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Are You A Gamer?

Gaming is no longer considered a niche word or market. The worldwide market for video games is slated to reach an astounding $545.98 billion by 2028 from $203.12 billion in 2020. Over the years, several concerted researches have been conducted to understand the reach of gaming in our society. Studies have also tried to find out the definition of the term “gamer” – by interviewing a range of people who played video games fairly regularly.

The percentage of video game players who identify themselves as gamers remains low

Back in 2015, a study revealed some interesting statistics about video games and gamers. For example, while the percentage of men and women who said that they played games on mobile, PC, or console was almost identical (50% men v/s 48% women), over 60% of all Americans thought people identified as gamers were predominantly male. Also, while 49% of Americans played some form of video games, only 10% considered themselves gamers (15% men, 6% women).

Mid and younger millennials have much more propensity to identify themselves as gamers

When we consider mobile gaming, the number of people who play occasionally or frequently increases to 78.2%. Mobile gaming has all but exploded in recent years, fueled by the incredible accessibility boom of smart devices in developing countries. AdColony’s Modern Mobile Report shows that people born between 1986-1995 are more likely to self-identify themselves as gamers – 22.5% more than Gen Z, and a whopping 63.4% more than older millennials and Gen X counterparts.

A variety of reasons may be behind this. Video games, especially in consoles and PCs, proliferated in the ‘90s and early 2000s – becoming a pop-culture staple. Millennials born around that era were part of that phenomenon. Many among them still consider video games as a hobby – a good pastime.

On the other hand, Gen Z is part of a time when games have been all but normalized into a part of our daily lives. It can be one of the primary reasons why, despite playing mobile games 5% more than their closest millennial age demographic, they are 20% less likely to self-identify as gamers. Similarly, video games’ cultural and socio-economical importance is not as prolific in the older age group, which accounts for their 3/5th less likelihood to call themselves gamers.

Men identify as gamers more than women, in general

There is a large gender-skewing when it comes to people identifying themselves as gamers. More often than not, men identify as gamers more than women. Across the 18-29 age demographic, the difference is much wider, more than 3x – between men (33%) and women (9%) who consider themselves as gamers. As we move towards older age groups, the gap closes significantly. 15% men between 30-49 years of age identify as gamers, compared to 7% women. For ages 50 and older, both men (4%) and women (3%) are equally unlikely to self-identify as gamers.

Self-identified gamers do not belong to a single socioeconomic group:

AdColony’s study also reveals that the population that identifies themselves as gamers comes from various income groups. The top two spots are taken by households with incomes of $250,000 or more per year, closely followed by houses with annual incomes of $50,000 or less. This staggering statistic tells us that gaming is not limited to a single income group in society – instead, it has a universal reach. However, the study discovers a trend in the frequency of games being played in a household and their average annual income. The more income a household has – the more time they invest in playing games, especially mobile games.

Increasing popularity of social games – especially puzzles and word games is propelling more people to play video games regularly:

Puzzle and word games have brought more people together in the virtual world than most AAA titles. These games are often devoid of any learning curve, can be played on virtually any device, and require little to no system prowess to run. Simple, fun, and varied enough to be engaging – trivia, puzzle, word games continue to dominate the charts on all platforms. Games like PeopleFun and WordScapes have also attracted more people, especially from the older age demographic, to play more frequently.

Conclusion:

Self-identification is often disregarded by scientists while they collate their data to research the effects of gaming. Nebraska-based sociologist Lisa Kort-Butler has done extensive analysis into the reasons why many, despite playing video games quite regularly, are not eager to identify themselves as gamers. “Persisting, pejorative stereotypes surrounding the physical, social and mental wellbeing of those who game“ is often the culprit behind such low numbers, says Kort-Butler. In addition, the lack of a concrete set of characteristics makes someone a ‘gamer,’ and the picture gets even murkier. Lastly, the evolution of video games to an everyday staple and the biggest industry in the world has also diluted the need for people to self-identify themselves as purveyors of something niche.

Whether you self-identify as a gamer should not matter if you love and continue to play video games – be it on PC, consoles, or mobile devices. Video games have emerged as one of the great social equalizers in recent years, prompting more people to accept them in their daily lives, minus the stigma of being called a gamer.

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Why Do People Love Mobile Games?

Increased accessibility of smart devices, especially smartphones – have all but propelled mobile gaming into the stratosphere. Mobile games were downloaded 80 billion times in 2020 – an 18% increase YoY. The overall market for mobile games is predicted to reach a staggering $218.7 billion by 2024, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.7%. 2.8 Billion people worldwide play mobile games currently, far outnumbering those who prefer playing on PC or consoles.

The immense popularity of mobile games has not only expanded the boundaries of traditional game genres, but it has also caused many old favorites to reemerge – more polished and better performing than ever. In addition, several PC or console-only games have also successfully transitioned into mobile platforms, bringing their AAA experience on smaller screens.

Why do people play mobile games?

Much research has gone into understanding what prompts people to play mobile games and come back for more. For example, 59% of participants in a recent study said that playing mobile games made them feel relaxed. This number is double that of social apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The study also revealed why most mobile gaming users were significantly happier than visiting social sites.

Most users say that they love mobile games because:

  • Mobile gaming makes them feel relaxed, so they return to it to relieve stress.
  • Games on mobile are a good way to pass the time while waiting for other activities.
  • In addition, many people use mobile games to connect with other players socially.
  • The ever-evolving challenges in mobile games make people feel accomplished when they beat a certain level or complete a milestone. Shareable achievements and leaderboards have further enhanced this feeling of instant gratification.
  • Mobile games are continually adding content, so casual users are more likely to come back in hopes of new experiences. 
  • Most importantly, mobile games grant users a hyper-accessible portal into an immersive, virtual world. As a result, 38% of users said that the content in mobile gaming made them feel interested.

What has made mobile gaming so popular?

NewZoo predicts that the gaming revenue from mobile platforms will reach $90.7 billion in 2021, with a 4.4% YoY increase. This now accounts for over 50% of the total gaming market worldwide. A decade of double-digit growth for the mobile games market has been fueled by various technological and socioeconomic trends, including:

Cutting-edge mobile technology has become affordable:

The past decade has seen an astronomical leap in mobile technology. Things like 4G/LTE, the latest Wifi standards, and faster, more efficient mobile hardware development have all made their way from the flagship devices to affordable smartphones and tablets. Generational performance and durability improvements brought by these advancements, in turn, have made mobile gaming accessible to previously untapped markets and demographics.

Increased virtual presence and a mobile-driven market:

Especially in the past couple of years, there has been an increasing trend of moving from bulky software to lightweight mobile apps for everything we need – finances, work, food delivery, and even stargazing. No other industry has benefited more from this than Mobile gaming. The mobile-driven market has forced developers to create more engaging and content-rich games for their customers. The availability of this diverse array of content has boosted the mobile gaming user base significantly.

Easy accessibility and portability:

Mobile gaming wins hands down in its accessibility and portability. You can play games on a mobile practically anywhere – a distinction that consoles and PCs do not have. In addition, most mobile games these days are platform-agnostic. So it doesn’t matter whether your smart device runs Android or iOS – you get the same experience everywhere.

The rise of hyper-casual gaming:

Hyper-casual gaming has dominated the reasons behind mobile gaming’s adoption as a lifestyle companion. A trend where the user spends a small amount of time daily playing a game with repetitive levels and gameplay mechanics is often termed hyper-casual. Here, the game is addictive, and the difficulty between each level only changes mildly – so that the user is hooked yet not deterred. Games like Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers, and Temple Run are probably the best examples of hyper-casual games – easy to get into, easy to drop out of, and fun to play.

There’s something for everyone:

Mobile gaming’s rapid proliferation and profitability have caused many traditional game developers to focus on this platform. As a result, the gaming universe in mobile now has the most diverse array of games available for you to choose from. Be it action, strategy, role-playing, puzzle, trivia, word games – if you love a genre, games from it are more likely to exist in mobile platforms than anywhere else. The sheer variety is one of the big reasons mobile gaming continues to rise in popularity.

The revival of classic games in their portable, mobile avatars has increased the overall reach of mobile gaming even more than before. Games like puzzles, board, trivia, and scrabble have been shown to bring in more new users and retain them. In addition, high accessibility fueled by available (4G/LTE) and emerging (5G, WiFi 6) technologies, immersive audio-visual experience, and instant gratification have given rise to the trend of hyper-casual mobile gaming. With the world’s smartphone users projected to reach 4.5 billion in 2024, mobile gaming’s upward trajectory is all set for another round of victory lap.

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What Gamification Is Not



There is plenty of information out there to answer “What is Gamification?” However, given that it has become quite a buzzword among digital marketers and software developers, it is important to get our facts right. 

To gain a reasonable understanding of gamification, it might be helpful to demystify it by exploring common misconceptions related to it. 

What Gamification is Not

  • Myth 1: Gamification is the same as a game

Debunked: It is a common mistake to believe that gamification basically means to turn boring interactions (online courses, orientation, upskilling journeys, etc.) into actual games.

Games are meant to simply entertain the gamer. However, to gamify something is not just to make it fun, but also tap into deppers human instincts – competition, seeking reward, thriving under pressure, thriving off anticipation, etc. Gamified marketing seeks to leverage these core instincts, and enable people to learn something new, change their perspectives, introduce new ideas. Educators and course-designers often use the tactics of gamification marketing to make educational information more engaging and memorable.

  • Myth 2: Gamification is suited only for younger, immature audiences

Debunked: Because of its association with gaming, gamification may be perceived as a strategy that appeals only to younger users – something that would lose appeal with age. A simple look at the fact that there are billions of gamers across the world, crossing multiple demographics, will reveal how inaccurate that assumption is.

There is a reason gamification is becoming a fixture in different spheres – software development, education, marketing, banking, science and all realms of innovation. The mechanics and dynamics underlying games move way beyond games – video, board or otherwise. Humans have a fundamental understanding and attraction towards reward, progress, status, conquest, goal-meeting and competition. Gamification initiatives tap into those key impulses to get desired results and reactions from participants and respondents.

  • Myth 3: Gamification is unsupported by research or fact

Debunked: Have a look at Brian Burke’s “Gamify: How gamification motivates people to do extraordinary things”. It analyzes and explains three core values that drive successful gamification ventures , the values being Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

With these motivations in place, external rewards actually take a backseat. Campaigns structured to leverage these values trigger much deeper needs such as self-esteem building and social validation.

Now. consider the PERMA model hypothesised by psychologist Martin Seligman.It explored the vagaries of positive and negative psychological states, and how they impacted a person’s opinion of the same topic.

Good gamification models are able to utilize the five priorities highlighted by the PERMA model, and find ways to satisfy humans’ intrinsic desires. With Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishments (PERMA) in place, there is very little chance a gamified model can fail to engage and inspire participants.

  • Myth 4: A little bit of gamification will fix engagement issues

Debunked: Gamification is not magic pixie dust. Just adding a few batches and rewards will not make something a gamified campaign. Game mechanism, unsupported by information about the psychology of target audiences, is largely useless and a drain on the marketing budget.

A compelling gamified experience requires a deeper understanding of the science behind it – as detailed in the previous point. Game artifacts (badges, points, levels) are not the experience, they are simply elements that must be placed right to elicit required results.

So if  you are looking to pursue gamified marketing, ensure that you understand the human impulses to appeal to. You must also have a solid experience to lead audiences to (the actual product). All the game mechanics in the world cannot save a faulty or irrelevant product from being a failure. 

  • Myth 5: External rewards can create sustained motivation


Debunked: Turns out, sometimes external rewards can actually reduce a person’s intrinsic motivation to do something. Gamification strategies cannot simply depend on rewards to elicit positive ROI. There’s much more to focus on – generating anticipation, creating competition, actually making respondents feel like they have surmounted obstacles to get to the prize.

Humans want much more than an easy win. They want to feel like they have achieved something, and that they actually deserve what they have won. Gamified marketing, courses or campaigns must take this into account. Create a little friendly friction to keep participants on their toes. Don’t make it an obvious victory, give them something to work for.

Without hitting the right triggers, participants will quickly lose interest even with rewards in place. This is why it is important to do some research into the science supporting gamification, and figure out exactly what makes it work.


Identifying the common misconceptions and myths associated with gamification helps you see past the fake news, and get to the heart of the matter. By knowing what is true about gamification, you can make an informed decision about whether this particular approach makes sense for your specific organizational requirements. The success of gamification is well-documented by now, and knowing why is the first step towards replicating that success for yourself.








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Using Branded Games for Content Marketing

Gamified content helped car manufacturing giants Ford Motors to increase their revenue by $8million and generate 600% more likes on Facebook.

Verizon’s decision to gamify it’s website resulted in 30% more logins among its user base. The campaign was highly successful, with nearly 50% of Verizon’s 108 million subscribers participating in the games.

Content Marketing – What Is It?

Content Marketing, like its name, is a marketing approach that relies solely on content and its ability to engage and retain users. Instead of traditional ways of pitching your product to a user base, you use sensory material to attract and retain customers as a content marketer. These mediums can be images, videos, games, blogs, printed material, etc. In addition, shareable and interactive content takes this form of marketing even further, beyond conventional demographics.

Content Marketing Institute defines it more elaborately – “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content Marketing has been born out of the need to engage customers more effectively and at the higher cost of traditional marketing. Recent improvements in technology have created fierce competition in the realms of custom content-based marketing. While traditional content marketing generates about 300% more leads while being 62% cheaper, market leaders have already moved to the next step : gamification. Leveraging gaming principles in content marketing, organizations have reduced banner blindness, attracted and retained more users, and dramatically increased their brand value. Branded games have increased brand recognition for a lot of small, medium, and large organizations worldwide.

As a business leader, wondering how your content-based marketing can benefit from these branded games? Here are two examples for you to consider:

How Can Branded Games Increase Your Content Marketing Potential?

Branded games can spruce up your content marketing potential in many tangible ways, gathering about their interaction patterns much easier. User data collected can be used to customize your product further to suit your user base.

Some Examples of Content Marketing Gamification:

Many of the world’s most successful and unique marketing campaigns have included gaming principles to differentiate them from their competition. Some of them include:

  • American fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle released a memory-based game, “A Love Story”, in 2016. Intended to be a follow-up after their animated short film of the same name, this game was immensely popular. Not only this, Chipotle also rewarded participants with an online-only buy-one-get-one-free entree offer that players could cash in at any Chipotle outlet in the U.S. or Canada.
  • In 2010, M&M’s Eye-Spy Pretzel game, released on Facebook, gathered 25,000+ likes, 6,000 shares and 10,000 comments. This low-cost, gamified content marketing campaign was created in tandem with the release of their pretzel-flavored candy.

The phenomenal, almost absurd success of Netflix’s Squid Game has taught us many lessons about content marketing. Effectively utilizing social media platforms like TikTok is not enough – creating custom, gamified content across the webspace is essential for your product to stand apart from others. The most successful marketing campaigns of recent years contained some form of gamified content – Starbucks’ Rewards Program is perhaps the best example. Even Google had to give in to the lure of gaming-centric content marketing in Chrome every time it showed you that a website was down. Creating your branded game creates a fun and engaging way for users to interact with your product and creates better word-of-mouth marketing for your brand. 

The question has shifted from if to when is gaming-based content marketing taking over the world – are you all in?Some of the most important ones are:

  • Increased User Engagement:

The biggest and most immediate effect of gamification in content marketing is better user engagement. Games have a universal appeal, and using their principles in your marketing material lessens the chances of banner blindness – a situation where users idly scroll through banner-style marketing content. In addition, gaming-based marketing is interactive, which makes users engage with the material and participate more.

  • Better User Retention:

Gamification in your content marketing campaign rewards users when they complete milestones, or at times even for participating. This instant gratification converts users into customers. Rewards are also seen as a thank-you gesture from your business to your customers, making them stick to your product for longer terms.

  • Improved Brand Awareness and Loyalty:

Branded games not only create awareness for your brand, the overall transcendence of games beyond certain age groups makes the reach much more comprehensive. In addition, well-rounded gamification campaigns deliver your messages to a larger audience – an essential first step towards building brand loyalty.

  • Better Customer Relationship:

Better user engagement and retention improve customer relationships when you use gamification in your content marketing. Your marketing campaign incorporates badges, leaderboards, reward points, and loyalty bonuses to create a sense of bonding between your customer and your product. The more they use certain features, the more milestones they cross and the more rewards they unlock. This cycle ensures long-term relationships are created and maintained.

  • Useful Data Gathering and Customization:

Gaming content is relevant, accessible, engaging, and shareable. Leveraging games in your marketing campaign can significantly increase user participation and make data gathering about their interaction patterns much easier. User data collected can be used to customize your product further to suit your user base.

Some Examples of Content Marketing Gamification:

Many of the world’s most successful and unique marketing campaigns have included gaming principles to differentiate them from their competition. Some of them include:

  • American fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle released a memory-based game, “A Love Story”, in 2016. Intended to be a follow-up after their animated short film of the same name, this game was immensely popular. Not only this, Chipotle also rewarded participants with an online-only buy-one-get-one-free entree offer that players could cash in at any Chipotle outlet in the U.S. or Canada.
  • In 2010, M&M’s Eye-Spy Pretzel game, released on Facebook, gathered 25,000+ likes, 6,000 shares and 10,000 comments. This low-cost, gamified content marketing campaign was created in tandem with the release of their pretzel-flavored candy.

The phenomenal, almost absurd success of Netflix’s Squid Game has taught us many lessons about content marketing. Effectively utilizing social media platforms like TikTok is not enough – creating custom, gamified content across the webspace is essential for your product to stand apart from others. The most successful marketing campaigns of recent years contained some form of gamified content – Starbucks’ Rewards Program is perhaps the best example. Even Google had to give in to the lure of gaming-centric content marketing in Chrome every time it showed you that a website was down. Creating your branded game creates a fun and engaging way for users to interact with your product and creates better word-of-mouth marketing for your brand. 

The question has shifted from if to when is gaming-based content marketing taking over the world – are you all in?

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How Gamification Can Boost App Sales

The mobile app market is booming. The skyrocketing number of smartphone users has propelled most marketing, innovation, and cutting-edge technologies to focus on the mobile sector. As a result, 2.5 million Android apps, 1.8 million iOS apps, and another 1.2 million apps between Amazon and Windows stores are used by roughly 5.5 billion smartphone users. With so many apps vying for attention, gamification can grant your app the edge it needs to stand out. Not only are techniques like gamification marketing powerful user attraction and retention tools – should you choose to gamify your app, gamification can also drive your sales through the roof. 

Many organizations have utilized gamifying techniques in the past as game-changers in their respective sectors. For example, airline companies (Delta), popular hotels (Hilton, Marriott), and large beverage chains like Starbucks leveraged gamification strategies to boost their app sales. You can, too – here’s why you should give it a try.

What is Gamification After All?

Gamification, explained in the simplest of terms, is the process of incentivizing user actions as a method of engagement. The name itself comes from games, since this is one of the popular techniques used by games as an engagement hook. Nick Pelling, a British game designer ,and programmer, used the term gamification first in 2002 while trying to develop a game-like interface for ATM and vending machines.

Gamification techniques use gaming principles to transform non-gaming, day-to-day business tasks into user-centric, rewards, and milestones-based activities.

How Can You Use Gamification as a Tour-De-Force in Boosting Your App Sales?

As a product or platform owner for your mobile app, you must have already faced the common hurdles in your business. Cart abandonment and customer loyalty continue to dominate the nightmare list of app-based sales platforms. Here’s how adopting gamified marketing and other gamification techniques can help your app sales blow past these pitfalls:

Avoid Customers Abandoning Carts: 

Cart abandonment is the single biggest problem for E-commerce businesses today. Customers impulsively selecting a bevy of items to buy from an e-commerce platform and then not buying it instantly costs these organizations an astonishing $18 Billion in lost sales revenue each year.

Gamifying the product browsing and checkout experiences can help alleviate this problem. While offering rewards and purchases can further encourage the users, many organizations strategically incentivize the bigger discounts behind gamified walls like countdown times, spin-the-wheels, or even scratch cards. This sense of urgency and excitement is often instrumental in users inclining more towards completing their purchase.

Increasing Customer Loyalty:

Gamification techniques often break non-gaming tasks into several milestones and incentivize each milestone. Users can use these complete-a-step-to-get-prizes mechanisms, dubbed ‘loyalty point systems’, to collect badges, points, rewards, and discounts. Leaderboards brew a sense of competition and social collaboration among customers. Some companies even allow loyalty points to be spent on charitable causes. Increased engagement of gamified apps causes more customers to come back to them, boosting app sales.

Better Customer Engagement and Retention:

By far, the biggest plus side to gamifying your app is increased focus on users and better customer engagement. Utilizing game elements, especially a point-based system that rewards customers for completing tasks – such as adding items in the cart, placing orders, referrals. Gamified apps encourage a sense of achievement in their user base. This results in better user retention. In addition, leaderboards are a clever way to introduce healthy competition between your customers that drive sales figures up. 

More Long-Term Relationships with Your Customers:

Offering prizes and rewards to your customers while they shop using your app also shows a form of gratitude towards them – further bolstering their relationship with your platform. Instant gratifications granted by gamified steps like spin-to-win, lotteries, scratch cards help your customers resonate with your app better. Long-term customer relationships thus created result in better app sales.

Better Branding and Product Recommendations:

Gamified marketing can create the buzz you need about your app and the products you sell via your app as an e-commerce platform owner. Many top gamified apps have utilized product quizzes, trivia, and mini-games as effective user engagement strategies. These techniques have boosted the brand identity; they also helped collect essential customer data and create a more personalized experience.

Together with gamifying your business tasks, gamification marketing can be a major motivator to drive your app sales. Leveraging the power of popular gamification techniques, you can take your business to the next level as a marketer, product, or platform owner. Gamifying techniques like spin-to-win, loyalty points, and trivia increase user engagement and retention, promoting sales. Software giant Autodesk had tested the power of gamification in an exercise that ended up being a tremendous success – with a 54% increase in trial usage and 15% increased clicks on ‘buy’ links.

The industry as a whole has shifted towards mobile, and the competition has gotten more fierce in recent years. Gamifying your app can become the unique step that puts you ahead of the competition, boosting app sales and revenue that you can further invest in research, development or expansion.

Don’t forget to check out our video below for more info on what else happens when you gamify your app with Goama!

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Why Opt for a White Label Solution to Create Your Own Game?

From gamification marketing to learning and healthcare solutions, using the user-centric concepts of games into non-gaming, day-to-day activities are gaining traction nowadays. To gamify different aspects of their business, organizations are often turning to white label solutions. But why would you want to follow suit and leverage white label platforms to build a highly customized, gamified app for your purpose? Read this article to find out.

What is a White Label Platform or Solution?

Any solution, product or platform created by an organization to sell or lease it to its customers who can then rebrand it for their purpose can be termed white label. However, keep in mind that the company that makes this product remains responsible for any support and troubleshooting.

A simple example of white label products would be the stuff you see in a supermarket sold as their in-home-brand moniker. These are often made by third-party vendors and branded by the supermarket chain to look like their own.

Why Building a Gamified Solution for Your Business from Scratch Might Not be the Smartest Idea:

Many entrepreneurs or start-up owners might take it upon themselves to design or create the perfect solution to gamify their processes. Unfortunately, while the approach is commendable, this try-to-do-yourself solution has many pitfalls, including:

Trying to build a solution similar to others already present in the market is akin to reinventing the wheel – something that causes a lot of wasted effort, cost and time.

Gamification marketing and gamifying other processes are still niche and may require your organization to step out of its core competencies to develop. The increased learning curve also lengthens the time-to-market of your gamified app or solution, negatively affecting your business.

Going out of your comfort zone also means you miss out on already available expertise in the market while developing a focused, gamified solution.

Last but not least, learning new technologies and developing highly customized solutions that gamify your non-gaming standard business processes cost significantly more than using an already available white label solution.

Benefits of Using a White Label Solution While Gamifying Your Business:

White label solutions by their generic, rebrand-able and re-sellable artefacts come with many benefits. 

Quick n’ Easy branding: White label products are often offered as fully integrated suites and ready-made solutions. This makes branding them to your business very easy. You do not need to develop or modify code to ensure your branding and identity is present across your gamified marketing campaign or app. This saves you both time and money that you would spend on research and development otherwise.

Saves time and money: Developing a customized gamified solution from scratch for your business is financial, human capital, and time intensive. While many organizations prefer to build their own products, the time to architect, design, build and test the solution can take a significant amount of time and cost a lot of money. 

Especially if you are looking for faster time-to-market, white label solutions are invaluable. They rid you of the complexities of building and maintaining a product, and are more cost effective, both to buy and in long-term ownership.

Retain your focus on the core competency of your business: More often than not, investing in research and development to gamify your business may fall outside your areas of expertise. It bodes well to pay heed early to compare the gamified solution you need – be it in marketing or to gamify your learning – to the competencies of your available resources to understand the level of time, effort and cost required. 

On the contrary, white label solutions are built by companies with strong expertise in that field. Leveraging one of these solutions lets you avoid similar pitfalls that others have made earlier and use a trusted, stable platform. Moreover, troubleshooting, support and maintenance headaches are also offloaded from your org to the supplier org.

Happier Customers: When it comes to deploying your gamified solution – speed is the name of the game. The more delay you make to deliver your product, the more chances there are that your customers may end up looking elsewhere. On an average, gamification creates 6x more new business users for a business. If you want to tap into this potential, prepackaged white label solutions grant much faster time-to-market for your business, even with your org-specific customizations.

More and more companies are taking advantage of the universal appeal of games to implement their mechanics into their daily processes. For example, Starbucks and Deloitte have all but pioneered the modern gamification bandwagon, with the former redefining marketing via their gamified rewards and the latter introducing gamified learning. White label solutions not only take away the pain of developing a gamification solution for your business, but they also are easier to own or leverage. Moreover, white label gamification platforms cost significantly less and have a faster time-to-market, making them a win-win across all accounts.

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What Squid Game Can Tell You About Gaming and Life


According to Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos, “There’s a show on Netflix right now that is the number one in the world. Like, everywhere in the world. It’s called ‘Squid Game,’”.

Sarandos is not exaggerating. Squid Game is Netflix’s most-watched series to date. At this point, to call it a viral sensation is actually an understatement. Unsurprisingly, this series about a deadly game has resonated with viewers because of exaggerated and fantastic metaphors for particular life experiences. Additionally, the fact that it exploded in popularity despite very little marketing also gives us a little insight into how things really work in the real world. 

So what does this show about a game (that we hope no one ever has to play) tell us about gaming and life? 

Let’s find out. 

Lesson 1: If people like something enough, you won’t have to spend on marketing

When compared with other popular shows, Squid Game has virtually no real marketing support beyond Asia before appearing on Netflix. And yet, it has become an entertainment icon. Word of mouth was more than enough to make it a wild success.

When designing your product, be it an app, website or even a consumable product, keep this in mind. Focus on making the customer happy, and the marketing will take care of itself. A large part of Squid Game’s popularity was generated by the memes that cropped up after it appeared on the platform. People loved it so much they just had to spread the love. And said love spread all the way until it turned the show into a household name.

Turns out, an easy way to get people to like your app/website/campaign is to gamify it. Make it fun for them to engage with what you’re offering, and they will like it enough to spread the word and boost your product’s popularity.

Lesson 2: Think Outside the Box

In the Honeycomb game, players licked the honeycomb so that it became easier to cut with a needle. Sounds like a creative solution? That’s because it is.

In life and especially in gaming, innovation pays off. With users bombarded with content every time they look at their smart device, your product needs to find ways to stand out, distract, enchant and engage. Gamification of apps and websites can contribute to this significantly, given that game elements are designed to provide users with excitement, anticipation, escapism and good ol’ fun.

Lesson 3: Your weakness can help you winn

In the tug-of-war contest, each competitor was assigned a role based on their strength. The losing team had 10 strong men while the winning team hada, among others, three women and an elderly man. So how did they win?

They took advantage of their opponents’ underestimation of them. The 10 strong men did not expect that the other team would be a challenge, and this notion is what caused their defeat.

In life, do exactly the same. If someone underestimates you, use it to up your games and achieve a surprising victory. Winning is always easier and more satisfactory when no one expects you to win.

Lesson 4: You can finish last and still win

Think of the Glass Bridge game. It was only possible to win it after watching how everyone else played, and avoiding their mistakes. This is a valuable lesson for life.

When it comes to life and gaming, watch those who come before you. They might be racing ahead at the moment, but if they make mistakes and endure failures, you will have the advantage of knowing what went wrong, and avoiding those mistakes.

For example, during a gamification project, do the research. Study what your predecessors did, what your competitors are doing and where they may have previously failed. Don’t offer discounts if a certain target audience has been shown to not care about it (such as people in very high income groups), even though gamification manuals use discounts as a major reward.

By not repeating mistakes made by others, you will be saving yourself time, effort, money and other resources. Once you know what doesn’t work, you can focus on what works.

Lesson 5: Slow Down

In the show, whenever anyone is in a hurry to get through the ordeal, they lose or at least, end up regretting that decision. This is just as true of real life.

Don’t rush through anything, especially important decisions and tasks. You’ll end up making mistakes, overlooking significant requirements and providing shoddy results. Real life isn’t fun and games (and neither is the show) which means you’ll have to approach it with a calm, turbulent-free and analytical mind. If you don’t, things don’t usually turn out too well.

Squid Game’s popularity is not just the result of a great script and excellent cinematography. It reflects important issues plaguing human life today (debt, capitalism, economic divide). The struggles of the characters and especially the protagonist ring true for millions of viewers, mainly because Squid Game is quite a treasure house of lessons about the complicated games we must play to live. 

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What is Gamified Marketing?

The term refers to utilizing strategies and components from games within marketing campaigns and instruments. This process seeks to play on fundamental human impulses that seek challenge, accomplishment and rewards, in order to capitalize their attention, interest and hopefully, their purchasing power.

As early as 1896, S&H Green Stamps  sold stamps to retailers who used them to reward loyal customers.The method has stood the test of time, and is probably one of the most effective ways to communicate creatively with potential customers. Unsurprisingly, marketers across industries are ever eager to use gamification-driven techniques to supercharge their campaigns and get the most out of their investments. 


Benefits of Gamified Marketing

Why does Gamified Marketing work? It’s easy to answer this question once you look at the many advantages provided by this phenomenon.

·  Makes things fun: The entire point of a game is to be fun. No game, in all of human history, was played just because it was informative or educational. We come to games for fun.

Gamified Marketing zeroes in on exactly this intent. Human brains are wired to seek out pleasure, fun and rewards – fundamental components of every game. Gamified Marketing makes marketers think of people as purveyors of games, and thus designs campaigns to be as enjoyable as possible.

Above all else, fun is marketable. By making a campaign enjoyable, it has a much higher likelihood of actually cutting through the noise and being seen and heard.


·  Fosters engagement: Given that users actually have to participate with games, they require a level of engagement that cannot be matched by text or video. Furthermore, a game cannot just barge into a user’s feed and try to get their attention. Users actually have to actively play the game, which means that their engagement will be proactive and intentional.

When you gamify marketing campaigns, you interact with people who are focused and looking forward to the next stage in the game. Brands and businesses can display their messages throughout the game to already interested users. They don’t have to worry about people looking away, as they do during TV commercials or skipping intrusive ads before Youtube videos.

Gamification offers people a few moments of stimulating activity, an escape from an otherwise mundane day. By associating a brand with this good feeling, marketers can create positive product and brand awareness – the first step towards inciting an eventual purchase.


·  Wide, multi-generational appeal: The mobile gaming industry alone made 77.2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for 2020. There’s been no sign of any slowdown in 2021.

Additionally, 35.4% of gamers in the US are in their late 20s and early 30s. The 18-24 age group counts for 24.9% and the 35-44 age group counts for 23%. About 80% of smartphone users play games on their phone. 50% of them play for about 1-2 hours each day.  That means people in key spending groups are deeply invested in games, which makes their attention highly desirable for marketing campaigns.

As mentioned before, when playing games, people are engaged in a way they are not when watching video or reading something. They have to constantly participate to progress, which means they are not zoning out. Consequently, brand messaging in games is more likely to be perceived positively and with more attention. This also stands true when you actually gamify the campaign itself.


·  More effective data collection: In the digital realm, data is gold. The more marketers know about their target audience, the more they can appeal to their preferences in order to sell a product.

However, collecting data that actually matters can be difficult if users are not actually interested or engaged with whatever digital avenue they are handling. Therefore, by generating interest through gamification, marketers can inspire users to engage. By building positive brand association through gamification (ideally through some kind of reward), users are more likely to give accurate and useful data, which helps with better understanding them.


·  Increased conversion rates: As users continue to interact with gamified elements of a brand, there is a much higher chance of clicking on or responding to a CTA. Traditional banner ads and other common marketing methods are known for being notoriously ignored. However, creative and interactive gamification strategies give users a real reason to take action. Needless to say, this will improve conversion rates.

Imagine that you are offering a 20% discount on a brand-new product if users take a quick 2-minute quiz about themselves. Users are far likelier to answer those questions, grab that discount and actually use it. So, not only will marketers get information about them, but will also end up making a sale.

To gamify campaigns is to empower them in unique ways. By using techniques that make games endlessly fun and addictively engaging, gamified marketing has the ability to supercharge it’s impact and gain results unimaginable by traditional marketing tactics. 

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5 Ways to Drive Engagement with Gamification

A recent study by Microsoft concluded that the human attention span has dropped to eight seconds – shrinking nearly 25% in just a few years. Keeping users engaged with any content has become quite a difficult task, especially when it comes to digital content. With smartphones or laptops in hand, people have so many options for entertainment or education, that they often switch between them in a matter of seconds. 

To retain user attention, an increasing number of digital avenues (both apps and websites) have resorted to gamification.

In 1998, British professor Matthias Koepp studied how games influence the human brain. He found that as the players progressed through the game and encountered more difficult challenges, their brains released more dopamine

Gamification leverages this instinct in the digital realm. By incorporating elements of online games to an app, developers stand a greater chance of keeping users interested and invested in the app at hand. 

However, gamification must be implemented with a strategic approach. This article will discuss five game mechanisms that should be included into any gamification blueprint in order to improve engagement: 

Gamification and user engagement
Gamification and user engagement

·  Drive action: Motivate users to undertake some kind of action on a regular basis. If individuals actually have to take an action, they are more likely to pay attention to the content of an app. An effective example of driving action would be Facebook’s notifications on memories – older posts from the same dates in past years. By asking users to share older posts, the platform doesn’t just cause them to take action, but also formulate an emotional connection on the basis of nostalgia.
Another example would be how the language learning app Memrise notified users that they are on a rampage for a certain number of days (if they complete daily lessons for those days), and that they shouldn’t stop. This generates a sense of personal accomplishment, and motivates users to keep going back and making progress.


·  Offer rewards with an element of uncertainty: The brain’s reward system is closely linked to dopamine. Neuroscientific studies suggest that a variable rewards system triggers dopamine secretion. Essentially, people’s attention and motivation is commanded not so much by the actual moment of reward/pleasure, but rather the expectation and anticipation of reward.
When you gamify an app, there are multiple ways to leverage this instinct. It could be something as simple as showing the number of unread messages waiting for a user. It could even be displaying how many people viewed a profile (people love to feel seen and heard).
Think of how headlines work these days. Successful articles, like the ones on BuzzFeed, offer a gist of the article with eye-catching, usually long headlines that capture attention and build anticipation. Some examples – This Girl Matched On Tinder With An Olympic Athlete And Here’s What Happened Nextor 19 Things Only Women Who Lift Weights Will Understand. It doesn’t give away the story, but it creates curiosity, and leads people to click and engage.
Essentially, don’t start with offering obvious rewards (badges, points, actual money/products). Try to tease and interest them first. Make them want it.


·  Incentivize user participation: Coding app SoloLearn encourages users to participate by giving them points/XP for every lesson they complete and every exercise they correctly solve. These points can be used to unlock more practice exercises (important for complete beginners). Users can also participate in coding projects/contests where they can display their work, communicate with other coders, and get their names on a leaderboard based on their performance.These elements improve engagement by incentivizing users to keep crossing hurdles and progressing. It gives them a sense of accomplishment, which keeps them coming back to the app to get more of the same feeling.


·  Use visual and sonic appeal: The Duolingo app uses cute animated pictures, videos, gifs and upbeat sounds to help users learn. When you gamify an app, literally make it a game. Engage the eyes, ears and curiosity of your user.
Above all, make it fun. With a million distractions at hand, no one will bother to interact with your content.


·  Utilize existing trends: The Pink Nation app asks shoppers to pick products and decide if they “want” or “need” the clothes in each day’s showcase. Users have to swipe right or left, Tinder-style, to indicate their interest or lack thereof.
In this case, to gamify is to tap into an already popular user action. By now, swiping is a common occurrence in most people’s lives. Incorporating it into a new app brings familiarity and ease to the user journey. Much like Tinder, Pink Nation is easy and fun – essential elements of gamification.


The role of gamification to improve engagement is beyond question at this point. Utilise the ideas here to give your app a greater likelihood of keeping users hooked, interested and fascinated with what you have to offer. 

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Advantages of Using Games as a Marketing Technique

Games have emerged, in recent years, as the dominant app category across all platforms. Their proliferation has led to massive revenue gains. A 2020 study valued the mobile gaming market to a staggering $98 Billion, with a forecast to reach $272 Billion in 2030. Companies have started to gamify their marketing campaigns – though many are still struggling to recognize the incredible potential of gamification marketing. 

Large organizations like Starbucks, Deloitte, and Chipotle have already used gamification in their marketing to reap rich dividends. For example, Starbucks’ gamified rewards program has been a big hit among its customers, while Chipotle promoted its sustainability initiatives via interactive games. With platforms like Goama providing easy-to-use solutions to gamify any app, using the power of gaming to turbocharge your revenues is super easy.

Gamification of an app or gamification marketing has a few benefits that you as an organization should know and leverage, including:

  1. Incredibly High Engagement

People engagement is one of the biggest plus points of marketing gamification. Marketing via interactive games holds the attention of customers almost 3x more on average. In addition, the audiovisual nature of games is an essential factor in engagement and user retention.

  1. Fun Without Using Pop-up Ads

Gaming is fun, and fun is marketable. Interactive games that most gamified marketing techniques utilize focus on the fun quotient to attract potential customers. Gamification marketing also benefits from not being annoying like a traditional pop-up or banner adverts. These conventional methods have caused more adoption worldwide for Ad-Blockers, causing millions of dollars of lost revenue for organizations.

Fun, quality content in a gamification marketing campaign increases brand loyalty as well.

  1. Increased Quality of Content

Games are near the top when it comes to content. In a world where more users are young and tech-savvy, furnishing marketing via interactive games increases the quality of the advertised content. The audiovisual nature of games is an important factor in engagement and user retention.

  1. Platform Independence

Gamified marketing techniques can be applied irrespective of platforms. With users split evenly between mobile platforms like Android and iOS, similar gamification procedures can be replicated to reap dividends. Be it smart devices, laptops, or desktop machines, games are universally accessible. As a result, your marketing campaigns or strategies can be aligned to provide a seamless customer experience everywhere.

  1. Increased Affordability

Traditional marketing budgets can reach an astronomical value depending on the brand’s requirements and reach. However, the linear nature of these marketing techniques means that they are not easy to configure according to changing trends and organizational needs. Platforms like Goama can help keep the costs down by using a pay-what-you-need approach and granular levels of customizability. The cost-measuring controls are driven by analytics, presented in an easy to understand dashboard to clients.

  1. An Interactive Way to Tell the Story of Your Brand

Gamified marketing techniques help tell a brand’s story in a more effective way to its target audience. Interactive games require active participation from the users, making them feel like a part of the story being told. Brand storytelling benefits from gamification marketing’s ‘personal’ approach – and results in piquing more interest about a product or a brand. 

  1. Greater Message Retention

From time to time, an organization may choose to create awareness across its user demography of its goals and commitments. Gamified marketing techniques help achieve a wider reach for these kinds of campaigns. Chipotle’s 2013 environmental marketing campaign is a prime example of this. Gamified marketing led the organization to receive worldwide acclaim for its sustainability message.

  1. Easier Collection of User Data for Analysis


Games that are run by gamified marketing techniques can collect user data via interactive surveys and other methods. User data can be analyzed to attract your products towards demographic needs further. What level of data is collected can be customized, and additional security measures to safeguard the data can be applied.

  1. Wider Market Reach

The multi-generational appeal of games has made marketing through them incredibly effective. According to a recent study, games account for 43% of smartphone usage, something that gamified marketing techniques employ to increase their market reach. A global phenomenon, gaming can help your products reach previously impenetrable markets.

  1. Community-Focused

Successful marketing techniques that employ a gamified approach often cultivate a sense of community across its users. Social, multiplayer games are among the top played gaming categories in the world today. In addition, human-focused design elements in gamified marketing campaigns promote social drive in consumers and better the community outlook of a brand. 

Gamified marketing continues to be a hot trend. A 2019 study by Forbes showed that gamification marketing boosted the registration of new users by 600% every month. Nevertheless, many organizations are still in the dark about the positive results of gamifying their marketing. Intelligent, modern gamification platforms like Goama can help your business grow manifolds, gain new customers, and open newer horizons. Gaming has a universal reach – and teaching the power of games in marketing techniques can make the difference between your business and the competition.

If you want to find out more about how Goama can build a game for you to use as marketing or for branding check out our page here.

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