The benefits of using games in Communications and Marketing

Increasingly, in company’s communication policies, implementing digital tools is becoming fundamental. It has become essential to know how to offer digital tools which can capture the public’s attention and very quickly generate lots of interest. This is evident as more and more companies are choosing to make their mark through the medium of games.

Integrating games into Communications to stimulate engagement

To begin with, using gamification as a means of communication allows companies to establish a relationship in a scripted style. Companies no longer simply deliver their sales pitch; sharing content about the brand’s attributes and beliefs has become key. With gamification, existing and prospective clients are immersed in an interactive universe.

As the gaming principle has a very positive association, the light tone and playful approach allows the sales pitch to be delivered more subtly than a traditional pitch. The enjoyment of playing amplifies the audience’s temptation and motivation. The desire to win strengthens the emotional engagement far more efficiently than a lengthy email or announcement. Sometimes, simply seeing other people play will make the target audience want to take part in the fun too.

Finally, gamification makes more of an impact and can make messages more memorable due to the educational aspect of the games. The audience better understands and absorbs the brand’s values, vision, mission…The brand can be perceived as more accessible, more transparent and more engaging.

A fun and original approach to communication

Furthermore, gamification aimed at larger audiences is designed to meet multiple communication objectives:

•  Boosting on the company’s image: by offering a game, a brand portrays a friendly, welcoming appearance to the general public. It is absolutely essential nowadays to offer an original experience to the public which affirms the company’s presence, the exact same principle as gamification!
• Amplify the company’s visibility: thanks to the enjoyable aspects, games are very well-suited to creating a buzz and having the potential to go viral. Gamification can therefore boost a company’s visibility.
• Generate some excitement: people talk a lot about the importance of creating a community to support your brand, but the most important part is keeping that community alive and engaged. Putting a marketing activity in place which is based on gamification gives you the opportunity to energise your community, send them new content and entertain them at the same time.

Having a customer base is good, keeping it is even better. Gamification has overthrown the simple loyalty card. It allows you to build a deeper relationship: the client now plays a role in the relationship rather than being passive.

Facilitate internal communications in the company, too

Games may be an opportunity to communicate with your audience and clients, but they are equally effective for use within internal communications. One of the biggest challenges faced by companies today is successfully motivating employees to invest themselves in the company’s projects, values and strategies. Using games is one of the most efficient ways to achieve this. Franck Plasse, author of “Gamification – methods, implications and practical cases of recreational communication”, explains it very well. He said, “We are programmed in a way that we prefer pleasant situations to unpleasant situations. The lever of fun exploits this terrible flaw to motivate and engage.”

Gamification is a rapidly growing concept which seems to be here to stay. There are some tools which exist to create your own games for marketing and internal communication purposes. Drimify is one of them and, thanks to it’s teams of experts, it can also offer you an even wider variety of innovative communication tools.

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