Playable marketing is an effective strategy to improve customer engagement, collect data and drive brand loyalty. Designing the perfect campaign does require some careful planning - with one of the critical elements for success being to choose the right game type. The right game type will align with your business objectives and motivate your target audience to participate in the campaign.

In this article we will explore the different Playable game types, their entry barriers, and how they can be used in your marketing campaign to achieve your desired outcome.

The best thing you can do to ensure a successful playable campaign is to set measurable goals and objectives. Your objectives could be for example increasing brand loyalty, improving customer engagement on your app, simplifying the customer buying journey, or increasing customer lifetime value. If you need help identifying the right KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

As you define your campaign objectives, keep in mind that your playable campaign is usually a part of an overall marketing campaign, and not a separate entity outside of it.

To help with matching your goals to the right campaign, think about the questions below:

Once you’ve set the strategic objectives of your campaign, you need to think about your audience. Who is playing the game, where are they coming from, and where would you like to redirect them to afterwards? You need to understand their preferences and motivations for playing games. Knowing your audience will also help you select the right game mechanics, rewards, and incentives for your campaign.

For instance, if your target audience for a fashion brand is predominantly female millennials, then a quiz game with fashion-themed questions or a personality test showing personalised product suggestions based on their preferences could be an ideal gamification campaign.

Your choice of type of game should be based on your campaign goals, the experience you want your target audience to have, and the resources you have available for developing the campaign.

Remember, gamification is not just about making your marketing campaign fun, it’s about creating a connection with your customers and achieving your marketing goals.

There are 3 different types of games, which can support different marketing KPIs and goals:

Luck Games, as the name suggests, don’t require any skills or knowledge from the participant. These types of games are perfect for top-funnel activities, where the goal is to create brand awareness and attract as many participants as possible. Because there are very low barriers to entry, participants are more likely to finish the game, which makes it the game category with the highest conversion rate.

Luck games are often used to obtain email, name and marketing permissions. This type of game is particularly good if you have many prizes that motivate players to the next phase in their customer journey with you (such as product samples, free deliveries, short-term subscriptions, or would like to create footfall).

Skill games is a popular game category that requires the player to be highly alert and focused. These games require effort, concentration and strategy in order to succeed. Additionally, skill games are often of increased duration compared to other game categories and often replayed by players thus offering good engagement opportunities for brands.

Skill games can be used as a great way of highlighting a brand’s USP’s as they create an engaging platform where customers can interact with the product/service on an even deeper level. Game mechanics such as challenge, competition and fun are often incorporated into this type of game in order to increase user engagement even further. All of these elements make up for what makes skill games so appealing for users and why it is a great category for businesses to capitalize on when designing marketing campaigns or customer experiences.

Moreover, skill games are more memorable and have a longer lasting effect compared to other types of games. So they are great for brand recognition, building engaging long term relationships and ultimately loyalty.

Knowledge games are all about educating your audience, testing the participant’s knowledge and providing interesting opportunities to learn more – whilst also collecting valuable data of what you want to know about your audience. Knowledge games have the potential to create highly engaging and converting campaigns when done right and targeting the right audience. The data collected from these games can offer valuable insights into user behaviour, enabling brands to target future campaigns in a more effective way.

Knowledge games consist of game mechanics such as challenge, competition or mirroring that encourages users to continue with the game for increased engagement and data collection. Additionally, these games are often used as a means of educating participants about product qualities, brand positioning, company values etc. making it an invaluable tool for successful businesses who want to get their message out in an engaging and memorable way.

Some games require more content development, others require graphical assets, and others work best when you have a lot of prizes to give away. Designing the perfect campaign requires a combination of creativity, game design knowledge, and understanding of marketing goals.

Once you have identified the type of game you want to create, you can browse our game selection and choose the most appropriate one for your requirements. We recommended that you begin with a less complex game, while you familiarize yourself with the platform.

Remember, gamification is not just about making your campaign fun, but also about achieving your marketing goals.

Choosing the right game type that aligns with your business goals, understanding your audience's preferences and motivations for playing games, and developing a well-planned campaign with measurable KPIs are essential for success. By focusing on your marketing goals and using gamification as a tool to enhance your strategy, you can create a memorable and effective campaign that drives results for your business.