Gamification has been a hot topic this past year with the popularization of Foursquare.  But the theory of gamification is just starting to be explored more in-depth.  What does gamification look like beyond badges and points?  It’s an important question for small businesses to think about going into 2012.  One example for gamification without points or badges is in an upcoming smartphone app called Zombies, Run:

This demo video is used for the Zombies, Run Kickstarter page.  The video and accompanying description must have been effective because they surpassed their original goal of $12,500 by over $60,000!

So what does this successful app teach us about gamification?  First, Zombies, Run is not based on badges and points.  Rather it functions more as a role-playing game since the runner is given a character that exists inside the game.  The recognition of different game mechanics is incredibly helpful when deciding if/which gaming systems would work best for your business. 

The next draw towards Zombies, Run is that the game gives an incentive for an activity that many of us put off: exercising.  Zombies, Run promotes exercise by offering an ongoing story that is directly influenced by how much you run.  This is a very powerful idea, especially for companies that sell products for activities that most of us don’t want to do even though we should.  Journyx has done much research into why tracking time is important.  But even with all that research, we still find ourselves with the same conundrum that entering your time can be very boring for most employees.

Zombies, Run also has an effective way of bringing customers back to their product. There’s a “hook” at the end of every 20 minute section.  Bringing customers back to your website is a challenge most companies face.  Keith Smith of Big Door, a company that sells gamification mechanics for companies, was led to gamification practices after extensive research into web visitor metrics.  He found that many customers come to websites less than 2 times per month, which is a pretty scary statistic.  To have a hook or reason for customers to come back is great to keep in mind.  Apple does this by using mystery; they don’t release information about their products until they are absolutely ready.  This keeps customers guessing on what Apple will think of next.

Do you see gamification coming into your business in 2012?