Is gamification the way forward?

Exago’s team participated in Gamify 2017, an event gathering specialists to discuss the latest practices and the power and value of gamification for people, brands and organisations. “Gamification – The Way Forward” took place in the city of Porto, Portugal, on 6 June.

“Gamification applies game concepts and mechanics to everyday activities” to promote social connections, behaviour changes and additional engagement, according to Rui Cordeiro. The CEO at Fractal Mind, organiser of Gamify, talked about how games can make us dependent on incentives, feedback and overstimulation, or even create a dissonance with reality. Yet they can also establish an emotional commitment, and help develop memory, improve reflexes and learn by having fun.

This is quite important for brands seeking to gain their customers’ trust and involvement, explained Inês Drummond Borges, Marketing director at Worten. She then went on to say that “customers expect solutions, experiences, entertainment and events” from their selected brands and gamification is typically part of the latter three dimensions.

“It’s interesting to understand that our innovation management software allows companies to work on that first and more unexplored dimension Inês has mentioned, by making it appealing for people within and outside organisations to come together to find solutions, new ways of doing,” notes Exago’s head of Innovation Services, Francisco Bernardes. To Francisco, “this feeling of sharing a valuable and exciting challenge is the ultimate emotional and rational connection brands and organisations can establish with customers and with their own employees”.

The head of Strategy and Operations at LCG, Cristina Ferreira, spoke as well about why gamification is key to motivating employees and developing skills and competences within companies. “Eighty-seven per cent of employees are not involved at work” and those involved are actually “147% more productive than others”, so there’s an enormous potential for companies to unleash, she believes.

Two hundred entrepreneurs and professionals gathered at Gamify 2017 in Porto, also taking part in workshops on Disruptive Creativity and Gamification & Design Thinking as an Innovation Framework. The next conference will be held in November in Lisbon.