Is your company using gamification? It’s an excellent way to drive your message home and enhance memory retention, so why not use it? Perhaps you need some gamification examples to help you get started.
In that case, you’re exactly where you need to be. I’ve gathered some of the most innovative gamification examples designed to inspire you, so don’t miss it!
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- Customer gamification examples include leaderboards, streaks, points systems, badges, and motivational messages. The point is to keep customers engaged and regularly logging in, ideally every day.
- Using gamification to train employees can help them retain information more efficiently and discover new skills (or strengthen their existing skills).
- These examples prove that gamification is a fantastic way to retain customers and improve loyalty.
Unforgettable Gamification Examples and Ideas
Now that you’ve gazed into the ins and outs of gamification, I bet you’re ready to see those showstopping gamification examples I mentioned before, right? I’ve got you covered.
1. Greenlight
Look, money management is challenging. Most adults would agree with that statement. Now, imagine trying to explain the importance of saving money to a teenager, or even a growing child.
Pfft. Good luck, right?
This doesn’t have to be the boring conversation it once was, thanks to Greenlight. This fintech business simplifies the magic of money management and budgeting through gamification.
Its Greenlight Level Up service is designed to foster money confidence in kids and teenagers. While yes, there’s Greenlight’s world-class curriculum, the reason this personal finance education system works is because it uses gamification.
For example, there are small challenges and minigames that test kiddos on what they’ve learned and how much they know. And, as a name like Level Up would imply, kids do indeed start at a low level and can increase by gaining points.
2. Windows 7 Language Quality Game
This gamification example from Windows 7 shows how long Microsoft has been ahead of the game.
The Windows 7 Language Quality Game, or LQG for short, was an in-team tool developed by Microsoft that used gamification techniques. The point was to get employees on board with checking all the Windows 7 linguistic errors.
How did it work? Offices were allowed to participate and directly compete with one another. Those who found the most errors got rewards. The initiative proved so successful that 4,500 employees participated, even those who didn’t usually get involved in software translation.
Everyone had a great time, and best of all, Windows 7 was more usable out of the gate for the average consumer.
3. Peloton
While riding a bike outside is great because you have the fresh wind in your air, the smells of your environment, and plenty of sights, that’s not the case when riding a stationary bike. If you buy a Peloton, it’s to meet some health or fitness goals, but what if you get…bored?
Then, you’re more likely to stop. That’s why Peloton incorporated gamification elements into its service. Not only does Peloton have a leaderboard for tracking how far you’ve gone and how well you’re outpacing the competition, but it’s also introduced the Lanebreak Bike.
This entirely mobile game for Peloton users tracks your resistance, cadence, and output. You get to choose the difficulty and level you play, earning points along the way. Although you only play by yourself, the goal is to set a high score and try to keep beating it.
It’s such a fun activity that you’ll barely notice you’re working out!
4. Todoist
We’re way past the days of sticky notes for remembering what to get done and when. Sure, you could use your phone notes and notifications…or give Todoist a try. This service is a to-do list and task management app, so you never miss out on anything important again.
Okay, so what does that have to do with gamification? Well, Todoist introduced Karma, a gamification element to using its service. Each time you do something in Todoist, you get Karma points.
You can build up streaks by the day or week, then review how far you’ve come in chart or graph format. You have eight levels to go through, with the highest being Enlightened.
5. Plant Nanny
How many of us drink enough water? It’s tough, right? Even reminder apps can get forgotten if you don’t log into them often enough.
Not with Plant Nanny. This mobile app/game puts you in charge of furnishing plants from the seedling stage all the way to their full, lush final stage. How? You must drink water and input how much you drank into the app.
Each ounce corresponds to a growth level for your plant. When you finish growing one plant, you can add another, then another.
6. Brewdog
The craft beer manufacturer Brewdog is big into saving the planet. Like, so big that they’ve gone carbon negative. That inspired them to spread its Make Earth Great Again campaign through Planet Brewdog.
Now, what is Planet Brewdog, you ask? It’s a carbon-killing initiative/loyalty program that awards guests badges for choosing carbon-negative beer brands like Brewdog.
And it worked! Brewdog increased its email click-through rate by 136 percent, its purchasing frequency by 400 percent, and its order value by 100 percent.
7. Deloitte
Maintaining employee engagement and motivation, especially over the long term, is no easy task. Employees get tired, burnt out, and less productive. Tax service company Deloitte decided to use gamification to keep its employees engaged.
The image above shows what their program looked like. Employees could customize their avatars and then play games that built fundamental on-the-job skills. The games got exponentially more difficult with the goal of elevating one’s ability by as much as 20 percent.
Beyond that, employees could get instant feedback on what they were doing right from wrong, and they were free to try different things in a remote environment without hurting their work performance. No wonder this initiative worked so beautifully.
8. L’Occitane
Body care, skincare, and haircare brand L’Occitane introduced a game called Seeds of Dreams, which is all about green living and sustainability. In a similar vein to Plant Nanny (although not for the same purposes), Seeds of Dreams players could choose a seed of three and then plant it.
Providing sunlight and water to the plant helped it grow, and engaging with the Seeds of Dreams game helped players earn more rewards.
9. Accor Hotels
If you choose the French hospitality brand Accor for your accommodations on your next business trip or vacation, guess what? You can enroll in Accor Live Limitless and begin saving.
Accor has thousands of hotels, all eligible under its rewards program. As many travel brands do with their loyalty programs, Accor customers earn points for each purchase at the hotel. The points translate to money toward your next stay at an Accor hotel, which essentially adds up to a free stay.
This gamification example uses what’s known as the stored value effect. When people begin earning something slowly but can’t cash out on it immediately, it keeps them invested and saving further so they can reap the rewards.
10. NikeFuel
Nike doesn’t need any introduction, but perhaps you’re unfamiliar with its service called NikeFuel. If you owned a FuelBand, a wearable sports watch akin to the Apple Watch, you could have discovered all sorts of insights about yourself and your performance while this was in service.
Relying on biometrics for gathering data, NikeFuel showed you how far along you were getting to achieving whatever fitness goal you have, whether it’s losing three pounds or running five miles.
You could share your progress with others so they could cheer you on (or foster a healthy sense of competition, whatever floats your boat). Also, the service encouraged you to keep going, motivating you to continue toward your goal.
11. Foursquare
The geospatial app Foursquare is another awesome addition to this list of gamification examples. It has always used game elements from when it was founded, and those elements have evolved over the app’s life.
Foursquare rewards its users with badges when they go to different places and check-in. There are city-specific badges, and you can only unlock them by doing a specific task or attending a special event.
Oh, and Foursquare even gives people the right to be Mayor if they check into one place more than any other. Of course, with 10 user levels, even if you can’t be Mayor, you can still get a pretty cool title.
And these titles aren’t just for clout. You can also achieve more functions within Foursquare as you unlock levels.
12. Memrise
When it comes to learning another language, Duolingo gets all the acclaim. And while sure, the company known for its green owl mascot does use a gamification strategy, it’s not the only one. Memrise, another language-learning service, also does it quite effectively!
Like Duolingo, you can build a streak on Memrise to log in regularly. You can also level up, which rewards users with badges and points.
Further, Memrise has a leaderboard where you can see who’s at the top and attain to get there yourself. Who says learning a new language has to feel like a chore when there’s Memrise?
13. Reddit
Ah, Reddit is the social media platform that needs no introduction. According to Exploding Topics, the community-oriented platform has 504.54 million users in 2024. Interestingly, the number was only 447.02 million in 2021.
And why does the number of Reddit users keep going up and up and up? It partly has to do with the gamification elements it uses.
For instance, when Reddit users participate in Subreddits or communities dedicated to a specific topic, they can get karma for posting and interacting, such as downvoting or upvoting content.
That almost makes Reddit leaderboard-like, wouldn’t you say?
14. Jillian Michaels: The Fitness App
When the start of the year comes, approximately 95 percent of resolutions people make for New Year’s are related to fitness. However, about 43 percent of those people will give up on their fitness goals.
And why? It’s tough to fit exercise into your schedule long-term. A lot of us wish we could do it but can’t. This is where Jillian Michaels’ fitness app comes into play.
Do you know how, in video games, you can unlock achievements as you go? This fitness app also has achievements and badges to show how far you’ve gone on your fitness journey. That alone can act as motivation to continue achieving your goals.
15. eBay
Another platform that needs no introduction is eBay. And for a site that’s been around for so long (since 1995), it uses gamification incredibly well. Sellers and buyers can get recognition and rewards for using various eBay features.
Those include leaving positive feedback, shipping orders quickly, paying fast, and of course, winning a bid.
Why Use Gamification?
As the gamification examples from the last section prove, it doesn’t matter what your industry, niche, or specialty is. You can still incorporate gamification elements into your product or service to connect with your audience meaningfully and inventively.
Gamification grants you access to many benefits that ultimately drive more customers and strengthen relationships. Let’s take a look.
Improves engagement
It’s frustrating when your audience becomes disengaged. Gradually, they stop participating in your branded communications, whether that’s partaking in contests, commenting on social media, or even opening your emails.
Their disinterest can eventually translate to slowed purchasing habits. They might stop buying from you altogether.
Gamification is designed to reignite a customer’s interest and keep them hooked. They’ll want to keep logging in and participating to maintain their streak, earn new badges, or hold onto their spot at the top of the leaderboard.
Helps with information retention
Remember the Deloitte example and how practicing skills in a virtual reality environment helped employees perform better at their actual jobs? That’s due to gamification.
About 65 percent of people are visual learners. Gamification elements help them retain knowledge more. If said knowledge relates to your brand, products, and services, you want them to remember everything.
Being more knowledgeable means your leads will soon be ready to make purchasing decisions. Your long-term customers will also feel more willing to buy if you’ve introduced a new product or service and explained it sufficiently through gamification.
Better brand loyalty
When you hook people in with your website or app through gamification elements, and they feel like they’re being appropriately rewarded, they will feel a kinship to your brand. They’re having fun, building a community, and earning freebies or discounts. Of course, they prefer you.
Brand loyalty means your customers are likelier to stick with you through thick and thin. You can also earn more referrals, as loyal customers will gladly discuss your brand with anyone and everyone they meet.
Increases motivation
If you’ve built up a streak for weeks or even months, the last thing you want to do is lose it. The same goes for holding a top spot on the leaderboard. People will feel motivated to continue using your product for its gamification.
With the right marketing messages, that motivation can translate to other things, such as buying products or engaging with your brand through email or social media.
Scratches the competitive itch
Are you competitive? I know I am. And fortunately, gamification is all about fostering that sense of healthy competition. Internally, you can increase productivity as your employees race to see who’s the best.
And your customers? They, too, will want to be on top. They’ll remember your app or service for letting them be healthily competitive and want to return.
Boosts conversion rates
Gamification can teach customers a lot about your product or service in a short time while keeping them hooked. Naturally, after having such an excellent experience, they will want to stick with your brand, so they’ll convert and become active customers.
Tips for Implementing Gamification
You’ve seen examples of gamification and its benefits. Now, you’re ready to harness the power of gamification for your brand or business.
Well, you’re in luck. The following tips will help you build a fun, addictive gamification program to hook new customers and satisfy your existing audience.
Learn about your audience to determine what kinds of rewards they want
Before you push forward with gamification, think twice about what your audience is interested in. For example, if you have primarily older customers, I don’t think leaderboards will resonate much.
You can’t go wrong with the opportunity to earn points that translate to freebies or discounts. That’s always an effective strategy, no matter the age your customers are.
Start with simple gamification elements
You might want to begin reaping the perks of gamification immediately, but if you’re new to it, it’s better to start slow and steady.
I’d recommend introducing a points system first. That’s simple enough to implement, and you can monitor points accumulation to determine if your customers are interested and engaged.
Once you acquire success with your gamification strategies, you can expand your offerings to badges and competition with live leaderboards.
Ask for feedback
Of course, numbers only tell you so much. It would be best to tap into your customer base to discuss how they like your gamification system.
Are they even aware you added badges, achievements, or a points system? If so, are they using these features? Why or why not?
Issuing a quick survey will help you get the answers to these pertinent questions. As the responses begin rolling in, pay attention to the elements of your gamification your customers love the most and the least.
The ones they enjoy the most should be replicated. And as for the elements they most dislike? They need a significant reworking if not an entire overhaul.
Promote it
If your gamification program hasn’t taken off like you had hoped, perhaps it’s due to insufficient promotion. You must get out there on social media, email, and your website to inform people of your new points program or leaderboards.
You could write a brief blog post or create an explainer video that delves into your gamification program, what it’s intended to do, how to join, and how to start earning.
Make it visually appealing
Pay heed to UX/UI when creating your gamification system, whether on an app or your website. If your leaderboard needs to be more cluttered or the interface for tracking points needs to be more attractive, guess what? People won’t bother.
You want to use gamification elements to get your audience hooked on your product or service, so that means designing the gamification so it’s appealing, responsive, and interactive.
Above all, ensure it’s optimized for mobile, especially if you have an app.
Test for bugs
You don’t want to find out after the fact that your customers’ point tallies aren’t adding up correctly or their badges aren’t displaying. These issues are usually completely preventable by testing your gamification elements before they go live.
If your customers discover bugs after the fact that you somehow missed, make sure to prioritize patching them immediately.
Increase the rewards regularly
It’s boring for someone who’s reached the top of the pile after a while. They need a new challenge to reignite their excitement and enthusiasm for your brand. That’s why your rewards system should constantly evolve to make engaging with your brand worthwhile.
Conclusion
Gamification examples run the gamut. While internally, you can use gamification to help employees learn; many businesses focus more on hooking in their customers with the promise of points and goodies.
With so many ways to gamify your customer experience, remember to use your audience preferences as your guide.
FAQs
1. What are the phases of gamification?
Gamification has four phases, starting with discovery. In this research phase, you look inward at your audience or employees to determine how viable gamification is as a strategy.
Next, there’s onboarding, where you introduce the gamification system to your audience. From there, that’s scaffolding, where you build on your initial elements. The last phase is the endgame, where you disengage the gamification element.
2. What’s the difference between gamification and gaming?
Gamification uses gaming elements but isn’t inherently a game in and of itself. For example, a training module could let employees earn badges, but they aren’t playing a video game. The same goes for a system where employees earn points with their stay.
3. What counts as gamification?
Rewards, points, leaderboards, and badges are typical examples of gamification to drive more participation and knowledge.
4. What is a bad gamification example?
Disney once added gamification to its laundry facilities in the form of scoreboards. The employees in charge of doing laundry would see flashing lights in yellow or red when they dropped the pace.
This is a bad example because it shames employees for not working efficiently, which can happen for many reasons (not all related to productivity).
