Event gamification is one strategic move that is capable of making an event more profitable as well as effective by offering a memorable way for brands to engage attendees as well as the sponsors of the event.
You must be thinking what exactly is this term, ‘gamification’?
It may sound like a new term to you, however, all of us have been a part of gamification at least once or multiple times in the past. Let’s recall: you must have been asked to fill out a survey which could potentially lead to a lottery win, or used a credit card which offered rewards points or posted on social media accounts for freebies. All of these instances are nothing but various forms of gamification. It is basically neither an application nor an event technology, but it is a way to motivate audiences to take some kind of action by providing an incentive for completing a task.
Event gamification can be seen in different forms and in every form, it helps in transforming an event into a successful one. It works on the emotions and motivational factors of the attendees of the event.
It is important to boost sponsor engagement using gamification because of several reasons:
- The more engaged the sponsors are, the better the events created for the attendees.
- With more engaged sponsors, the chances of transactional interactions with the sponsors are minimized.
- Since the sponsors quantify the ROI of the event to rate their involvement with the event, gamification is one big tool which is often used for increasing ROI.
Here are some of the ways in which one can drive engagement at events using gamification strategy:
Gamification Of The Booth Check-ins
Gamification is often customized to the goals of the sponsors in order to see what works and what does not work for them. Addition of game elements can be done as a call-to-action for attendees, which in turn, help in drawing visitors to the sponsor’s booth.
Presentations
Gamification can transform regular speaker presentations to something fun and interactive. The presentations can be transformed using polls and other elements of social media integration. The sponsors may offer prizes to the winners and offer something of value to the participants as a gesture. This may spark the first conversation between the sponsors and the attendees.
Gamification Corner For Sponsor Promotion
A separate gamification corner may be created where the attendees may relax during the free time. Setting up of games such as interactive video games, chess, foosball etc. can be organized within the budget. The added benefit here is that there lies ample scope for sponsor promotion by the display of sponsor logos. In case the budget is bigger, AR and VR games may be considered.
Event App
Gamifying event apps with fun, interactive, and simple games can contribute to full-fledged utilization. Leader boards can be created and online event networking games can also be included for the attendees. To increase the interaction with sponsors, some augmented reality games may be integrated into the event app itself. This way, the app elevates from just being a medium for event registration to a platform for interaction between the attendees and sponsors.
