Is your brand looking for new marketing levers to engage and retain its audience? Gamified and interactive campaigns are effective levers for achieving these objectives, particularly when they rely on the interactive mechanics of the winning moment.

This game lets participants know immediately if they’ve won a prize or a gift is just as addictive as it is beneficial for the brands that organise it. They stand out from fake games where participants never win anything (spam, scams).

In this article, we reveal the main advantages that a brand can gain from creating an instant win game online and how to run a successful campaign in 4 steps.

The principle behind instant win games is simple: it’s a game mechanic in which participants know immediately after playing that they have won a prize whether they have won a gift or not. This distinguishes it from another type of marketing game, such as a prize draw, where you have to wait a certain amount of time (usually several days/weeks) before finding out who the big winners are.

The first advantage of this instantaneous aspect is that it makes you want to participatebecause you’ll know immediately whether you’ve won a prize or not. It’s also very simple for the company. The instant win game works by time slots designated as ‘winning’. So all you have to do is enter at the right time to win a gift. And outside these time slots, all participants will lose.

Companies can also opt for a 100% winning mechanism. All they have to do is distribute a promotional code at the end of the operation (even in the losing slots) and offer larger prizes in certain time slots.

Instant win competitions have become increasingly popular because of their immediacy and simplicity. Companies set them up on their social networks or websites to engage their audience, build customer loyalty or promote a new product/service.

The different types of instant win games

The popularity of instant win marketing games is also due to their versatility. It is possible to choose from different game mechanics depending on your target audience and the objectives you want to achieve.

For example :

• Create a wheel of luck (or fortune). This is a must-have instant win game. Participants simply spin the wheel of chance to try and win a gift or promotional code.
• The scratch card game : games of chance such as scratch cards, lotteries, etc. are also excellent instant wins. Participants will immediately know whether or not they have won after scratching an image using the cursor (or their finger for mobile users). Quick and fun, scratch cards can also be used to reveal a new product.
• The slot machine (or one-armed bandit). Inspired by casino games, this instant win allows you to distribute gifts to your audience at random. Once again, you can personalise the signs so that they represent the prize to be won (a promotion, a product, etc.).
• The dice game; very popular in many cultures (where it is known as Yams or 421), the dice game is also a very popular format in gamified marketing.

Instant win competitions offer a number of advantages to the companies that organise them. The first is that their ultra-simple game mechanics allow you to maximise participation and commitment.

The ability to find out immediately whether you’ve won or not encourages members of your community to take part or even share this interactive animation with their friends and family. This makes the marketing game an excellent way of boosting visibility. What’s more, there are plenty of customisation options available, so you can boost brand awareness while enhancing your image.

Creating an instant win competition is also a very effective way of generating leads. Participants can be asked to fill in a form before rolling the dice or the wheel of chance. In this way, the company collects first-party data more easily and can learn more about its audience and consumer habits.

Finally, instant wins are particularly well suited to companies that want to increase their conversion rate or build customer loyalty. By distributing promotional codes to the winners, they can encourage participants to visit their site and place an order.

Shared in a reactivation email, this marketing game can also encourage a customer who hasn’t bought from the brand for a while to discover a new collection, etc. Or simply reward a loyal customer with gifts/promotions.

Creating an instant win game is very simple. However, to ensure the success of an interactive marketing campaign, it’s important to think it through and plan it well. Here are the steps to follow to organise a successful interactive game.

Choose the right game mechanics for your objectives and target audience

For an instant win game to be effective, it is important to clearly define your marketing objectives and target audience. If the aim is to build audience loyalty over the Christmas period, an Advent Calendar-style game will be the most appropriate format.

The target audience you wish to engage is also a very important factor to take into account when choosing the right game mechanics. Some worlds may be more effective with one audience than another. The one-armed bandit, for example, will appeal to a more male audience (even if it is possible to customise his design to appeal to a wider audience).

Choosing the best prizes

The whole attraction of the instant win game is the chance to win an attractive gift. That’s why it’s particularly important to choose the right endowment. Promotional codes are a good idea, especially during frenzied shopping periods like the festive season or Black Friday.

Companies can also boost engagement and maximise conversions from their interactive events by offering exclusive prizes. The prizes in the tech world, for example, are the ones that work best. Ahead of the launch of a new collection, participants can also win items that are not yet available in their online shop.

Define clear conditions for participation

To create a successful instant win, it is also essential to clearly indicate the conditions of participation to avoid any unpleasant surprises for participants. The conditions are generally set out in the entry form. This is another key element in a successful instant win, as it will enable the company to collect relevant data about its audience.

Promote an instant win game

Once the company has created and personalised its instant win game, all that’s left to do is promote it to the public. Social networks, QR codes in shops and banners on the website are all good ideas for raising the profile of the game. Influencers can also be good relays for boosting the participation rate.

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!

According to a Gallup study, only 13% of employees worldwide feel involved in their work. A statistic that underlines the urgent need to improve corporate communication, both internal and external, and human interaction within organisations, particularly by adopting innovative approaches such as gamification.

Traditional methods of corporate communication are now coming up against major challenges. They are no longer adapted to new communication flows, new ways of working (notably with the rise of teleworking) or new consumer expectations of brands. This can lead to a gradual disengagement of its audience, both internally and externally, and thus to a decline in the productivity and attractiveness of organisations.

Gamification offers an effective solution to these challenges. By introducing interactive and playful mechanisms into its corporate communications, the company can better address the expectations of its various stakeholders and strengthen their attachment to the group.

Here are some tips and practical examples of how to use gamification as a tool to transform your corporate communications.

SUMMARY

• What is corporate communication?
• What are the key issues in corporate communications?
• Why use gamification to boost your corporate communications?

Corporate communication encompasses all of an organisation’s communications aimed at both its internal and external stakeholders. It includes marketing campaigns aimed at the company’s customers, as well as exchanges with external partners (suppliers, investors) and, of course, employees/applicants.

Business communication is therefore a major challenge for organisations, enabling them to maintain good relations and transparent communication with all their stakeholders.

The various forms of corporate communication include :

• Public relations: to raise your profile, strengthen your branding or improve your reputation both internally and externally;
• Crisis communication: to manage the problems the company may encounter, reassure its partners and guarantee its future, etc.

Corporate communication is a major challenge for companies. It plays an essential role in all aspects of a company’s business and plays an active part in maintaining its attractiveness and therefore its profitability.

The main challenges in corporate communications include :

• Building and maintaining a solid reputation and a strong brand identity. Corporate communications help shape the way we perceive an organisation. It helps to differentiate a brand from its competitors and therefore to strengthen its credibility with all its stakeholders.

• Improving employee commitment and satisfaction. Internally, corporate communication fosters a good corporate culture. It enables the company to communicate its vision, values and objectives more effectively. It is therefore a good lever for mobilising and motivating your teams and strengthening their attachment to the company.

• Managing crises and change effectively. Corporate communication is essential for managing any crisis or change likely to affect the organisation. Properly orchestrated, it can mitigate the negative impact of problems encountered by the company, reassure customers and mobilise employees to resolve the crisis or adapt smoothly to change.

• Strengthening relationships and partnerships with stakeholders. Finally, corporate communication encourages collaboration with all our partners, from customers to suppliers and, of course, employees. It allows us to share information, but also to better understand their needs and respond to them in a timely and relevant manner.

Gamification, or the introduction of game elements, is an excellent way of boosting corporate communications. The interactive, playful aspect of gamification enables organisations to better capture the attention of their various audiences, engaging them effectively and enhancing their brand image.

Gamification to add power to messages

Companies now have a wide range of channels for communicating with their internal and external stakeholders. They can use email, their website or application, but also social networks to transmit information to their target audiences.

The whole point of the game is to capture consumers’ attention and give these messages greater impact. The interaction and the original way in which the message is conveyed mean that the information is much more strongly and sustainably integrated.

Games also improve message retention, making them more memorable. For example, employees are more likely to remember the organisation’s strategic objectives if they are shared via a playable format such as a Quiz.

The game mechanics can also be used to apply this new knowledge in a fun way (on the ongoing transformation of the organisation or its CSR policy, for example). To do this, the company could offer a Game of Differences, a Memory game or even launch a QWL challenge.

DPD offered its employees a quiz designed to raise awareness of waste reduction. The aim of the operation was to tackle this sensitive subject in a fun and light-hearted way. Thanks to this corporate communication initiative, participants could win prizes (boxes, zero waste kits), reinforcing the commitment to this internal awareness-raising campaign.

Promote the brand to candidates, employees and business partners

Gamification also makes it possible to offer a different kind of corporate communication and therefore to focus the attention of audiences on the company. Gamification offers the ability to make your brand more visible on the market, more attractive, but also more convincing.

Play mechanisms can therefore be used as part of internal training and employee development programmes. They can also be shared with external stakeholders (investors, partners) to promote the company’s innovations. With consumers, gamification can maximise the time spent with the brand (via a sports game, for example) and highlight its initiatives (sports or cultural sponsorship programmes, etc.).

In order to reinforce the feeling of belonging to the brand and to highlight the travel offer, Lidl set up a Tiny Wings in 3 different universes. The campaign enjoyed high levels of engagement, with over 10k games played and an average playing time of 5min 15s.

Boosting stakeholder engagement

For example, animations can be used to encourage stakeholder participation in company events and initiatives. Gamified communication encourages participation in activities and stimulates the involvement and enthusiasm of participants.

Overall, gamification helps to create more playful and positive working environments. It injects pleasure and fun back into daily tasks and makes the activities associated with corporate life more enjoyable and rewarding. By offering attractive prizes, the company also helps its partners to feel valued and motivated.

Lidl asked its employees to create the brand’s next pizza using a voting mechanism. The activation engaged Lidl employees, who generated 21.6k votes throughout the campaign.

Conclusion

Gamification is a powerful way of boosting your corporate communications? Whether you want to communicate with your internal or external stakeholders, marketing games are extremely effective at capturing attention and engaging with your brand. Discover our interactive gamification mechanisms and tailor them to your corporate culture and strategic objectives!