Games are a powerful tool for engaging, raising awareness and training employees. By transforming learning (and the transmission of information) into playful experiences, serious games encourage team motivation and performance.

Discover the benefits of creating serious games for your organisation and the keys to implementing them, turning every challenge into an opportunity for growth.

SUMMARY

• Definition: what are serious games?
  
• What are the objectives of serious games?
  
• How can serious games be integrated into your HR strategy?
  
• 3 tips for creating serious games
  

A serious game is a game designed for purposes other than entertainment. For an HR strategy, it is an interactive tool that uses mechanics to
achieve educational, information or skills management objectives.

Serious games are an engaging way of learning, training and raising awareness
by encouraging interaction and problem-solving. They are used to :

• simulate certain situations (such as an interaction with a difficult customer),
  
• updating skills,
  
• run a prevention campaign
  
• or raise its teams’ awareness of social and environmental causes.
  

The aim of a serious game in the field of human resources (HR) is to develop skills, train and assess employees in a fun and interactive way.

In contrast to traditional training and skills management methods, serious games encourage commitment. Enabling immersive learning while retaining a serious, educational dimension.

These are the objectives that serious games can help to achieve.

1. Skills development
   : Serious games are designed to develop employee skills such as leadership, decision-making, communication and conflict management. By immersing participants in realistic scenarios, the organisation helps them to practise in a safe and caring environment.

2. Improving commitment and motivation.
   The fun aspect makes training attractive, which increases motivation to learn and improve skills. Serious games help to create a dynamic learning experience.
   
3. Skills assessment.
   A serious game can be used as an assessment tool to measure employees’ skills in specific areas. It enables HR to identify employees’ strengths and areas for development.
   
4. Change management.
   Companies can undergo organisational changes
   (mergers, hybrid work organisation, digitalisation, etc.). Serious games help to prepare employees for these transitions by immersing them in these contexts with tools to help them adapt.
   

Gamification and serious games are tools that support companies in their HR strategy. Integrating these playful experiences into various strategic areas, from corporate communication to CSR, not forgetting training.

1. Raising awareness and involving teams in a CSR approach

Gamification and serious games help companies raise employee awareness of sustainability issues
and responsible practices. In a fun way, without making employees feel guilty, by sharing with them the levers of commitment that are anchored in their daily lives.

Internal challenges will be a way of encouraging and rewarding eco-responsible behaviour
(waste reduction, soft mobility, energy savings, etc.). Serious games are used to simulate ecological transition and crisis management scenarios. Employees will be trained to manage these challenges. The company’s values will be passed on to them in a caring way.

Example: DPD offered its employees a Quiz
designed to raise awareness of the need to reduce waste. The aim of the serious game was to tackle this sensitive subject in a fun, low-key way. Thanks to this initiative, participants could win prizes, reinforcing the commitment to this internal awareness-raising campaign.

2. Optimising in-house training and skills management

Serious games are used to train employees in key skills for their role.
Online role-playing games can be used for training in project management, negotiation or public speaking. Employees can learn to work together more effectively in problem-solving scenarios.

The advantage of serious games is that they make it easier to share feedback in real time
and tracking progress. Using a system of points, levels or badges, the organisation can track progress, personalise its support and keep its teams motivated.

Example: Pro BTP has launched an interactive quiz campaign in response to its legal duty of care. This educational tool, which focuses on raising awareness of road safety, was able to effectively engage participants thanks to its game mechanics.

3. Boost your internal communications

HR games can be used to boost internal communication.
This is an effective format for celebrating the organisation’s successes. A system of virtual rewards or leaderboards can be set up for achieving performance targets and participating in internal initiatives.

Serious games can also encourage employees to take part in creative challenges
or to propose innovative solutions. The company can organise
a Survey or set up a Customizer
. These formats help to stimulate creativity and generate new ideas.

Example: At Adictiz, we deployed a Customizer as part of the Pimp Your Cup campaign.
. The aim of this operation was to motivate our employees and
involve them in a joint project
: the creation of a reusable cup. As well as boosting our QWL (Quality of Life at Work) approach and our CSR commitments, this serious game helped to strengthen team cohesion by inviting our talents to work together to create a unique object.

1. Define clear and measurable objectives. Before starting to develop the game, it is essential to define the objectives to be achieved. Whether for training,
   CSR awareness, performance management or internal communication, the game must have a specific purpose.
2. Design an immersive and engaging experience.
   A serious game must be fun and stimulating to capture the attention of users. The company can incorporate storytelling elements to immerse participants in realistic situations.
   
3. Measuring impact and gathering feedback to improve your serious game.
   Once the game has been deployed, it is important to measure its effectiveness in order to improve the experience. The organisation will need to set performance targets and integrate feedback-gathering tools to adjust the game experience. It will also need to add new challenges, revise the pedagogical elements, etc.
   

Conclusion

Serious games, and gamification in general, are powerful levers for making your HR strategy more dynamic. Whether you want to optimise your CSR approach, improve employee training or boost your internal communications,
our HR games will help you make your employees’ experience more immersive and fun.

Online consumer spending grew significantly, reaching 43.1 billion euros, this represents an increase of 12% on the previous year. Given this dynamic, it is essential for companies to attract users to their website or application.

That’s the whole point of drive-to-web strategy : this means finding new channels for engaging and guiding your audiences. In this article, we’ll be focusing on gamification, i.e. integrating fun and interactive elements into your campaigns. We’ll look at how you can use gamification to transform an interaction or advertisement into an engaging and memorable experience.

SUMMARY

• Drive-to-Web: Definition and Challenges
  
• Gamification: a powerful Drive to Web strategy
• Our recommendations for a successful gamified Drive-to-Web campaign

Drive-to-Web refers to marketing strategies aimed at redirecting customers from a physical channel to a virtual one (shop, event, billboard, etc.) to a website or mobile application. The aim is to encourage consumers to continue their online experience, to find out more about the brand, discover its exclusive offers or complete a purchase.

Why is a Drive-to-Web strategy essential?

If Web-to-Store transforms an online shopper’s interest into an in-store visit, Drive-to-Web does the opposite. It converts a physical contact into a digital interaction (and conversion).

The objectives of Drive-to-Web are as follows:

• Strengthening a brand’s digital presence
  by transforming physical visitors into engaged internet users. They can become subscribers to the brand’s Instagram account, have a customer account or place an order online.
• Collect customer data to understand your audience and personalise future campaigns.
• Increase online conversions through offers that encourage purchases on your e-commerce site or app.

Classic Drive-to-Web levers

Retailers have several tools at their disposal to transform IRL (In Real Life) prospects into online customers:

1. In-store QR Codes: Displayed on POS (point of sale) advertising, a till receipt or a product label. They provide access to an online catalogue, exclusive promotions or customer reviews.
2. Interactive terminals : these devices offer the possibility of exploring more products, or even ordering online if an item is out of stock.
3. Offline-to-Online advertising campaigns. Billboard campaigns (in public transport), TV, radio or print ads can include call-to-actions to a website (e.g. “Go to online store for more info”).
4. Connected physical events : brands can organise events during which they encourage participants to interact with their site or app (online competitions, newsletter sign-ups, etc.).
5. Digital loyalty cards. This digital alternative to the physical card encourages customers to create an online account to benefit from advantages.

Why ? Because a game offers an immersive and memorable experience. Here we take a look at how it compares with the other classic Drive-to-Web levers.

1. Boost brand awareness in an engaging way

Compared with QR codes and static ads, a game arouses curiosity and prompts action. A game mechanic like a Jackpot , a Quiz or a Contest boosts brand visibility. It’s also a lever for virality, as it encourages sharing on social networks (and therefore word-of-mouth).

Example: La Roche Posay’s marketing campaign via Showroomprivé was designed to give visibility to the brand’s 4 new serums. At the same time as recruiting new qualified leads with an affinity for the product and the brand. Thanks to an addictive mechanism ( Click&Win), it generated over 42K new visits to the brand’s website.

2. Refine customer knowledge and qualify leads

Unlike traditional advertising, which reaches an audience that is not always qualified, a game enables data to be collected (emails, opt-ins, purchasing preferences and frequency, etc.). Because of their interactive nature, games encourage voluntary interaction that is less intrusive than a lead capture form. Thanks to the insights they gather, brands can qualify their leads, refine their segmentation and personalise their campaigns.

Example:
Its gamified Drive-to-Web campaign enabled La Roche Posay to qualify prospects by offering them the chance to choose their favourite serum at the start of the game. The brand was able to understand the needs of its audience. Thanks to the opt-ins collected, it will be able to carry out retargeting in future campaigns.

3. Boost conversion through greater engagement

Example: Casino used game marketing (a Scratch-off) and the expertise of Adictiz Ads to recruit customers. By offering discount vouchers to be won, the Drive-to-Web operation generated traffic on the site and increased sales.

4. Improve customer loyalty through more targeted communication

Example: Leroy Merlin’s “Renovation” campaign led to the creation of new customer accounts. Each user was qualified using the Swiper, the brand was able to send out offers tailored to the needs of each participant, depending on their renovation project and purchasing intentions (kitchen, bathroom, decorating preferences). The brand was able to send offers tailored to the needs of each participant.

1. Choosing the right game mechanics according to the objective: the type of game must be in line with users’ expectations and the brand’s objectives. An instant win will be ideal for generating leads, while a personality test will facilitate the collection of customer data.
2. Optimise distribution to boost reach. The campaign must be designed to facilitate the redirection of physical leads into digital customers. Paid advertising (social ads and retargeting) will be essential to target the right audiences and follow up prospects who have already interacted with the brand without completing their conversion journey.
3. Simplify the user journey to maximise post-game conversion. An effective game should not be a dead end, but a springboard to conversion. It is therefore important to reduce the number of stages as much as possible and to focus on the immediate rewards, which speed up the act.

Conclusion

A successful Drive-to-Web campaign is based on a strategic choice of format, well thought-out distribution and a fluid user experience. The game becomes a powerful lever for turning every interaction into an opportunity to engage, convert and build loyalty. For powerful interactive campaigns, all you have to do is choose between our marketing game mechanics!

74% of consumers refer to social networks before making a purchase. And 72% of companies have increased their sales and generated more in-store traffic thanks to their Social Media strategy.

Investing in social networks is therefore absolutely essential for brands. Whether to raise brand awareness, reach a wider audience, boost sales or create a community of loyal, committed customers, social media marketing is an ultra-efficient communication channel.

All the more reason to create a relevant Social Media strategy, in which your company will detail the actions it intends to take on social networks. In this article, we’ll take you step-by-step through the process of drawing up this action plan.

SUMMARY

• What is social media marketing?
• Why do companies need a Social Media strategy?
• Steps to follow for an effective Social Media strategy?

Social network marketing involves using platforms like Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) Pinterest or even TikTok to promote your brand to potential customers and sell your products or services.

Social media marketing can take many forms: from the simple act of sharing content on these platforms, to (paid) advertising campaigns or partnerships with influencers (known as influencer marketing). Interaction with platform users (by reposting their publications, replying to their comments, etc.) is also a form of social media marketing.

By social media strategy, we mean the action plan a company creates to plan its efforts on social networks. This involves defining objectives, audience and expectations, as well as developing a content calendar and performance KPIs to measure the achievement of results.

What you need to remember is that social network marketing is a unique acquisition and sales channel. It therefore requires specific expertise, dedicated resources and in-depth tracking and continuous improvement.

This question may seem obvious when you consider that almost all brands have a presence on social networks. But it is nevertheless important to understand the benefits of a good Social Media strategy in order to identify the results that your company can reap from it.

• Increase brand awareness. 53% of consumers say their use of social media has increased over the past two years. It is therefore essential for brands wishing to raise their profile or federate a community of committed customers to communicate via this channel.
• Create a relationship of trust with your audience. Social networks also have a huge impact on the trust that consumers place in businesses, particularly among younger people.
• Increase sales. Beyond the reach of social networks, the content shared on them is extremely effective in converting new customers. The more authentic publications and social selling levers that are gradually being integrated into the platforms make them excellent tools for promoting products and boosting revenues.
• Make it easy to track performance. Social networks integrate tools that make it easier to track key performance indicators. This makes it easier to assess the return on investment of your social media strategy.

Now that we’ve proven the relevance of developing a Social Media strategy, it’s time to take action. To create a precise and effective action plan, it’s important to follow these steps.

1. Establish your brand’s objectives on social networks

As we’ve seen, social networks enable you to reach and engage your prospects at every stage of the sales funnel. But it’s also a complex marketing channel, requiring a great deal of time and resources from companies. So it’s important not to jump in blindly, but rather to target your strategic objectives precisely.

The idea is to focus on one or two objectives that are particularly crucial for the company. If it is just starting up, the main challenge will be to raise awareness and generate new leads. If it is already well established, social networks can be a lever for engagement and loyalty, etc.

Each objective must be linked to precise performance KPI’s, which will enable us to monitor their achievement and adjust the Social Media strategy if necessary.

2. Analyze your audience

To create impactful content on social networks, you need to understand who you’re talking to and what your audience’s expectations are. The best way to do this is to question your audience and collect zero-party customer data (through interactive mechanisms such as polls, for example).

Brands can also benchmark companies in their sector or content creators in their niche. By studying their publications and the interactions they generate with their audience, they’ll have a better understanding of the codes they need to respect to share their own content (the tone to use, the frequency of publication, the most popular formats, etc.).

3. Choose the best channels to invest in

The worst mistake a brand can make when drawing up its Social Media strategy is to be everywhere at once and simply duplicate its content across all these networks. Each platform has its own specific audience and codes. You therefore need to choose the channel that best reaches your target audience, and the content format that best matches your brand image.

4. Plan and diversify your content

With these last elements, the brand can start planning and sharing its content. The aim isn’t to publish as often as possible, even if regularity is crucial to cracking the social network algorithm. Rather, it’s to create truly differentiating content that generates strong emotions in its audience, resonates with their expectations and values, and captures their attention.

Gamification is an excellent lever for making content on social networks more original and engaging. Competitions, for example, are a very popular format on platforms, helping to capture users’ attention (particularly through the promise of an attractive prize).

These campaigns are all the more powerful when backed up by other levers of visibility and engagement specific to social networks. For example, they can be publicized via an advertising campaign or a partnership with an influencer to reach a wider audience.

5. Measure results and adjust your Social Media strategy

The most important KPIs to track on social networks are engagement KPIs. They enable brands to assess the relevance of their content to their audience and the interest it generates.

Depending on the results of its publications and advertising campaigns, the brand can refine its Social Media strategy. Many companies, for example, have learned from experience that the more authentic the content (i.e. the less elaborate and promotional it is), the more engagement it generates.

Conclusion

Boost your Social Media strategy by integrating gamification into your marketing campaigns. Marketing games are highly effective at capturing attention and engaging your audience. To create differentiating interactive experiences, you can choose from a catalog of playable mechanics the one best suited to your strategic objectives. Our team can also take charge of your campaign!

Think about the last time you went shopping, went to the doctor or took a plane…

Although these activities are very different, they have one thing in common : waiting. You’ve probably had to wait at the checkout to pay for your shopping, wait outside a concert hall to see your favourite artist or queue to scan your hand luggage before boarding a plane.

For users, this waiting time is often a test of patience and a waste of time. And yet.., the wait can be transformed into a much more qualitative experience and productive thanks to wait marketing. It can even turn an unpleasant moment into a fun, playful experience thanks to gamification.

In this article, we give you tips on how to improve your customer journey and engage users interactively using wait marketing.

SUMMARY

• What is wait marketing?
• The benefits of wait marketing
• Boost your wait marketing strategy with gamification
• Typical wait marketing scenario and inspiring examples

Wait marketing involves companies capitalising on consumers’ attention at this precise moment to engage them. It can therefore be defined as a non-intrusive communication strategy, and even a timely one, since it takes shape precisely at a time when any form of distraction is welcome.

According to a survey by Pew Research, 77% of people use their smartphone when they are waiting for a call.
53% use their smartphone when queuing, mainly to avoid boredom.

Broadcast a marketing animation in a queue
does not disturb the user by interrupting their activity (as when an advert is broadcast between two stories on social networks, for example). On the contrary, it allows them to distract themselves during a time that is traditionally perceived as boring or unproductive.

The benefits of expectation marketing

Waiting time, in itself, is the ideal time to capture consumers’ attention and make it easier to remember a commercial message. This is the case, for example, with posters in the metro or at bus stops. But by adding a touch of creativity and interactivity to these static formats, brands can turn waiting into an engaging brand experience, and even convert new prospects.

It’s also a way of making the most of areas where consumers spend a lot of time, but which are not traditionally used as communication channels. The queuing space in a physical shop, for example, can be used to highlight products and boost the cross-selling rate. But it does not generally convey an interactive experience with the brand, which would nevertheless be more engaging for the customer.

The non-intrusive aspect of this form of advertising also enables companies to create a closer relationship with consumers. The brand offers them a real experience and enables them to pass a time that was previously considered unpleasant or pointless more quickly. The brand becomes a source of entertainment as well as a commercial organisation promoting its products.

This waiting period is no longer a constraint, but an opportunity. To achieve this, companies can create an interactive experience based on insights customers. The challenge is therefore to understand your audience and how the brand can ensure that they have a good time.

Companies can take advantage of wait marketing to :

• Motivating customers to come to the point of sale;
• Keep customers entertained while they wait and prevent them from abandoning their purchase;
• Reward waiting time with instant wins;
• Collect data on purchasing intentions to personalise the customer journey
• Develop your sales.

Boost your wait marketing strategy with gamification

If the traditional waiting experience is generally considered to be unpleasant by individuals, it is because it is most often considered to be boring or a waste of time. The challenge for companies wishing to take advantage of this moment to engage consumers is mainly about entertaining them.

This is where gamification comes in. This marketing strategy involves offering users playful experiences, incorporating mechanisms traditionally used in the world of games.

Rather than taking advantage of consumers’ attention to broadcast an advertisement, companies can engage them via an interactive and entertaining animation such as :

• An instant win: this format allows the company to liven up a queue while rewarding its customers for their patience. In practical terms, it allows them to instantly win discount vouchers (or other prizes) by playing a game such as the wheel of fortune or the one-armed bandit, for example.
• Action games (like a quiz, a surveya vote or
  a swiper). Ce format interactif permet à l’entreprise de divertir ses clients pendant l’attente. Là encore, elle peut récompenser leur patience en mettant en jeu des lots ou autres avantages. Mais c’est aussi un moyen efficace de collecter des données sur les préférences de son audience et, par exemple, d’analyser leurs intentions d’achat.

With a Playable Marketing solution, companies can capitalise even more effectively on their customers’ expectations. For example, the geolocation function makes it possible to restrict access to the game to customers in the queue.

The CRM connection tool, for its part, makes it possible to exploit the data collected at a point of sale (particularly on purchase intentions) to offer personalised in-store or online support. The brand can then turn this data into a sales opportunity.

In practice, the typical scenario for a wait marketing event will take this form:

1. Drive to store. The customer goes to the shop and finds himself in a queue;
2. Access to the game. They can find out about the game using the posters in the queue and access it using the QR code or URL. The game can also be presented on an interactive terminal.
   
3. Registration. They register using a simplified form and can decide to become opt-in for the brand and its partners.
4. Participation. They can play a game and discover their prize more easily. What’s more, the brand can customise the game to suit a wide range of scenarios.
5. Revelation and gain. Dans le cas d’un instant gagnant, il gagne immédiatement un bon de réduction utilisable en point de vente. Si la marque choisit une mécanique de tirage au sort (qui permet de récompenser les participants après leur visite en magasin), le client peut recevoir sa dotation par email ou SMS. Il peut s’agir là aussi d’un bon d’achat qui l’encouragera à repurchase from the brand.

An example of a marketing campaign to keep people waiting

Auchan supermarkets, for example, have set up a wait marketing campaign in their outlets. To coincide with its end-of-year sales peak, the chain gave away the following for every purchase over €10 in shop a scratch card with a unique code as well as an additional card for loyalty card holders. The campaign attracted almost 183k registrations in 2 weeks and 325K codes were used.

Eurotunnel, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, has capitalised on the expectations of its users to raise its profile and generate new leads. To do this, the company used a one-armed bandit with a registration form, accessible only to holders of a ticket number. This captivating format and the use of
attractive prizes (smartphones and earpods) boosted the participation rate, with a total of 29K games played.

Conclusion

Wait marketing is therefore a profitable strategy for capitalising on customer expectations and taking advantage of the opportunity to engage them through interactive activities. Take advantage of this opportunity to improve your customer experience and strengthen your brand image with
more than 60 gamified formats offered by Adictiz.