Black Friday is an essential highlight in the brand marketing calendar. Every year, more than 70% of consumers say they make purchases on this occasion, taking advantage of the exceptional promotions offered by retailers.

Imported from the United States this trade festival is becoming increasingly popular in France and abroad..
Il est donc très pertinent pour les marques de se positionner sur ce temps fort et de créer une stratégie marketing Black Friday efficace, qui leur permettra de recruter et convertir de nouveaux clients.

In this article, we take a look back at the main issues that companies need to prepare for in order to succeed with their Black Friday marketing campaigns. We also share some effective and original ideas to boost sales and prepare offers for the festive season.

SUMMARY

• The marketing challenges of Black Friday
• 3 marketing campaign ideas to boost sales during Black Friday

Black Friday is no ordinary trade fair. It offers companies a unique opportunity to hire new prospects and re-engage their existing customers (in the same way as sales). But the special feature of the Black Friday is that is takes place at a particularly strategic time of year.

It is indeed the last weekend of november the final stretch before Christmas shopping. Generally speaking, the 4th quarter of the year (the months of October/November/September) is a strategic time for companies, who generate 20 to 30% of their annual sales during this period.

Black Friday’s marketing challenges are therefore unique and brands have the opportunity to implement a strategy that will enable them to target the following four marketing objectives.

Stand out from the competition

An increasing number of companies are offering Black Friday deals. Brands must therefore redouble their efforts to make their campaign visible to their target audience

To capture attention, they won’t be able to rely solely on exceptional discounts (if they want to control the ROI of their Black Frday campaign). They’ll have to rely on other levers of visibility, such as originality and interactivity. Companies can set themselves apart by organizing a marketing competition, for example.

Engaging consumers at the right time

Brands are tending to communicate their Black Friday offers earlier and earlier. By spacing out their marketing campaign over several days, or even weeks, they can create a teasing effect and better manage consumer expectations .

Its also an effective approach to staying top of mind the big dayand guide shoppers more effectively towards the offers/products that best meet their expectations. The key is to strike the right balance to avoid advertising fatigue (and audience fatigue) by offering a variety of advertising formats that maintain engagement right through to Black Friday. A multi-channel approach will also be essential to reach consumers wherever they are.

Propose relevant offers based on customer preferences

To convert, Black Friday marketing campaigns can’t just play on discount percentages. They can also precisely target consumers’ product preferences, offering them a recommendation of items or services they are more likely to want to buy.

This means collecting, in advance of Black Friday, relevant customer data on favorite product categories, but also on the marketing channels, payment methods and delivery options that buyers intend to prioritize. To achieve this, brands can rely on marketing games such as Battle or Gift Finder.

Collect opt-ins and build loyalty to boost repeat purchases

As we’ve already mentioned, Black Friday is the start of a particularly intense period for consumers..
La fête commerciale se déroule en effet juste avant le Cyber Monday (qui a lieu le lundi suivant) et Noël.

To boost sales throughout this period, it’s very important that brands take advantage of Black Friday to collect opt-ins. Black Friday marketing formats can be used to this end (via a simple opt-in form, for example).

Brands can also take advantage of this opportunity to continue collecting customer preference (with a survey or swiper, for example), to optimize future campaigns. They can also encourage engaged prospects to create a customer account or download their application to boost their re-purchase rate for the rest of the year.

Gamification is a relevant lever for meeting the challenges of a Black Friday marketing strategy.

Depending on the brand’s objectives, these interactive and entertaining formats can help to achieve the following goals:

• Recruit qualified leads and optins to develop your customer database;
• Engage existing customers using games to showcase products and support promotions
• Increase sales by encouraging consumers to make a purchase in-store or on the e-commerce site.

1. Recruter des leads avec un instant gagnant

Simple mechanics such as Instants Gagnants are ideal for recruiting new leads and collecting optin. before or during Black Friday. Red By SNCF, for example, relied on the One-armed Bandit to boost the visibility of its Black Friday campaign.

The very simple principle of the game (aligning three identical patterns to unlock a gift or discount) is indeed perfect for engaging a wide audience. Prospects are also attracted by the prospect of finding out immediately whether they’ve won a reward or not.

What’s more, the interactive, fun aspect of this Black Friday marketing campaign helped the operator stand out at this particularly busy time of year.

2. Engage your community during Black Friday with a Shopping List

To engage existing customers during Black Friday, brands can rely on gamification mechanics highlighting their products. The idea here is to discover its offer in a fun way, the aim is also to collect customer preferences in order to offer more targeted product recommendations. The challenge is also to offer attractive prizes that capture the audience’s attention and make them want to participate.

Git, for example, offered its community the chance to win an exceptional basket made up exclusively of items that participants had already selected using a shopping list..
Pendant toute la semaine précédant le Black Friday, les acheteurs pouvaient ainsi tenter leur chance et remporter leur wishlist au tirage au sort.

3. Boost Black Friday sales with coupons

For Black Friday marketing campaigns to bear fruit, brands need to find effective levers to redirect their audience to their website (or in-store for a drive-to-store campaign).

Oui SNCF, for example, took advantage of its Black Friday gamification campaign (a one-armed bandit) to distribute 15-euro e-coupons. Participants could then win a voucher, to be used on the company’s website or app for their next booking.

With more than 2K clicks driven to its site, Oui SNCF boosted sales over the period..
Mais en plus de générer du CA pour le Black Friday, l’entreprise en a aussi profité pour collecter des adresses emails et des optins afin d’enrichir son CRM.

Conclusion

Gamification is one of the most effective strategies for creating an impactful marketing campaign. By choosing a playful, interactive mechanism to animate your audience, you can not only present your discounts more effectively, but also significantly boost your sales. Discover our catalog of playable formats to boost your Black Friday marketing strategy.

Faire la promotion d’un produit suppose de mettre en place une stratégie marketing différente d’une campagne classique de notoriété. La marque va devoir concentrer son contenu sur un article spécifique, pour mettre en avant ses caractéristiques et donner envie de l’acheter.

Mais une campagne pour promouvoir un produit peut servir d’autres objectifs stratégiques. Elle peut être l’occasion de : 

• gagner en notoriété, 
• recruter de nouveaux leads (en particulier si la marque étend sa gamme de produits),
• fidéliser ses clients existants, 
• collecter de l’opt-in, 
• ou encore attirer son public en magasin (avec des démonstrations produits par exemple). 

Dans cet article, nous vous proposons 6 idées de campagnes marketing gamifiées pour promouvoir un produit.

SOMMAIRE

• 1. Promouvoir un produit en donnant un aperçu exclusif
• 2. Répondre aux questions des clients avec un quiz interactif
• 3. Partager de l’UGC pour faire la promotion d’un produit
• 4. Lancement d’un produit : faire gagner des coupons 100% gagnant
• 5. Présenter les avantages du nouveau produit
• 6. Immerger les clients dans son univers de marque avec une chasse au trésor

Le lancement d’un nouveau produit est un évènement pour les marques. Certaines en profitent pour organiser un événement durant lequel elles présentent ce nouveau produit. C’est le cas d’Apple et de ses célèbres Keynotes. 

Le live shopping offre une alternative digitale à cette présentation de produit, offrant la possibilité de découvrir en exclusivité l’article utilisé (ou porté dans le cas du marketing de la mode). Les marques peuvent aussi en profiter pour répondre aux questions des internautes et présenter les caractéristiques et la valeur ajoutée de leur produit de manière plus interactive et pertinente. 

Cette présentation du produit peut se faire en amont du lancement. Dans le cas d’un produit digital (un logiciel ou un jeu vidéo), l’entreprise peut créer une forme de teasing en présentant une démonstration de son service ou en faisant tester un MVP (pour Minimum Viable Product, soit une version bêta) à ses utilisateurs engagés. C’est un moyen de collecter des feedbacks pour améliorer le produit final, mais aussi de récompenser ses clients fidèles.

La principale valeur ajoutée d’un produit, et ce qui lui permettra de se distinguer de ses concurrents, c’est sa capacité à répondre aux problèmes que rencontrent les consommateurs. Pour inciter son audience à s’intéresser à un produit, et lui donner envie de l’acheter, la marque peut présenter ses caractéristiques à travers un Quiz interactif.

Les consommateurs pourront découvrir le produit de manière interactive, à travers un format gamifié à l’issu duquel ils peuvent remporter un bon d’achat ou une remise. C’est ce qu’a fait Savencia pour mettre en avant ses 2 marques Giovanni Ferrari (mozzarella) et Islos (Féta) durant l’été. L’entreprise a partagé un quiz aux couleurs méditerranéennes dans lequel les participants pouvaient tester leurs connaissances tout en découvrant les produits.  

Les participants peuvent en profiter pour poser des questions via un formulaire partagé en fin de quiz. L’entreprise peut ensuite garder les questions fréquentes et/ou pertinentes pour organiser un Q&A et ainsi répondre aux préoccupations de ses prospects. 

Quelle meilleure façon de faire la promotion d’un produit que de partager des témoignages de la valeur qu’il offre à vos clients. En marketing, c’est ce que l’on appelle l’UGC, soit le contenu généré par les acheteurs. Il peut s’agir de photos ou de vidéos dans lesquelles vos clients se montrent en train d’utiliser (ou de porter votre produit). 

Ce contenu authentique est efficace pour convertir de nouveaux clients, d’autant plus lorsqu’il est repartagé avec un hashtag dédié. Pour collecter de l’UGC, les marques peuvent organiser un concours (là aussi vidéo ou photo). Les clients seront encouragés à participer pour tenter de gagner une dotation attractive et la possibilité d’être repartagé sur le compte de leur marque préférée. 

C’est ce que fait GoPro pour mettre en avant la qualité de ses appareils photo et caméras.

Les entreprises peuvent organiser une campagne promotionnelle pour donner de la visibilité à un nouveau produit et booster les ventes aux lancements. Les instants 100 % gagnants, permettent de distribuer des e-coupons, sont efficaces dans ce cas de figure. 

Les participants peuvent remporter une remise (le pourcentage dépend de leur résultat). La marque peut le faire via une mécanique comme le bandit manchot, dont les motifs représenteront son produit, ou opter pour une pinata qui reprendra la forme de l’article. 

De nombreuses marques qui font la promotion d’un produit ont tendance à se concentrer sur les caractéristiques et fonctionnalités de ce dernier. Or, une stratégie marketing beaucoup plus efficace est de présenter les avantages qu’offre un article et la valeur ajoutée que peuvent en retirer les utilisateurs. Ces derniers sont ainsi encouragés à se projeter avec le produit entre les mains et visualisent mieux ce que ce dernier peut leur apporter. 

Une excellente mécanique de gamification pour présenter la valeur ajoutée de son produit ou de son offre est le Memory. En effet, elle permet de mettre en valeur des contenus promotionnels, d’informer les consommateurs et de maximiser le temps qu’ils passent avec la marque. 

Le Shuttle Freight a opté pour ce jeu marketing pour mettre en avant les avantages de leur programme de fidélité et recruter des adhérents. En cliquant sur une carte, les participants pouvaient découvrir les récompenses auxquelles ils auraient accès selon le nombre de points cumulés (cadeau d’anniversaire, traversée gratuite, etc.). 

Le jeu était suivi d’un instant gagnant leur permettant de gagner des points de fidélité : une mécanique engageante puisque les prospects savaient ce que ces points leur permettaient de débloquer. 

Lorsque les marques font la promotion d’un produit, elles utilisent souvent des formats statiques, peu engageants pour les consommateurs. La gamification permet de créer de l’interaction et d’encourager les clients à interagir avec le produit. Ils ne sont plus les spectateurs passifs d’une publicité ou d’une vidéo de présentation didacticielle, mais les acteurs de la campagne, découvrant le produit sous toutes ses coutures et même en action. 

La chasse aux trésort est un format permettant de créer cette interaction entre le client et le produit. Les participants sont plongés dans l’univers de la marque et peuvent découvrir le produit dans un environnement gamifié, en lien avec l’article. Il peut s’agir d’un hidden object (ou objet caché) classique, dans lequel l’utilisateur recherche l’objet dans un monde virtuel. 

La marque peut opter pour une version complexe où l’utilisateur doit réunir les éléments qui composent le produit (les ingrédients d’un soin de beauté). Le client découvre le potentiel du produit, ses fonctionnalités/propriétés et cas d’usage.

Conclusion

Pour faire la promotion de votre produit, misez sur des formats publicitaires interactifs. La gamification vous permet de créer une expérience grâce à laquelle votre marque pourra booster ses ventes en invitant les clients à découvrir ses produits. Dynamisez vos campagnes marketing en personnalisant nos mécaniques jouables !

With the explosion of e-commerce and digital marketing, one of the main challenges facing retail brands is to encourage their online prospects to visit their stores. Among the most effective marketing levers is e-couponing, or the distribution of discount coupons and vouchers.

By digitizing coupons, brands can indeed boost their sales not only online, but also in their physical points of sale. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the main benefits of e-coupongong, particularly in terms of converting and building loyalty, increasing in-store traffic and maximizing ROI.

We’ll also introduce you to a particularly effective gamified format for distributing coupons to your audience: the 100% instant win game.

SUMMARY

• What is web couponing
• Why opt for e-couponing?
• Organize a 100% winning game to give away discount coupons

Web couponing (or e-couponing) is quite simply the digital equivalent of the classic discount coupon. Rather than distributing paper coupons (after a checkout, via a catalog or by mail), brands can now digitalize their couponing.

Coupons can take many forms, such as a QR code or a barcode. It can also be printable, distributed via email or in the form of mobile coupons (known as m-couponing). The discount code is sent directly by SMS or MMS to the customer’s phone, or via the brand’s application.

Lake any discount coupon, the main aim of this lever is to encourage consumers to make a purchase, buy more or buy again from the company.

While digital coupons were originally used mainly by e-retailers to offer their customers a digital alternative, web couponing is now a popular tool in retail. It enables brands to increase traffic, boost sales in their physical stores ad build customer loyalty. It has thus become a highly effective web-to-store lever.

At the checkout, customers with a digital coupon simply present the QR code or barcode. The discount is applied immediately at the checkout via the store’s computer system. It can also be used online (in which case it takes the form of a unique discount code).

Web couponing offers many advantages for brands. Before implementing a strategy, it’s worth understanding what results a company can expect when distributing digital coupons to its audiences.

1. Acquire new customers

Offering discount coupons, whether digital or paper, is always a good way to attract new customers. For example, the brand can offer exclusive discounts valid only on a first purchase. it can also send a promotional code when a customer subscribes to its newsletter thus collecting opt-ins). But in general, the opportunity to take advantage of a discount can convince prospects who have never purchased from the company to place a first order.

2. Boost in-store traffic

A recent study conducted by CPA revealed that over 90% of Internet users say they are ready to use a discount voucher found online. to make a purchase in a physical store. Offering digital coupons is therefore an excellent way of increasing in-store traffic and converting online-activated prospects into retail customers.

To maximise its drive-to-store strategy, the brand can offer coupons that are only valid in-store, or only on offers available at its points of sale.

3. Build customer loyalty and increase repurchase rates

Coupons can also be an effective way of rewarding loyal customers.. Il incitera ainsi les consommateurs à revenir en magasin ou à racheter auprès de la marque. Le bon de réduction peut ainsi être intégré au programme de fidélité de l’entreprise, ou envoyé par SMS à une période stratégique du calendrier marketing (black friday, fêtes de fin d’année, etc.)

To make the most of the loyalty-building benefits of coupons, the key is to personalize campaigns. The brand can, for example, distribute discounts on customers’ birhtdays or when they reach a new level in their loyalty program.

4. better track and maximize campaign ROI

Measuring the performance of retail campaigns can be more complex. Couponing enables brands to better target their efforts and track their ROI in-store, as each coupon can be encoded in the checkout system.

this marketing strategy is therefore agile and easy to implement than printing and distributing paper coupons. Companies can therefore test different approaches more quickly (triggers for distributing a new coupon, for loyal customers for example, discount amounts, etc.).

After analyzing the results of each A/B testing campaign, companies can adjust their strategy and maximize their results.

5. Increase your customer’s average shopping basket

A survey carried out by LH2 reveals that 67% of French consumers have already added a product to their basket in order to take advantage of a discount. 25% have even postponed a purchase in order to use a discount coupon.

E-couponing is therefore an excellent way to increase the average shopping basket of in-store shoppers (both physical and digital).

6. adopt more ethical maketing

One of the main disadvantages of physical coupons is that they are printed on paper. Even if it is printable (for people who don’t have smartphones, for example), the e-couponing allows you to reduce your brand’s ecological footprint and adopt a more eco-responsible approach.

6. Improve your shopping experience

It’s also a good way to improve the customer experience by avoiding the risk of customers losing or forgetting their discount voucher before going to the store. Coupons can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Companies can even send reminders by SMS, email or via a notification on their app to ensure that consumers dont miss their disocunt deadline.

To achieve these results, however, the company must identify effective levers for distributing its coupons to the right people. It can, for example, rely on its application or loyalty program to achieve loyalty and average basket increase objectives. Gamification and the organization of competitions will be more effective in attracting and converting new prospects.

Marketing games, broadcast on social networks or in the form of pop-ups on your online/in-app store, are excellent levers for spreading an e-couponing campaign. This is particularly true for instant wins, which enable participants to find out immediately whether or not they’ve won a gift (and the nature of the reward).

As part of a web couponing strategy, the brand can even opt for a 100% winning competition. As the name suggests, this mechanism promises all participants the chance to win a prize. The prospect will be able to launch a wheel of fortune or play the one-armed bandit and find out how much your discount will be (-30, 40 or 50%, for example).

Showroomprive & Rituals example

Showroomprivé’s strategy for boosting engagement and sales of the Ritual brand on its app. In this in-app game, participants were invited, through a Flip&Win, to choose their favorite product. After clicking on it, they automatically received a voucher to be used on any order over 45 euros.

In addition to boosting the conversion rate of its campaign and increasing the average shopping basket, this 100% winning game was also an excellent way of collecting customer preference and promoting products.

Conclusion

Launch a 100% winning game with instant win contests to boost your e-couponing strategy and achieve the results your brand has set itself (conversion, loyalty, customer knowledge, etc.) Easily organize your own instant win campaign thanks to our interactive mechanics!

In an increasingly competitive environment, it is becoming more and more difficult for companies to attract and retain new customers. Traditional marketing and advertising methods are no longer as effective, so brands need to think outside the box to stand out from the crowd.

Gamification is an innovative approach to attracting new customers. This strategy involves incorporating playful elements (from the world of video games, for example) into a marketing campaign to capture the attention and engage the audience.

By making the brand experience more fun and interactive, marketing games can help companies win over new consumers. In this article, we share examples and practical advice at 4 different stages of the customer journey:

• Lead generation ;
• Brand awareness ;
• Conversion ;
• Creating a customer account.

SUMMARY

• 1. Generate new leads with marketing games
• 2. Using gamification to develop brand awareness and recall
• 3. Gamification to increase your conversion rate
• 4. Using gamification to boost account creation

Identifying and engaging potential customers is the first step in the sales pipeline of a company. The company needs to determine the audience it wants to reach (i.e. the customers most likely to be interested in what it has to offer) and develop a relevant strategy to attract their attention.

The organisation can use a mix of several marketing levers such as content marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO). Or social media marketing by sharing entertaining content on social networks.

Lead gen will then involve encouraging these prospects to interact with the brand, by giving them an email address to which it can send them personalised emails.The marketing game is a particularly interesting tool for collecting the contact details of new leads. The promise of a reward (such as a discount voucher offered via an instant win) will encourage consumers to fill in a lead generation form.

Which marketing game to use to generate leads?

At this stage in the sales funnel, when the consumer is not yet familiar with the brand, the key is to capture their attention through a simple mechanism that requires little commitment.

The company can therefore bet on a winning moment like a wheel of fortune. Le prospect pourra y accéder après avoir partagé son adresse mail, par exemple. Cette action créera automatiquement un profil de prospect sur la plateforme de gestion de la relation client (CRM) de l’entreprise

The participant will know instantly after launching the game whether they have won a prize or not. By focusing on a prize that encourages people to buy (such as a discount or an attractive prize), it will be easier for the company to convert this new prospect into a customer.

The choice of distribution channel is also important. For lead generation, companies can rely on social networks, which allow them to reach a wider audience. Spreading the campaign on social networks is therefore vital for reaching a large audience. The brand can also give participants the chance to maximise their chances of winning by sharing the marketing game, thereby making the campaign go viral.

To attract new customers, companies also need to raise their profile with their target audience. Gamification is an excellent way of achieving this objective and making your brand more easily recognisable. Marketing games can be used to create a memorable and differentiating brand experience.

Gamification generates commitment by making each piece of marketing content interactive. Prospects can interact with the brand via a fun mechanism which, as well as entertaining them, potentially allows them to unlock advantages or benefits. attractive endowments.

But gamified marketing campaigns are also more effective in terms of receptiveness and memorability of commercial messages. In fact, gamification is already used in a learning context (known as edutainment) because it increases retention of new information.

By transforming the consumer into a player in the marketing game, the company enables them to become more actively involved in the content that she shares with him. This commitment strengthens attention and enables the information shared to be mobilised in concrete situations (such as a memory or a quiz, for example).

Gamification therefore enables marketers to educate and inform people about the brand, its products or services.

Which marketing game to use to boost brand awareness

The Memory is a very popular memory game that involves finding pairs of identical cards from a set of face-down cards. The game is entirely customisable. Companies can therefore use it to promote a new product or service. They can personalise the cards according to their graphic charter and the offers and products they wish to promote, for example. Participants will discover it in a more entertaining way, increasing their memory of its characteristics and advantages.

Another option: the puzzle, which involves reconstructing a brand logo or product image.

The next step is to turn these new prospects into customers Here again, gamification enables companies to increase their conversion rates.

As we have seen, marketing games are highly effective tools for collecting customer data. L’entreprise peut s’en servir non seulement pour obtenir les coordonnées de ses prospects. Mais elle peut aussi mobiliser des formats interactifs (comme the swiper or a form for choosing your favourite product) to identify the preferences of their audience. This customer knowledge will then enable them to retarget their prospects with personalised content that is more likely to convert.

But gamification can also provide prospects with incentives encouraging them to carry out a specific action (in this case, completing a purchase). Through a competition or instant win, the company will give its audience the chance to win discount vouchers or other benefits (such as free delivery). To take advantage of this, participants will be redirected to the company’s website or invited to visit its physical points of sale.

Which marketing game to use to increase your conversion rate

Competitions are a highly effective way of converting new prospects. The brand can offer prizes that are likely to generate a sale (such as a discount or voucher). It can also make these rewards time-limited to generate a sense of urgency that will encourage consumers to take advantage of them before it’s too late.

Finally, gamification can be used to encourage customers to create an account. As with a loyalty programme, the customer account enables the company to strengthen the relationship with the consumer by offering a series of benefits:

• product previews,
• faster, simpler ordering ;
• vouchers after accumulating a certain number of points.

For them, it’s an opportunity to have a direct channel of communication with their customers. Elle pourra par ce biais réactiver ces derniers avec des recommandations de produits personnalisés, des offres exclusives, etc.

In addition to the benefits offered, brands can encourage the creation of customer accounts thanks to a marketing game. To access the interactive animation, participants will need to create an account.

Which marketing game to encourage the creation of a customer account

To boost the creation of customer accounts, the Ouest France media distributed an Advent calendar . Ce format très populaire en période de fêtes de fin d’année a permis à l’entreprise de capter l’attention de plus de 81K personnes. Only participants with an account could access the game and hope to win attractive prizes (holidays, high-tech equipment, vouchers, etc.).

Conclusion

Gamification is therefore a powerful lever for attracting new customers. From lead generation to increasing brand awareness, not forgetting conversion and loyalty, marketing games make it possible to capture and engage your audience. Discover our interactive game mechanics to reach and convert a wider audience.

If you’re looking to raise awareness of your brand while increasing sales and expanding your audience, co-branding is a relevant marketing strategy. Partnerships are an excellent way of reaching a wider audience.

By teaming up strategically with other brands, companies can broaden their commercial offering and capitalise on their partner’s visibility to boost their own brand awareness.

Co-branding has many advantages. But it is important to master this marketing strategy well before taking the plunge, to avoid associating your image with a brand that is not aligned with your values or that does not address a strategic market for your company.

In this article, we share with you some practical tips for increasing your target audience through a co-branding campaign.

SUMMARY

• What is co-branding?
• What are the advantages of co-branding for a company?
• Boosting the effectiveness of a co-branding campaign through gamification
• 4 tips for a successful co-branding campaign

Co-branding, or brand partnership, is a marketing strategy that involves teaming up with another brand to promote or co-create a product or a service. This does not mean simply associating the names of two brands on an item. A co-branding partnership combines the resources, identities and stories of each partner to create an exclusive offering.

Co-branding means sharing resources and expertise, but also sharing your community of clients. The aim is for each partner to benefit from the strategic advantages of the other. This may involve a wider audience in general, or a new market that the company wishes to conquer in particular. But co-branding can also facilitate the transfer of technology and know-how.

Co-branding offers a number of advantages for all the partners involved. This type of partnership enables each player to benefit from the strengths of the other company, particularly in terms of :

• Reaching a wider audience. Brand partnerships enable companies to increase the exposure of their brand to their partner’s customers. A co-branding campaign can be broadcast across both companies’ communication channels (physical and digital).
• Engage a new audience and increase sales. Consumers are more likely to trust recommendations from a brand they know well and have been buying from for several years.
• Boost brand awareness and credibility. Establishing a brand partnership with a recognised player allows the company to strengthen its own credibility not only with its current audience, but also with its target audience. For example, a street-wear brand teaming up with a luxury brand will significantly upgrade its brand image. Its products will be perceived (by its community and high-end customers) as being of higher quality. This could lead to an increase in pricing, and therefore profitability.
• Reduce the risks and costs of a marketing campaign. Developing a new product or service, entering a new market or launching a new activity can be risky for a company. Joining forces with a brand that is already present in this market or that has long experience in this new vertical reduces the commercial risks. All the more so since, as we have seen, this type of partnership involves pooling resources. The companies will therefore be pooling their costs, which reduces the budget they would have to invest in this new project.

The aim of a co-branding campaign is therefore to increase an audience, or even to develop a new audience (with a persona not previously targeted by the company).

This marketing strategy in itself makes it possible to achieve this objective by multiplying the communication channels. Indeed, the campaign can be disseminated by both partners (publication on social networks, emailing, display format on their respective websites or in their physical shops, etc.).

However, partners can boost the effectiveness of their co-branding strategy by making their marketing campaign fun and interactive through gamification.

By integrating interactivity into their co-branding campaign, the two partner brands can more easily capture the attention of their respective communities and engage their customers. The fun mechanics of the game and the chance to win a reward will set them apart from other promotional content.

The marketing game can be used to help people discover the co-created product in a more entertaining way (via a quizIt can also tease its launch and optimise consumer expectations by offering them the chance to win free products via a competition or instant win (scratch cards, one-armed bandit). Le jeu permet aussi de faire gagner un produit de la marque partenaire pour booster la notoriété de celle-ci en s’appuyant sur la première.

Examples of gamified co-branding campaigns

The famous drinks brand Coca Cola is a master of the art of co-branding. The company uses this strategy to develop its audience and increase sales.

For example, it has teamed up with fruit juice brand Capri Sun to convert new customers. Its co-branded game campaign incorporated a proof-of-purchase mechanism into its prize draw form in order to boost its conversion rate and increase sales. In addition to the co-branded aspect of the campaign, the choice of an attractive prize (an iPhone) helped convert more than 5,000 visitors.

Coca-Cola has also developed a co-branding marketing campaign with energy drink brand Monster. Here again, the mechanic used was to upload a proof of purchase to access the game in order to generate more sales. As the two brands’ universes are more similar, this campaign had a participation rate of 75% and over 1,000 visits.

Before embarking on co-branding, it is important to consider the right factors to choose a relevant partner that will enable the brand to achieve its objectives.

• Target markets. The most important thing is to make sure that your target audience and that of the brand with which you are planning to partner overlap. The partnership will not work if the companies are both targeting extremely different audiences or, conversely, if they are too similar.
• Brand image. The personalities and worlds of the two brands must be compatible. The partners must share common and complementary values, at the risk of losing or alienating their community.
• Market needs. A co-branding campaign must also respond, to a certain extent, to a market need. This partnership can enable the brand to address a need of its audience that it has not yet met.
• Adapting the mechanics of your marketing game to the challenges of co-branding. In particular, this means choosing a prize that reflects the two brand universes. It also means announcing the winners on their respective channels, or providing an opt-in for the partner brand, etc.

Once the company has found the right partner, it is crucial to define everyone’s roles and responsibilities in the roll-out of the co-branding campaign. To achieve this, it is important to be able to count on a reliable and transparent partner who will contribute equally to the project.

Conclusion

Gamification is an excellent way of boosting the impact of a co-branding campaign. It will boost your brand’s reputation and its ability to develop a new audience. Discover our interactive competition mechanics to make your campaigns even more engaging and convert these new prospects more effectively!

In-app purchases, i.e. directly from a mobile application, has become a major trend among consumers. They are 74% say they use mobile applications with the main intention of making a purchase. Mobile purchases also accounted for 44% of e-commerce revenues by 2023.

Creating your own mobile application is therefore an excellent way of differentiating yourself from your competitors and attracting an audience that buys mainly or even exclusively via a smartphone. But this new acquisition and loyalty channel means that you need to adapt the shopping journey and offer a unique experience, different from the web and retail.

In this article, we present some practical advice and inspiring examples of how to boost your in-app sales.

SUMMARY

• L’achat in app c’est quoi ?
• How in-app competitions can influence users’ purchasing behaviour
• Tips and examples for boosting in-app purchases through gamification

As the name suggests, in-app purchases are simply transactions carried out via an e-commerce application In the early days of mobile technology, the vast majority of these transactions were purchases of :

• features (such as new filters for a photo editing application);
• or consumables in a mobile video game (such as extra lives or accessories to boost your avatar’s powers).

But with the ever-increasing use of mobile shopping (smartphones and tablets), brands have started to develop their own shopping applications. In-app purchasing offers many advantages for e-commerce companies.

By encouraging consumers to download a dedicated application, they create a much closer relationship with their audience. L’application leur permet en effet d’envoyer à ses clients des SMS, des notifications push, etc.

But above all, it’s an excellent way of creating a much more immersive bubble. With a web browser, it’s much easier for customers to leave the shop, for example to compare the brand’s offer with that of competitors.

Whether in retail, on the web or in mobile marketing, gamification offers brands a wide range of tools for capturing the attention, engaging and retaining the loyalty of consumers. Brands that want to boost in-app purchases can use the mechanics specific to the world of games at every stage of the customer journey.

To boost app downloads and drive buyers to the app

The first challenge for brands looking to boost their in-app sales is quite simply to increase the number of downloads. This can be achieved through a number of different strategies. App-Store Optimization (or ASO), for example, involves optimizing content so that the application is promoted on the dedicated shops (Play Store, App Store, etc.).

Brands can also offer attractive benefits to their prospects or customers to encourage them to buy in app. For example, downloading the app will entitle them to a discount voucher on their first purchase, a selection of exclusive products or lower delivery charges than on the e-commerce shop.

Marketing competitions are also an excellent way of raising awareness of your application and encourage its audience to download it. A winning instant (such as a Wheel of fortune for example) can enable the brand to encourage its customers to make their first in-app purchase. The prize will take the form of a voucher that can only be used on the app.

Building customer loyalty in app

Once the application has been downloaded, the next step is to encourage users to make their first in-app order. As we’ve seen, offering a discount after each new download, which can only be used on the first mobile purchase, is already a good conversion driver.

But the brand can also target other relevant triggers to convince users when they are about to buy. These might include the first product selected or a shopping basket abandonment (the customer leaves the application without purchasing the items they have selected).

For each of these pre-determined actions, the company can automatically send an in-app message or SMS that redirects to a marketing game encouraging the customer to validate their order in exchange for benefits (discount, access to the VIP club, etc.)

Playable marketing is also proving highly effective in retaining new in-app buyers. It allows a game to be shared directly in the application’s purchase path, without any redirection. This is a crucial factor in boosting brand sales. In fact, a study shows that mobile users make 37% more purchases than other customers (e-commerce and retail).

Competitions with a purchase obligation or reserved for loyalty programme members are a good way of encouraging repeat orders. By activating the reward circuit, gamification mechanisms make shoppers want to continue consuming in order to reap new and ever more attractive benefits.

We have just seen that playable marketing is an effective strategy for increasing sales. To achieve its commercial objectives, the brand can draw on the best practices of companies that have succeeded in optimise their mobile marketing.

Using transactional data to personalise the in-app shopping experience

As with any sales channel, personalisation is now a key driver of conversion and loyalty for brands. They need to adapt their purchasing path from the behavioural and transactional data they have on their customers. With this information, they can make more targeted recommendations, present more relevant content, and so on.

Supermarket giant Lidl has understood this perfectly well, and has integrated it into its in-app purchase strategy. The Lidl Plus application enables the company to centralise customer purchasing data. Users can find their till receipts, making it easier to monitor their budget. The brand, for its part, is boosting its in-app purchases by offering discount coupons based on the consumption habits of each customer.

Lidl is going a step further by using this customer data to personalise the gaming experience. Based on in-store purchases, users can access tailored games and rewards. As a result, the application has over 5 million active users and records millions of games played every week.

Offer games with an obligation to buy or accessible based on a volume of points

As we saw a moment ago, Playable marketing is a good way of building customer loyalty, whatever the channel used. Within an application and with the aim of increasing its re-purchase rate, the brand can simply make its interactive experiences accessible only to customers who have have already made an in-app purchase or have accumulated a certain number of loyalty points.

This is the strategy adopted by Coca Cola for its mobile application. To be eligible for attractive prizes (such as tickets to a football match), mobile customers must have accumulated 100 loyalty points.

The same goes for Fuzz Tea, which launched a competition with an obligation to buy. To take part, the brand’s customers had to enter the code shown on their receipt.

Conclusion

Gamification is an effective way of influencing consumer behaviour in a fun and subtle way. Your brand can use this lever to boost the number of downloads of its application and its volume of in-app sales. Find out how Adictiz can help you gamify your in-app journey.