Game–Based Marketing – Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards Challenges and Contests Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests

Harness the power of games to create extraordinary customer engagement with Game-Based Marketing.

Gamification is revolutionizing the web and mobile apps.

Innovative startups like Foursquare and Swoopo, growth companies like Gilt and Groupon and established brands like United Airlines and Nike all agree: the most powerful way to create and engage a vibrant community is with game mechanics. By leveraging points, levels, badges, challenges, rewards and leaderboards - these innovators are dramatically lowering their customer acquisition costs, increasing engagement and building sustainable, viral communities.

Game-Based Marketing unlocks the design secrets of mega-successful games like Zynga's Farmville, World of Warcraft, Bejeweled and Project Runway to give you the power to create winning game-like experiences on your site/apps. Avoid obvious pitfalls and learn from the masters with key insights, such as:
* Why good leaderboards shouldn't feature the Top 10 players.
* Most games are played as an excuse to socialize, not to achieve.
* Status is worth 10x more than cash to most consumers.
* Badges are not enough: but they are important.
* You don't need to offer real-world prizing to run a blockbuster sweepstakes.

And learn even more:
* How to architect a point system that works
* Designing the funware loop: the basics of points, badges, levels, leaderboards and challenges
* Maximizing the value and impact of badges
* Future-proofing your design
* Challenging users without distraction

Based on the groundbreaking work of game expert and successful entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann, Game-Based Marketing brings together the game mechanics expertise of a decade's worth of research. Driven equally by big companies, startups, 40-year-old men and tween girls, the world is becoming increasingly more fun.

Are you ready to play?

Advertising is dead. You may not realize it, but you and everyone you know engages, possibly unsuspectingly, in some form of a game multitasking as an ingenious marketing device. Game-Based Marketing illustrates the pervasiveness of games today in business marketing, and how to better use them to create an engaged and loyal customer base. Game-Based Marketing will: Explain the growing phenomenon of game-based marketing and how it works Show marketers how to develop games to incorporate into their marketing strategy Share fascinating examples of marketing games already in play including Jigsaw.com; Chase Picks Up The Tab; the iconic McDonalds Monopoly Game that reportedly generates nearly one-hundred million dollars in incremental revenue per year; and United Airlines Mileage Plus where team pint competitions and real-world scavenger hunts for miles accrue millions annually. Provocative and instructive, Game-Based Marketings message is clear: Use the tools in this book to put games in your marketing mix now or youll be out of the game altogether.

Acknowledgements. Forward. Introduction. Chapter One: The Argument for Loyalty. Stickiness is Loyalty. Playing with Loyalty. The Future of Loyalty Frequent Flyer Games. Communities of Influence: Flyertalk. Funware: Putting Fun into Everything. Chase Goes Dutch. The Value of Prizes. Game Mechanics. Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game. Chapter Two: Passive Play. The Incidental Games We Play. Latte Leaders: Status Points and Beyond. Making Points the Point. Point Mechanics The Power of Games to Change the World. Can't Buy Me Love: Choosing Prizes. Games of Chance. Games of Chance and the Law. McDonald's Monopoly Game: A Case Study. The Value of a Prize. Long Term Motivation and Customer Loyalty. Gaming the System. Amazon Reviews: Community Policing at Its Finest. Using Sweepstakes to Fight Gaming. Virtual Points and Prizes. Chapter Six: The Ultimate Funware: Frequent Flyer Programs. Frequent Flyer Programs Take Off. What Business Are Airlines In? Designing the Frequent Flyer MMOG. The Power of Points. Getting There Without Points. Real-World Redemptions: Do They Matter? The Solution is Virtual Goods. But Does Redemption Matter? Levels and Badges in FFPs. Throwing Your Weight Around. Benefits of Status. The Level Error of FFPs. Going Above and Beyond: The Boss Level. Challenges and Contests. Uniteds Team Challenge. Making It Work for You. Chapter Seven: Know Thy Player. Bartle's Player Types. Achievers () Socializers (ª) Explorers («) Killers (¨) The Naïve Player. Competitiveness: The Most Important Motivation? Closing the Gender Gap. Nike+: Early Adopter Advantage. Fahrvergnügen's Failure. The Wrap Up. Chapter Eight: The Future of GamersGeneration G. A Generation Gap. What Makes Generation G Special. The Trends. Smith and Tinker. The Gulf is Real. The Effect of Games: Tetris, Team-Building Getting Employees Into the Game. Front Line Pep Boys. Making the Corporate Personal through Games. Funware at Work Wells Fargo's Stagecoach Island. Playing Together. Chapter Ten: Everyone WinsGames in Your Business. Product Power. Advergames and In-Game Advertising. Pursuing, Engaging and Rewarding CustomersThe Business of Lifestyles. Arming Your Business. First Steps Are the Hardest. Do it for the Children. Funware on the Rise. BIBLIOGRAPHY.