The Power of Gamification for Finance Brands

UTILISING GAMIFICATION IN THE FINTECH INDUSTRY

It might be difficult to envisage a gamification campaign sitting in your marketing strategy, after all, there are so many regulations we have to follow when it comes to marketing financial services. However, difficult doesn’t mean impossible, and - truth be told - fitting gamification into your fintech marketing strategy won’t present any more of a challenge than any other kind of campaign!

We’re already seeing some FinTech brands leveraging gamified activities including:

• Revolut Rewards - Revolut offers personalised cashback opportunities to their customers in the app when they spend. By rewarding their customers, they’re playing on the behaviour principle of positive reinforcement to engage their customers and encourage them to repeat their behaviour.
• eToro Investment Features - By creating a social network-like experience in their app and encouraging knowledge sharing and competition between peers regarding stock plays, eToro fully utilises user-generated content (UGC) to create their ongoing gamified user experience for them.

So if others in your industry are making the most out of the innovative and engaging practice that is gamification, what’s stopping you? 

WHY THE RIGHT TIME TO ADOPT GAMIFICATION IS NOW

In a time when we’re experiencing one of the worst cost-of-living crises in history, customers are desperately looking for the best and most secure ways to keep their finances in order. Not only this, but many consumers are reluctant to hand over their cash in the first place. Whether we’re talking about banking, investments, or anything else, customers want to know that their capital is safe with a company that they trust. 

Not only does gamification provide an opportunity for increasing engagement within your target audience, but it’s also a more authentic approach to marketing than static or mainstream advertisements. It’s the perfect place to understand your audience on a genuine level, and for them to understand you as a brand. 

Now, at Reflect, our not-so-secret passion is human behaviour and so we know that building authentic relationships with customers is one of the best things you can do to build trust. Consumers are much more likely to place trust in a brand that promotes the most authentic and true side of themselves, and gamifying your campaign is one way to do this. 

However, gamification isn’t all about tapping into new markets. Gamified campaigns also strengthen the relationship between your brand and your pre-existing customers meaning that there are benefits to be had across the board. You can build and gain the trust of new customers whilst growing the connection between you and your existing customers too. It’s no secret that it’s a lot easier and more cost-effective to retain customers than gain, but with a gamification strategy in place, you can do both. 

Starting to look into gamification as we head into 2023 is the perfect idea because customers are looking for more ways to make their money go further, whether that’s through budgeting, investing, or starting side hustles. Why not look into ways to make their lives easier with a gamified budgeting tool on your website or app? Or make a game out of learning the best ways of investing money (this could be anything from index funds to investing in start-ups, depending on your target market).

THE P-B-L GAMIFICATION MODEL

Constructing a gamification campaign is made a much easier process with the P-B-L Model. P-B-L stands for Points, Badges and Leaderboards which are the three most important aspects of a gamified campaign. 

Having all three isn’t a requirement for a successful campaign, but we do recommend having at least two to create a campaign that truly engages customers. Here’s a breakdown of how the three elements can be integrated into your 2023 gamification campaign:

Using this knowledge when you’re creating your gamified campaign can make all the difference if you truly want to harness the power of gamification and see transformational results.

FITTING GAMIFICATION INTO A PRE-EXISTING STRATEGY

We know that your strategic planning is likely to be well underway by now, so it’s important that any new ideas can fit into the strategy you’ve got in progress. 

The key to integrating gamification is as simple as going back to your objectives and thinking about what the core challenge is that you want to address. Do you want to find out more about your current audience? Do you want to gain information about a completely new market? Whatever it might be, that’s what’s going to fuel your gamification strategy. 

Working from your challenge upwards is the best way to go with gamification because, as we said, it needs to be authentic and the messaging needs to be right - especially now. Consumers are getting increasingly good at spotting brands who send one message out but don’t practise what they preach, so by starting at the beginning and building your campaign up from there you’re more likely to get a solid campaign that delivers results. 

Another thing you’ll want to consider is how your gamification campaign fits into the funnel you’re creating for your customers, and whether or not the funnel will need to be tailored to the gamification campaign if you’re targeting new and existing customers. 

WHAT RESULTS CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH GAMIFICATION?

First things first when it comes to gamification: it’s all about data. It gives you the ability to capture data and learn more about your target audience in creative new ways. Your learnings can then be used elsewhere in your marketing mix. With a cookie-less world fast approaching us, now is the time to start testing new ways of data capturing to avoid being thrown into the deep end further down the line.

Secondly: your target audience learns more about your product/service offering without feeling marketed to. We’re big believers that good marketing shouldn’t feel like marketing to customers, and that’s why we love gamification so much. It’s a great way to increase awareness of your target audience in a subtle manner.

And last but not least, the obvious result is to increase the levels of engagement you see. Gamified campaigns encourage customers to get involved, not only because they want a bit of fun and excitement, but if you play your cards right they’ll also want to avoid the fear of missing out that comes with not getting involved! 

TOP TIPS TO TAKE AWAY

Gamification is a super fun and relaxed way to get customers engaging with your brand without it feeling too much like a sales pitch, especially at the moment given the current cost of living crisis. It’s also a great approach to start thinking about as we head towards a cookie-less world where data capturing will be more difficult for us as marketers. So, here’s what you need to keep in mind when you’re brainstorming about gamification campaigns for 2023:

1. Start with the problem you want to resolve and work upwards from there.
2. Gamification doesn’t exist in a silo, make sure it’s integrated with the rest of your marketing mix.
3. Take time to understand where gamification will sit within the funnel for your customers.
4. You don’t have to think big, something small can still be fun and effective.

You don’t need to be as good as Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo to get started on building a great game to fit into your marketing mix. All you need to do is harness the creativity within your team and let the ideas flow… there are bound to be some amazing ones that come out once the brainstorming starts. 

If you’re not sure where to start with gamification, or you’re struggling to find the capacity to execute your great ideas, then get in touch with us! Our team would love to help bring your ideas to life and bring you the results you want to see.