Are your marketing strategies keeping up with the pace of customer expectations? This presentation is from a lunch & learn hosted by Sandbox and Jeff Hilimire of Dragon Army where they reveal the secrets of game design and how it can supercharge your marketing. Here are just a few topics that were discussed: - Designing for the on-demand mindset & new generation of customer expectations - Best in class use of games and game psychology in marketing - The psychology behind touch & tactile experiences - The most effective use of gamification techniques - Engineering addictive behaviors to drive return visits & engagement - How to create a compelling sense of urgency - Utilizing the power of competition

1. May 20, 2014

2. # & @
#sandboxlunch
@dragonarmy
@sandbox_digital

3. About Sandbox
Digital agency with an emphasis on
creating content & experiences that
connect customers with brands

6. Robots Love Ice Cream metrics:
• featured in the Apple App Store
as a “best new game”
• over 150,000 downloads
• over 75% 4 and 5 star reviews
• successful Arby’s partnership

8. Mobile gaming is blowing up #punintended
• It’s a $25 billion industry (with over 80% coming from free-
to-play games), expected to grow to $50 billion over the
next two years
• 50% of mobile gamers are male and 50% female
• Only 27% of females will pay for a game (40% for males)
• Men are more likely to share their scores via social
• 20% of mobile gamers would rather give up sex for a week
than mobile games
• 22% of games that are downloaded are never opened more
than once…so what are the winners doing?

9. Big themes in
mobile gaming

10. Take advantage of pop culture

12. Take Advantage of Pop Culture
• Popular events help fuel social content
• Look for ways to create digital partnerships &
promotions with upcoming events
• Be relevant and be timely
• Don’t force it

13. Partial Reinforcement Effect

14. • Goal is to keep finding reasons to keep people
coming back & stay loyal
• Applicable to loyalty programs – instead of getting
X points, surprise your customers
• Surprise and Delight
• Social outreach
• Zappos shipping upgrades
• How else can you apply this concept?
Partial Reinforcement Effect

15. Touch / Tactile Experience

17. Touch/Tactile Experience
• Satisfaction of Action/Reaction
• Provides a feeling of power & control
• How can we use these principles?
– Turning physical into tactile
– More senses = greater engagement = positive and
memorable experience
– Create more experiences that give control
• Personalization (personalized views & content/remember
me)
• Power of choice
• Remove barriers

18. Creativity and Self Expression

24. Creativity & Self-Expression
Lesson: Creativity and self expression can create
positive brand experiences & vested customers
• How can we tap into this?
– Proactively promote an always on way to contribute
to the brand
– Crowdsourcing - Social contests or digital submissions
• Doritos Superbowl Commercial
• Lays – Do Us a Flavor
– Digital experience participation (i.e. Times Square ads,
Breaking Bad, Walking Dead “Dead Yourself”)
– Extends reach via creators & their social networks

25. “Traffic Light” Games / Snacking

26. Snacking
• “Always on” means a need to quickly satisfy
the need for information
• People’s attention spans are shrinking
• More headlines & images, less text
• Very short demo videos (30 sec)
• Highly targeted; Provide real value to stand
out in the clutter (WIIFM)
• Remove Friction

28. Competition: Leaderboards

29. Competition: One-on-One

30. Competition
• Competition can be a great motivator
• Different people respond to different types of
competition (large groups, small groups, one-on-one,
self)
• Contests & Promos
– Social submission contests
– More than just enter to win, but compare to friends and
cumulative effect of activities
• Loyalty programs
– Allow for creation of small groups or individual challenges
with others

31. Friends: Cooperation

32. • Think beyond just referral incentives
• What if your friends could help you achieve
the next level in your loyalty program?
• Design experiences and promotions that
involve collaboration
• Contests – getting friends to join or vote
makes you more likely to win
• Compounds social sharing, WOM & exposure
Friends: Cooperation

33. Extend the Initial Experience

34. Extend the Initial Experience
Lesson: Be proactive and look for ways to extend a
popular individual experience into a more holistic
campaign
• Extend channels = more touchpoints = quantity of
brand experiences = more loyalty
• Turn popular social posts into a deeper campaign
with multiple touch points
• Content tactic turns into a content theme
• Maximize insights & move fast

35. Limited Time Events

36. Limited Time Events
• Beyond normal deal based promos
• High level of incentives to increase frequency
of visits in a short period of time
• Creates a sense of urgency
• Creates habit of website/app/feature usage
• Offer exclusive experiences or content during
the event

37. Focus on the Whales

38. Whales
• Identify and reward your best customers
• Higher level of loyalty means more revenue
and stronger advocates
• Create exclusive experiences
– VIP experiences/events on site, free shipping, etc
– Access to product before others
– Access to exclusive content
• Create a status level for them
• Beta releases or feature input