M&M’s Eye-Spy Pretzel
In 2010, M&M’s release a new product called Pretzel M&M’s, which were basic M&M’s except they had a chunk of pretzel encased in the chocolate, catering to customers’ sweat and salty cravings. As a part of the pretzel marketing campaign, in 2013, M&M’s released an eye-spy sort of game to boost exposure for the product. Customers were shown a photo of typical M&M’s candies and were tasked with finding one small pretzel somewhere hidden amongst the candy. It was an extremely simple, non-complex game, and only meant to be a small part of the pretzel marketing, however, before long the game blew up and became on of the most successful marketing tools in M&M’s history. Shortly after the game was release, the M&M’s facebook page shot up 25,000 likes, 10,000 comments, and over 6,000 new shares.
The United States Army Game
On the opposite end of the spectrum, The United States Army has also offered an incredibly successful marketing campaign through the use of gamification. America’s Army is the name of a free to download game that was made with the sole purpose to recruit people to join the army. The game offers users a strategic, online-shooter game that is focused on being as realistic as possible and show users if they have what it takes to be in the army. The game rewards players for playing with badges of honor, offering them the same sort of recognition they would receive in the real army. Over time, the game became the US Army’s top method of recruitment, and after the release, the amount of new recruits skyrocketed.
From Sugary Cereal to Scratch-Off Lottery
You may not realize it, but you come in contact with gamification more often than you may think. When thinking of my own experience with it, a number of examples come to mind. As a little kid, I was always excited to go to the grocery store with my parents for one particular reason: the cereal aisle. The cereal aisle is paradise for little kids. It is filled with colorful boxes of sugary deliciousness, and what’s more, is that almost all of these boxes have fun games on the back for you to play, whether it be solving a maze, or completing a word search. Looking back, these cereal brands are clearly using gamification to attract little kids to their products. This strategy is not only for little kids, however. Scratch-off lottery tickets apply games such as bingo or crosswords to attract people to buy them with the alluring hope that they may somehow win large sums of money. Gamification truly is everywhere.
A Great Strategy
When it comes down to it, whether you are selling pretzel M&M’s, or trying to recruit people to join the army, gamification can be used on a wide spectrum to attract customers to your product. Learning to take advantage of this trend could potentially greatly increase your sales or social media exposure, and as a result, become an increasingly beneficial form of marketing.
Written by Nick Giordano
