A recent Quiznos campaign exemplifies how mobile games paired with rewards can drive meaningful engagement for brands, with 8,599 coupons downloaded, 14,651 store locator searches performed and 4,200 signups for its Q-Club program.

Quiznos engaged with office workers by asking for their participation in a game which rewarded the hungriest players with a catered lunch, generating 21, 285 impressions. The “Feed Us, Quiznos!” campaign developed by Dailybreak Media, enticed workers to freshen up their office fare by participating in an interactive mobile trivia quiz which tested their knowledge of catering dos and don’ts, and asked them to upload photos of their office teams demonstrating why their hunger level could only be satisfied with catering by Quiznos.

“The fast-casual industry has consistent goals – that is to create scale for every campaign. The question is, how does this happen in a world where consumers are saturated in offers that look and feel all too familiar?” said John Federman, CEO of Dailybreak.

“This answers the question ‘What’s in it for me? from the consumer perspective” said Adam Lavine, CEO at FunMobility Inc. “A lot of advertising is just the advertiser trying to reach goals.

“The root of gamification is game, and it creates something that is enjoyable and fun which is a big driving factor,” he said.

Reciprocating with rewards
Participants voted for their favorite photo submissions, and the contender with the most votes was selected for a full-course meal. The initiative produced 11,042 video views, 8,599 coupons downloaded and 14,651 store locator searches performed with average time spent by participants of 4 minutes and 9 seconds in the Challenge. 

As Quiznos expands its offerings from servicing in-store patrons to full, on-site catering services, the company knew it needed an interactive approach to connect with a targeted audience in a meaningful way, while also extending the time consumers interacted with their brand.

The campaign results prove a clear path-to-purchase via a self-select model is effective in allowing consumers to interact with brands on their own terms.

The biggest mistake made by most marketers when working with consumers to promote a brand is their failure to acknowledge messages and fuel them with rewards. One way to make relationships equally advantageous is through compensating consumers for sharing socially and making it fun and worthwhile to advocate the brand’s message.

Gamification incorporates excitement and an element of competition to a marketing strategy that works with all brand fans and individuals who want to participate. Its effectiveness lies in eliciting an emotional connection with an audience that will hopefully lead to a longer relationship as opposed to transient brand awareness.

Vendors from M2 Research claim that gamification strategies can lead to a 100 percent to 150 percent increase in engagement metrics.

The Red Coats are coming!
This past April Delta airlines decided to emphasize their flight attendants or Red Coats as they call them, to create a lingering impression on New Yorker’s as the go-to airline.

For six weeks, locals attempted to find hidden Red Coats through geo-coordinates and photo clues Delta released digitally throughout the day. Players were required to share their progress on social media, and the winners secured a free charted flight from New York to Los Angeles.

Delta reached more than 70 million people via Twitter and generated over 180,000 direct interactions through this activation, which saw success because it connected consumers to real people talking positively about the carrier, and did not rely on paid influencers with large social reach.

Gamification combined with insights shared by real people as influencers weave together in a perfect social strategy, as smart consumers do not like to be told what to do, but shown.

Ace Brand launched a baseball-card-creator app last week that builds customer engagement by blending the traditional charm of baseball with the unifying power of Facebook and Twitter. Within one week it generated 17,461 total views, with 12,082 unique engagements and 7,824 conversions for the brands homepage.

Fans texted to opt-in

“Ace has never had such a positive one-on-one relation with their customers before on a mobile device,” said Mr. Lavine, whose company developed the app. “We were surprised at how many people converted and then shared.”

Quiznos pools the best aspects of using gamified content to educate consumers while giving them an opportunity to connect with their friends and colleagues through friendly competition. Their recognition for a strategy that would not only generate awareness to its new catering options, but also create deeper connections with its target audience, was leveraged valuably via  native engagement.

“For the same reasons that brands have been turning to gamification to drive engagement, they’ve also discovered just how effective employing gamification strategies for loyalty can be,” Mr. Federman said.

“After all, every campaign works better when the consumer is educated, entertained and rewarded by content that drives a brand message.”

Final Take
Michelle is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York