Gamification: A Fun Way To Level Up OOH Advertising

Power-ups for your customers and your brand.

People love playing games. Social media and mobile apps are awash with games. But what happens when you apply game mechanics to real-world objects? That is what you call gamification.

Gamification is a popular technique used to motivate people to take action. Making an activity into a game is a fantastic way to engage people in critical thinking. Parents rewarding their children for completing house chores is a perfect example of gamification.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is a conventional form of marketing and has been around for centuries. OOH, advertising is still one of the most successful types of advertising today. However, as smartphone use becomes more common, OOH should take advantage of this remarkable marketing strategy known as gamification.

What is Gamification in OOH?

Gamification is the idea of combining game features with out-of-home or digital out-of-home (digital OOH) advertising to create a system that engages people through fun and interactive activities.

Giving clients an immersive, engaging, and exciting experience with your brand can help them remember your name, which is the most significant benefit of a gamified campaign.

Gamification Can Transform How Advertisers Use OOH

To implement gamification effectively in OOH, you must determine what motivates your target audience. If your target audience wants information or amusement, they will be more inclined to interact with your advertisements when they are enticed by prizes rather than simply viewing an ad, whether static or animated.

As ads become more interactive and more personal, they become more engaging. Rather than merely being shown an ad, the audience directly interacts with it. They can win a reward, a lucky draw entry, or points simply by playing a game. People spend more time seeing the brand and product being advertised this way without realizing it.

Gamification can also increase brand and product awareness by giving customers a fun way to connect with your brand in aspects that are not always directly tied to the product. While these non-product-related activities may help enhance user and brand engagement, the end goal should always be to sell something!

The Role of Mobile Devices in OOH Gamification

Gamification is a successful marketing strategy that is becoming increasingly popular in the age of smartphones.

Mobile games contribute the most to the video game business. According to Forbes, 80% of smartphone users play mobile games on their smartphones, with over 50% playing daily. Men and women use mobile gaming applications equally, and 62% of people use these apps.

Advertisers quickly noticed the marketing potential of mobile gamification initiatives. Many game mechanics that formerly captivated mobile gamers are now applied in non-gaming pursuits such as education, fitness, banking, and others.

Since the emergence of mass media, out-of-home advertising has been limited to static formats. One of the challenges to adopting OOH as an interactive platform was the lack of interactivity via smartphones. This resulted in the development of mobile applications (apps), which enabled advertisers to design branded games for customers to interact.

These apps encouraged customers to use their mobile devices combined with OOH platforms, transforming passive engagement into an active one. OOH and gamification are collaborating to create interactive experiences that engage audiences in creative new ways.

When combined with OOH, a gamified marketing campaign featuring the usage of mobile devices may boost the likelihood of your target audience participating in your OOH campaign.

Gamification Makes OOH Advertising More Accessible

A gamified approach in OOH advertising allows people to be creative while still having fun. It is also a space where players can feel like they are leveling up in the same manner as in video games, which can help boost brand awareness and familiarity.

People are inherently more engaged when they are presented with a challenge, even when the reward is small. With the perfect balance of rewards and incentives, people are more likely to feel naturally engaged in an activity that they would not otherwise perform on their own.

By making OOH advertising more accessible and engaging, gamification may help you get more out of your investment. A gamified OOH ad might lead to better conversion rates (or sales) for your company since individuals are more inclined to spend money after being exposed to it through an engaging experience.

There are several advantages and benefits to incorporating gamification into your brand’s OOH advertising campaign. Here are reasons why gamification is so powerful in an age where gaming is king.

1. Boost and enhance user engagement

Gamification may be the first step in establishing a long-term relationship between a customer and a business. Because gamification encourages users to execute particular behavior, engagement rates are frequently greater and better than traditional advertising campaigns.

2. Increases brand awareness and loyalty

Customers who feel emotionally tied to your brand as a result of playing a game are more likely to become repeat buyers than customers who are indifferent or actively disengaged. As a result, they are valuable assets for your company, both because they might get deeply connected and because they are more drawn to you as a brand.

3. Helps collect useful customer data

These days, data is one of the most valuable assets for businesses. However, getting such data is not always easy, which is where gamification comes in. By providing users with the opportunity to have fun, or even the chance to earn a prize or incentive, they are more inclined to provide you with valuable data.

4. Increases sales and conversion rates

Players are more likely to respond to your CTA when they interact with the gamified elements prepared by your brand than a traditional billboard ad or any other OOH advertising strategy. This will increase consumer interest and help improve conversion rates.

5. Makes the advertising campaign more interesting

Depending on the context and conditions of the approach, a consumer’s reaction to an offer or product may range from one person’s view to another. When shopping for a new product or service, it is essential to remember that consumer behavior might be more emotional than rational.

6. Educates the customer about your products or services

Gamification marketing may be a fun and easy technique to highlight the features of your product or service, thus increasing brand knowledge and awareness. For example, you can use a puzzle game to enlighten customers about new features of your product or service.

7. Allows for more frequent interaction with customers

The goal of marketing is to attract and retain new customers. Users tired of seeing dull or unamusing advertisements frequently reject or ignore such ads. So, spreading your message through a fun and simple-to-play game may be a fantastic strategy to reach new customers.

Gamification in Action

Gamification is a fun way to make OOH advertising more engaging. It can be used in many different ways. Here are some remarkable examples of gamified OOH campaigns that have proven effective in various countries.

Spreading Information while Alleviating Boredom

As part of their financial literacy awareness campaign, RCBC designed an interactive digital OOH ad in Bonifacio Global City. The bank installed interactive programs such as a loan calculator and picture puzzles with financial literacy lessons on the BGC Bus Shed‘s touchscreen displays.

Source: Outcomm

Building Brand Loyalty Through Interactivity

Mondelēz International launched a gamified digital OOH ad campaign for the famous cookie brand Oreo in London. Their digital OOH ad aimed to increase brand loyalty by encouraging customers to download a mobile app and play a minigame inside a bus shed. Winners qualify for a grand prize of a holiday trip and daily rewards.

Rewarding Users for Completing Tasks

The Star Casino in Australia celebrated the Lunar New Year at China Town in Sydney by offering discounts and prizes for users who complete tasks. Passers-by have a chance to win prizes such as dinner vouchers at the casino by playing a video game on an interactive digital OOH display.

Source: JCDecaux

Encouraging Teamwork

Lithuanian chocolate brand Pergalė encouraged team engagement with their gamified OOH campaign in Lithuania. The brand challenged passers-by to obtain a free product sample by teaming up with each other. Participants eager to acquire free chocolate formed human pyramids to reach the top of the OOH ad, where Pergalė put a button that they should press to receive their free samples.

Source: JCDecaux

Promoting Community Cooperation

With group challenges, there is a huge opportunity to raise the stakes. Imagine participating as a community or in groups to win even bigger prizes. It increases customer enjoyment and draws greater attention to the brand. 

Advertisers may add a charitable component to increase community involvement. So, Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) established the “Be a Lifesaver” fundraising campaign. SLSA challenged participants in the OOH ad campaign to “rescue” as many drowning figures as possible to earn points.

Before starting each game, the player must first donate. Instead of a physical prize, SLSA notifies the player that their donations have made a significant contribution to the cause, which is a far greater reward than anything else.

Source: BandT

Entertaining through Creative Brand Activation Events

The following are examples of gamified digital OOH executions using ad pods from Outcomm. Advertisement pods are huge touchscreen panels. Ad pods can be used in various settings, including supermarkets, malls, and parks. Ad pods are most commonly used at brand activation events as an interactive way for the audience to participate.

An interactive puzzle game created for the promotional event of the 2015 film Spy.
A digital scratch card game created to promote the Scratch It! KaskaSwerte scratch card sweepstakes by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
A virtual reality photo booth with motion detection interactivity for the promotional event of the 2018 Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War.
An augmented reality storybook with camera integration for a Johnson & Johnson brand activation event targeted to children.
An augmented reality photobooth for a large-scale music event for San Miguel Corporation.

Reward Your Customers and You Will Be Rewarded!

The applications for this gamification in OOH advertising are limitless, and the advantages of implementing it to reach more customers are apparent. You will be able to create a genuinely unforgettable experience for visitors by using the effectiveness of games and interaction.

Consider gamification when planning for your next out-of-home marketing campaign. Including an element of interactivity is an easy way to make anything more engaging, personalized, and effective.

Outcomm offers digital OOH solutions in Metro Manila, particularly in EDSA, C5 Road, McKinley Hill, and NAIA. We also provide other OOH ad spaces in Bonifacio Global City, NLEX, SLEX, and other major roads in the country.

Call Outcomm at +63 917 537 5110 or (02) 8856-2285 or email us at sales@outcomm.ph and start your next gamified OOH ad campaign today.

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