely to apply to a company that enjoys a good reputation as an employer. But they will also be more motivated to give their best to the organisation and will tend to see themselves as long-term employees.

• Ensure its financial stability. Recruitment is a major expense for companies. In the same way, high staff turnover and positions left vacant for too long can have a negative impact on an organisation’s profitability. The ability to attract and retain the best talent is therefore crucial to productivity and growth.

• Consolidate your brand image. A company’s ability to offer its employees good working conditions is just as important to its customers. Consumers value responsible brands that respect people, starting with their employees.

Gamification, or the introduction of playful elements into a context not traditionally associated with games, is an excellent way of consolidating your employer brand. Here are 3 concrete steps (awareness, acquisition and retention) where this strategy can be a winner.

1. Gamification to develop an attractive employer brand

In the same way that gamification can be used by brands to raise their profile with potential customers, it is also an excellent way of capturing and retaining the attention of talented people. By introducing playful elements into its communication materials, a company can communicate more effectively with candidates and convey its values and messages in an impactful way.

Gamification offers a multitude of mechanisms for conveying information to your target audience, via an interactive quiz, for example. An interactive approach ensures that your audience will pay closer attention and retain the message better.

For example, many talented young people want to work for companies that share their values. Gamification can be used to communicating and reinforcing the employer’s unique value proposition with candidates. By opting for a Quiz or a Battle, the organisation can communicate its commitments (on work-life balance, sustainable development, diversity and inclusiveness) in a fun and memorable way.

2. Gamification to optimise your recruitment process

Gaming can also enable employers to break traditional recruitment codes. For example, organisations can attract talent by sharing gamified job offers. Instead of listing the requirements and tasks of the position to be filled, companies can use gamification to create immersive offers that highlight their internal culture and values.

By offering a personality test, recruiters can share their expectations in an original way and filter more effectively the profiles that do and don’t suit them. As well as simply standing out from the crowd, gamification is also a profitable strategy for optimising the candidate selection process. Companies can use interactive and fun formats to more effectively identify profiles that match their needs, for example through gamified assessments.

Rather than relying solely on traditional methods (such as tests or job interviews), the organisation can also offer immersive experiences (role-playing, interactive investigations such as escape games). Combined with traditional assessment tools, these enable us to measure candidates’ potential in action more accurately. But they can also be used to assess less tangible skills (such as soft skills like teamwork, empathy, creativity, etc.).

Example: The Bizzbee video competition

The Bizzbee brand proposed a simple challenge: submit your application on video, as originally as possible, and post it on the social networks to gather as many votes as possible from the Bizzbee community. The prize was a CM internship in the social media team and a great atmosphere guaranteed.

3. Games as a means of engaging and motivating employees

Gamification is also a particularly effective way of engaging employees and building loyalty. In this way, employers can gamify their internal development processes, along the lines of their loyalty programmes. This system, which can include elements such as points and levels, will make it possible to offer teams greater recognition, reward them for their achievements and give them a transparent view of their career development possibilities.

Edutainment, or learning by playing, also shows the relevance of integrating gamification into vocational training.Employees gain skills while having fun, and have the feeling that they are growing with the company. But games can also be used to celebrate the organisation’s high points (anniversaries, new product launches) and to unite teams around fun experiences ( sports games, creative competitions, solidarity challenges, etc.

Example: DPD’s Catch All for the Davis Cup

DPD has set up a ‘Catch-all’ game
to engage and motivate its employees during the Davis Cup. It was a great success, with over 6,000 games played. The operation was a resounding success, with over 6,000 games played, reinforcing internal cohesion and enthusiasm around this sporting event.

Conclusion

Gamifying your employer brand is an excellent way of boosting your company’s appeal and better engaging your candidates and employees. Discover
our catalogue of playful mechanisms to optimise your employer value proposition and consolidate your internal culture!