Cut Through the Clutter: A Marketer’s Guide to Effective Gamified Ads

Sunday mornings of Dog & The Bone and hours spent weaponizing arrow keys on a keyboard or a console to win a virtual race can form long-lasting memories. Upon recollection, these experiences bring along a rush of happy hormones. The importance of games and gamification in the lives of humans holds a crucial lesson for marketers: gamified ads have the potential to increase top-of-mind recall and positive sentiments.

Gamified ads utilize a mobile device’s touch, motion, camera, microphone and other capabilities, to allow brands to engage audiences effectively. They make the device an extension of the user, augmenting their interaction with the message.

Read on for a short guide marketers can use while crafting gamified ads.

Focus on the Product

A story benefits greatly from having a protagonist. It makes the experience gratifying for the audiences, who get to form a deeper connection with the narrative. You can nudge audiences into developing powerful sentiments for your product by focusing on its USP and what consumers love or what you wish they loved about it.

Oreo promoted its new double-stuffed biscuits in a recent campaign asking audiences to tap to aim and fill the biscuits with more cream and garnered 6.36 MN impressions.

The campaign strengthened the narrative around the most-loved part of the product, resulting in effective engagement.

Create a Story Experience

While even the most effective display ads can fizzle out of memory, experiences tend to stay with people for a longer time. Brands must aim to wow audiences with an unforgettable immersive narrative, followed by a nudge to engage with the message.

In partnership with realme, Thor Love And Thunder launched a campaign where audiences had to collect pieces of Mjolnir, the hammer, by tilting and panning their phone in all directions in a VR environment.

This quick charging feature of the new realme phone was introduced through the lightning-fast hammer zooming into the worthy person’s hand. The reel and real components of the message succeeded in generating an engagement rate of 2.13%, significantly higher than the industry average of 0.2% for such ads.

Capture the Pain Points

A purchase generally satisfies a desire or solves a pain point in a person’s life. Sometimes, it’s a mix of both. Well-crafted communications that address these pain points and provide solutions tend to be remembered by audiences.

To promote the newly launched 12th Gen Intel Core powered gaming laptops, Intel asked audiences to collect various processing chips by tilting and panning their phones across a 360° virtual reality canvas. The interactive advertisement garnered a splendid 15.29 MN impressions for the brand.

The brand concentrated on the no-lag USP of the product, highlighting how it solves a crucial pain point of potential customers.

Incentivize the Experience

Everyone loves rewards! Nudging people to participate in a brand-led activity and leaving them with incentives can increase the chances of a favourable memory. A coupon code or reward points would make the audience feel good about their decision to spend their time on the brand message.

Dairy Milk Silk asked audiences to tap and capture hearts in their vicinity, as displayed on the screen with the help of augmented reality and camera capabilities. 

The gamified experience created by mCanvas led the audiences to a code they could use to buy Silk at a discounted price. It helped the brand drive up positive recall and generate a high engagement rate of 10.32%. 

Augment Audience Realities

One of the most compelling ways to gain audiences’ attention is to augment their realities in an entertaining and engaging way. It is fascinating to watch something appear in front of you, via your mobile cameras, especially one which doesn’t exist in reality. This keeps people intrigued and engaged.

Before redirecting audiences to the new trailer, Jumanji asked them to pan and tap to defeat enemies in their vicinity, as displayed on mobile via augmented reality.

By bringing alive a fictional world in the physical proximity of the audiences, Jumanji expanded the immersive touchpoints where they could engage with the story and generated 9.5 MN impressions.

Gamification enhances recall and positive sentiments for brands across categories. 88% of marketers feel interactive content is more effective in helping their brand stand out among competitors. Gamified ads, therefore, are becoming increasingly popular in marketers’ strategies.

Let’s explore how mCanvas can enable your brand to drive engagement at scale by reaching out to us today.