Gamification Blog

Here are three facts:

1.       Rajat Paharia is widely recognized as the father of gamification.

2.       The Churchill Club is Silicon Valley’s premier business and technology forum, known for pointed and predictive conversation.

3.       On Tuesday, April 30, Rajat will join fellow visionaries in a Churchill Group panel conversation titled “The Gamification of Everything.” 

The panel will explore how applying game mechanics to non-game environments can help companies shape the behaviors of critical audiences in ways that strengthen brands, increase revenues and improve loyalty.  Rajat will be joined by Patrick Salyer, CEO, Gigya, and Jim Whitehead, chair of the Computer Science Dept. UC Santa Cruz, and founder and president of the Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games, in the discussion moderated by David Fetherstonhaugh, behavioral economist at IDEO.

2012 was a very good year for gamification – and for Bunchball. Enterprises drank deeply from the gamification well last year as they applied game mechanics to websites, business tools and applications, social networks and online experiences.

For evidence, look no further than Bunchball’s own experience in 2012. Last year we added hundreds of new customers, with enterprise customers making up the lion’s share: companies like Ford Canada, NetApp, PSS World Medical and Intercontinental Hotels Group.

And on April 23, executives from several of those leading enterprise brands will gather in New York to share how gamification has helped them drive revenues, increase engagement, and help create more loyal and lasting customer relationships. It’s the latest stop for the Gamification Rockstar Roadshow, which will feature keynotes from Jive’s Sydney Sloan USA Network/NBC Universal’s Jesse Redniss. Attendees will also hear from Bluewolf, Get Schooled, Kraft Canada, Maritz Canada/Ford Canada, Met-Rx, Perficient, Thomson-Reuters and Zamzee.

It’s noisy out there. Your brand marketing efforts not only compete with those of your competitors, but also the tweets, posts, pins, video shares, likes, status updates and blogs that clog the digital zeitgeist.

So how do you cut through it all to create a clear, positive brand image among all the chatter? By creating brand advocates to tell your story for you.

It’s more exciting than ever to be in the gamification space.  Having been at Bunchball for 3 ½ years, it’s been a bit overwhelming to watch the market catch fire - seemingly overnight.  Of course, as with any “overnight sensation” the reality is there is a group of passionate, dedicated folks that have been at it for years before the market hit the “big time.” In this case, my co-workers at Bunchball have been bringing gamification to our satisfied customers for 6 plus years.

One of the reasons I believe we continue to grow rapidly is because the entire team is externally focused on helping our clients use gamification to solve problems, whether it be in the consumer or enterprise arena.  We continue to invest in our world class technology platform Nitro to provide customers with a competitive advantage when deploying programs.  Customer feedback is always welcome and our product team takes those suggestions and rapidly adds new functionality into our Nitro platform.