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Merkle final w speaker notes
Rand Schulman presents on the importance of engagement in social and mobile apps. Building user engagement is key to increasing lifetime value and driving viral adoption. Gamification techniques can increase engagement by 30-40% in areas like content, media, and healthcare. Effective analytics and A/B testing are critical to optimizing apps for engagement and revenue. Companies should collect behavioral data, measure results, and iterate engagement strategies.
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Merkle final w speaker notes
- 1. The Engagement Imperative- Back to the Future Rand Schulman – Merkle Presentation
- 2. Engagement in Social/ Mobile APPS ―McKinsey Global Institute analyzed the potential value that could be obtained through the use of social media technologies is $900 billion to $1.3 trillion annually‖.* Building In APP user engagement is a key component in the Social Value Chain Social/Mobile Gaming is making way for Enterprise Gamification of Social/Mobile APPs LTV (engagement over time) is now critical to Digital Marketing – it doesn’t stop with the site visit or the one site/channel Back to the Future HBR Blog August 2012 - 2
- 3. It was soeasy - during FB Gold Rush… 3
- 4. …and A GreatStart! www.viralheat.com 4
- 5.
- 6. Shattering the website-centric engagement paradigm And the new world of… APPS SAPPS MAPPS 6
- 7. Why Now? NewBreakthroughs Create New Challenges – Analytics Critical Technology enablers – Big Data / Cloud / CPU / Bandwidth advancements - real-time empirical data Converged Workflow People - Digital Marketing - becoming more like Direct Marketing creating a new role definition for the ―Marketer‖ Gamers taught us that APP Engagement is Key – – Law of Large numbers means / rapid A/B/M testing – Optimization – Greater engagement / greater conversion to intent 7
- 8. Viral Adoption -TheEngagement Imperative 8
- 9. “We’re an analyticscompany masquerading as a games company.” Ken Rudin Vice President, Analytics & Platform Services Source: WSJ 9
- 10. What is Gamification? Gamification is about taking the essence of games—fun, play, transparency, design and challenge—and applying it to real- world objectives rather than pure entertainment. 10
- 11. Growth of SocialGamification in the Enterprise 70% of Global 2000 will utilize one gamified application by 2014* 25% of online Business Process will be redesigned by 2015 with Gamification in mind* There will be $2.8 billion in revenue growth by 2016* due APPs Wide Range of tactics to modify user behavior - from Badging, Missions, and Leaderboards and to Levels – * Deloitte Review The Engagement Economy 2012, Gartner 11
- 12. Greater APP Engagement- 183% Increase in ARPU* in less than Two Months for Gaia** How effective are my ads in reach? What is the quality & age of users from different countries? What is my campaign performance by partner and country tier? How are my users performing APP post install? *Average revenue per user www.kontagent.com ** 1 million post per day, 7 million Unique per mo, 26 million reg. users 12
- 13. Using Kontagent -Optimizing for Viral Adoption and ARPU… Targeting based on cohort analysis and segmentation 13
- 14. …and LTV 5x increase in retention 14
- 15. Speed A/B Testing(hours not days) Dramatic increase in valuable users into the game ecosystem via large scale A/B Testing of ads 15
- 16. Beyond Gamers –Enterprise Gamification Examples … a Start Consumer – Verizon seeing increase of 30% time on site time (goal increase revenue, decrease cost) – San Diego Power and Gas and OpsPower (decrease cost) – Samsung – Increase of 200% per month site user engagement (reviews/revenue) Content & Media companies have seen 30-40%* increase in Reader interactions (goal - increase revenue) – USA Networks 130% increase Page Views 40% Return Visitors Health care – Aetna / Kaiser seeing 50%* increase in ―healthy actions‖ (goal – decrease in cost) • * Deloitte Review The Engagement Economy 2012 16
- 17. Omni Channel Metrics- The ROI of SAPPS and MAPPS Measure LTV Measure viral factor and channel attribution And conversion to intent Test and Optimize 17
- 18. How do IGet Started? The cost to build a social app is low Any company can get something up and running! Cost Time In-House $68,000 30 Days Agency $92,000 14 Days Vendor/Pre-Fab $44,000 8 Days www.involver.com www.buddymedia.com 18
- 19. In Summary: WhatShould You Do Now? Maintain Authenticity – mesh behavioral science with social technologies to increase the interaction and engagement with audiences. People like to be Mayor! Collect/Track Behavioral data Measure Results and Optimize process – not enough to just capture data; you need to be prepared for meaningful analysis of the results. Return on investment assumptions should be thought of beyond simple project dollars spent. Develop formulas to measure the long-term value of more engaged or loyal customers across new channels – MAPPS, SAPPS and APPS What – Create New Content on a regular basis – Inbound marketing Who/How? The New Marketer as The Content Engineer – a multi-disciplinary team that includes business-line strategists and managers, along with social scientists, marketers, game designers, programmers and those with data analytics expertise 19
- 20.
Editor's Notes
- #2 As analytics has changed how we understand and optimize visitor engagement on websites over the past decade , analytics is now ready to transform how we measure and optimize user engagement over the social Web.
- #3 Opower’s new product is more than an online report. It looks like a traditional web page, but it also feels a lot like a game. Users can complete challenges, participate in groups, and earn points and badges tied to real-world data. The goal is to keep users highly engaged, returning online to the app and participating, which then leads to real-world results.The use of items like leaderboards, badges, missions and levels is part of a trend called gamification that can be seen in a growing variety of industries and applications. It’s a trend that analysts claim will be in 25 percent of redesigned business processes by 2015,6 will grow to more than a $2.8 billion business by 2016, and will have 70 percent of Global 2000 businesses managing at least one “gamified” application or system by 2014.7Gamification is about taking the essence of games—fun, play, transparency, design and challenge—and applying it to real-world objectives rather than pure entertainment. In a business setting, that means designing solutions for everything from office tasks and training to marketing or direct customer interaction by combining the thinking of a business manager with the creativity and tools of a game designer.
- #4 Over the past few years most brands rushed to social media channels to communicate their marketing messages through this new medium. However, unfortunately they mostly stuck to their traditional, “interrupt driven” marketing approaches instead of taking advantage of new engagement models enabled by social media.
- #5 It was a good start. Social media monitoring enablebrands to listen to what customers, prospects and pundits are saying across the social web,and analyze the reach of their marketing campaigns across the various social channels. We recognize and monitor the growing significance of “Virality”, but there is much debate over how best to measure, optimize and monetize its power. But new approaches enable us to do so much more! For ExammpleDell’s Social Media Command Center: While first, and most discussed, there are many elements to this program that includes a centralized approach, while empowering business units to be autonomous, a form of advanced holistic form of social business. I’ve visited this first hand and received information from Richard Binhammer before publishing this, others have published videos.Salesforce. Jamie Kennedy toured me on the Radian6 and Salesforce Listening center which is strategically located near corporate marketing and PR, see video tour for details. I visited.IBM has a physical social media listening centerNvidia has launched a center, including a welcoming messaging from team focused on how they’re listening.Pizzahutemailed me during a previous Superbowl to showcase how they’re listening to customers, providing customer care, and offering special deals to customersClemson University has a social center, which has been documented.Sports Team Oregon live has a dedicated center in stadium center.Pepsi’s Gatorade has a dedicated center dedicated to listening and responding to all athletes in a form of brand marketing engagement, see video.Red Cross has a center powered by Dell, which can be used in crises and recurring engagement.Nissan is working with Definance on a centralized center, announcement here.The MLB All Star Game in Kansas City has a dedicated center, see Tumblr log.Superbowl had a dedicated command center.Tampa Bay and Company has established an initiative for political conventions.Intel has launched a “Social Cockpit” monitors the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), working with WCG.Delta Airlines has a Social Media Lab. (pic).KLM’s Corporate Communications and E-commerce departments joined forces to establish the Social Media Hub.Adobe has a center, which I’ve seen in the San Jose office.Samsung let me know they’ve a center setup and seeing call deflection benefits.MORE: I’ve kicked off a Quora thread where more examples are being surfaced by the community.
- #6 We are now atyet another fork in the road. We have the opportunity to engage the consumer in entirely new and personalized ways. But we need to approach social marketing differently and harness its enormous potential for consumer intelligence.
- #7 And, perhaps even more importantly, another trend is emerging. Social channels are enabling an entirely new approach to marketing – one that is all about social engagement and re-invents direct response marketing. Prospects are engaging with your brand on their pcs, ipads and mobile devices all the time. And,they are not engaging with your brand just on your website. On the contrary, the website-centric paradigm of the last two decades is being replaced by an application-centric engagement – and social and mobile apps (SAPPs and MAPPs) are starting to take center stage.
- #8 Analytics is a baseline requirement across all phases. This internal effort is apart from periodic reporting, as it should be gauging in real time the performance of all paid, owned, and earned channels and allow for rapid iteration. Don’t expect this team to be able to see the forest through the trees as they peer in closely, so ensure the periodic reporting phase is included –you need both.Often companies jump to decide what they say, without analyzing what people want to hear, and that’s why the prior phase on analysis and reporting was a requirement. Companies can now develop a content strategy, but should understand how it changes and varies depending on the following variables: product type, geography, channel, screen, and source of information. Note that this spans many internal teams from corpcomm, brand marketing, media buying, social media team and all related agency partners.
- #9 Social media is adding a new twist to the traditional customer engagement funnel. Engagement is not only increasing conversion rates but also driving viral adoption, driving down user acquisition costs.
- #10 Zynga, the company behind Farmville and Fishville, is transforming the game industry. They are doing so by leveraging analytics to understand what engages their large user base and applying these findings to optimize their marketing campaigns and games for average revenue per user (ARPU).
- #11 In a business setting, that means designing solutions for everything from office tasks and training to marketing or direct customer interaction by combining the thinking of a business manager with the creativity and tools of a game designer.
- #12 Opower’s new product is more than an online report. It looks like a traditional web page, but it also feels a lot like a game. Users can complete challenges, participate in groups, and earn points and badges tied to real-world data. The goal is to keep users highly engaged, returning online to the app and participating, which then leads to real-world results.The use of items like leaderboards, badges, missions and levels is part of a trend called gamification that can be seen in a growing variety of industries and applications. It’s a trend that analysts claim will be in 25 percent of redesigned business processes by 2015,6 will grow to more than a $2.8 billion business by 2016, and will have 70 percent of Global 2000 businesses managing at least one “gamified” application or system by 2014.7Gamification is about taking the essence of games—fun, play, transparency, design and challenge—and applying it to real-world objectives rather than pure entertainment. In a business setting, that means designing solutions for everything from office tasks and training to marketing or direct customer interaction by combining the thinking of a business manager with the creativity and tools of a game designer.
- #13 Example: Gaia Online – a large online social network - achieved a 183% increase in ARPU in less than two months by applying a methodology similar to the Zynga approach. However, instead of built-in analytics, they leveraged Kontagent, a3rd party analytics platform, to gain similar insights.Gaia Online is an English-language, anime-themed social networking and forums-based website. Gaiaonline was founded in 2003.[1][2] but the name was changed to GaiaOnline.com in 2004 from go-gaia by its owner, Gaia Interactive. Gaia originally began as an anime linklist and eventually developed a small community,[2] but, following a statement by founder Derek Liu (username "Lanzer"), the website moved towards social gaming, and[3] eventually became a forum-based website.[4][5] Today, over a million posts are made daily[4] and it is visited by 7 million unique users each month[6] (with over 26 million total registered users). Gaia also won the 2007 Webware 100 award in the Community category.[7] In January 2011, the company won the Mashable Best User experience Award for 2010Ready or not, gamification is taking the business world by storm.For anyone unfamiliar with gamification, it's the application of game-like elements such as challenges, points, badges and levels to business and other nongame websites. An estimated 70 percent of the top 2,000 public companies in the world will have at least one gamified application by 2014, Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner Inc. predicts.Patrick Salyer, CEO of gamification platform Gigya, believes there are two keys to success with gamification. "One is making sure that all gamified elements are inherently social," he says. "That is, don't restrict engagement to the internal site community. Award points for activities that reach users' social [networks] to bring in referral traffic."The other is to focus on rewarding activities that create value for your businesses. "For example, award points and badges for behaviors like subscribing to your company's newsletter, checking into your store or sending coupons to friends," Salyer says. "Gamification is not about haphazardly throwing badges across your site."Companies should weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to get into the gamification game. To help you decide, here are three case studies of major companies that benefited from incorporating gaming techniques into their sites and the lessons they learned along the way.USA Network's Club Psych fan loyalty site1. Club PsychNBC Universal's USA Network enlisted the help of gamification startup San Jose, Calif.-based Bunchball in July 2010 to increase engagement on the website for Psych, one of its TV shows. First, they launched a fan loyalty program called Club Psych that lets users win weekly prizes by completing different challenges.To enhance Club Psych, USA launched Psych Vision, a mobile app that let users access behind-the-scenes videos, play trivia games to earn points and unlock prizes, and chat with other fans, all while watching the show. With this tie-in, USA became one of the first marketers to offer a complete second screen experience, where fans could experience Psych on their TVs, as well as via mobile.Related: How Badgeville Is Gamifying the InternetAfter seeing a 130 percent jump in page views and a 40 percent increase in return visits to the Psych website with the Club Psych integration, USA decided to expand and created a social media mystery game called #HashTagKiller, which engages fans with puzzles, clues and Facebook chats with the show's actors. Jesse Redniss, senior vice president of digital, says #HashTagKiller has driven more than 95 million page views from 300,000 unique users since its launch in September 2011.Lesson learned: Turn visitors into brand ambassadors. A gamified social experience such as Club Psych can turn engaged fans into valuable brand ambassadors. Redniss notes that, "288,000 shares on Facebook's platform have provided us with over 38 million exposures of the 'Psych' brand to our users' friends and families." To reward those ambassadors, USA Network has given away prizes such as Nintendo Wii systems, Psych DVDs and character bobbleheads.The Verizon Insider game and online community2. Verizon InsiderVerizon Wireless wanted to increase the time users spend on its website and the amount of interaction with its content. In January, the company partnered with Gigya and digital agency Modal to develop a new version of its community hub Verizon Insider. Now, users can earn points and rewards for participating in contests, posting comments and promoting events.Is Gamification the Right Play for Your Business?While gamification may sound appealing to companies seeking greater customer engagement, they should be sure it's a winning proposition before investing time and money.Dustin DiTommaso, the experience design director at design studio Mad*Pow suggests that companies think seriously about why they're interested in gamification and how it could help them meet their business goals.Before gamifying, he says, a business should be able to answer these six questions with confidence:• What is the reason for gamifying your product or service?• How does it benefit users?• Will they enjoy it?• What are your business goals?• How do you get users to fulfill those business goals?• What actions do you want users to take?If you can provide solid answers to all the questions, gamification could be an effective component of your online efforts.Gamification can reward "behaviors consumers will naturally take on the site, such as sharing a blog that's relevant to their social networks or uploading a photo of themselves and their friends while attending a Verizon-sponsored concert," says Beth Tourek, Verizon's social media strategist. Verizon Insider also can be customized to match a user's interests or location.Verizon Insider seems to be paying off. "On average, users spend over 30 percent more time on-site with social login versus site login," Tourek says, "[And] the site has experienced more than 15 percent more page views."Lesson learned: Make it personal. Any gaming experience should aim to make users feel their experience is special. That's why Verizon Insider gives users customized badges to personalize their experience."The gamification element that excited us most was the opportunity to create customized badges for unique local programs," Tourek says. "For example, we're working on a 'Snow Bunny' badge for people who enter an upcoming sweepstakes to win a season pass at a Utah ski resort we sponsor."The Samsung Nation gaming hub3. Samsung NationKorean electronics giant Samsung launched its social loyalty program, Samsung Nation, in November to target the millions of fans who were already engaging with its corporate website. "We want to show them that we appreciate their loyalty and interest," says Esteban Contreras, social media marketing manager for Samsung Electronics America. Samsung worked with Menlo Park, Calif.-based gamification company Badgeville to build Samsung Nation, where users earn badges for completing activities such as writing reviews, watching videos and participating in forums. Because Samsung.com already gets tens of millions of visits per year, the company didn't need to do much outside promotion. Instead, it has focused on explaining the benefits of its gaming program on its site.Related: One Young Entrepreneur's Million-Dollar Idea in Mobile GamingOne of Samsung's gamification goals was increasing engagement and the number of product reviews. So far, results have been encouraging, with user behavior such as product reviews increasing "hundreds of percent per month," according to Badgeville.Lesson learned: Focus on engaged users. Instead of trying to reach a new audience, Contreras encourages businesses to focus on the people already engaging with their brands and figure out whether those highly engaged and passionate customers would value a social loyalty program. For Samsung, that meant learning how fans of Samsung.com were already using the site and how it could be made even more appealing.Read more stories about: Games, Online businesses, Gamification
- #14 Kontagent enabled Gaia Online to optimize their marketing campaigns for ARPU as well as viral adoption by delivering deeper visibility into campaign and ad-level engagement metrics beyond simply install numbers.
- #15 Gaia Online optimized their marketing campaigns to target users with the highest retention potential through cohort analysis and segmentation.
- #16 Gaia Online leveraged large scale A/B testing of in-game offers to creatively optimize game mechanics for ARPU. The freemium model is at play here also - and enables speed testing accurately, leveraging law of large numbers.
- #17 Gamification is about taking the essence of games—fun, play, transparency, design and challenge—and applying it to real-world objectives rather than pure entertainment. In a business setting, that means designing solutions for everything from office tasks and training to marketing or direct customer interaction by combining the thinking of a business manager with the creativity and tools of a game designer.Opower is not alone in the attempt to improve energy efficiency with a new approach. “We’re all about the game mechanics,” says Yoav Lurie, CEO of Simple Energy, whose social game elements and data analytics combine with real-world prizes.8 Lurie’s company participated in an energy efficiency program piloted by San Diego Gas & Electric that succeeded in more than doubling energy savings among participating residential customers during a three-month period.9Of course, engaging customers and employees with game thinking and mechanics can extend far beyond looking at new ways to encourage energy efficiency. Industries and businesses of all types are seeing the benefit of applying these techniques. Content and media companies have seen online customer interactions increase 30–40 percent.10, 11 Health care insurance providers such as Aetna and Kaiser Permanente are encouraging customers to engage in health care/wellness more regularly, with Aetna seeing increases of 50 percent in healthy actions.12, 13 And restaurants using these strategies are seeing gains in both sales and server gratuitiesReady or not, gamification is taking the business world by storm.For anyone unfamiliar with gamification, it's the application of game-like elements such as challenges, points, badges and levels to business and other nongame websites. An estimated 70 percent of the top 2,000 public companies in the world will have at least one gamified application by 2014, Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner Inc. predicts.Patrick Salyer, CEO of gamification platform Gigya, believes there are two keys to success with gamification. "One is making sure that all gamified elements are inherently social," he says. "That is, don't restrict engagement to the internal site community. Award points for activities that reach users' social [networks] to bring in referral traffic."The other is to focus on rewarding activities that create value for your businesses. "For example, award points and badges for behaviors like subscribing to your company's newsletter, checking into your store or sending coupons to friends," Salyer says. "Gamification is not about haphazardly throwing badges across your site."Companies should weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to get into the gamification game. To help you decide, here are three case studies of major companies that benefited from incorporating gaming techniques into their sites and the lessons they learned along the way.USA Network's Club Psych fan loyalty site1. Club PsychNBC Universal's USA Network enlisted the help of gamification startup San Jose, Calif.-based Bunchball in July 2010 to increase engagement on the website for Psych, one of its TV shows. First, they launched a fan loyalty program called Club Psych that lets users win weekly prizes by completing different challenges.To enhance Club Psych, USA launched Psych Vision, a mobile app that let users access behind-the-scenes videos, play trivia games to earn points and unlock prizes, and chat with other fans, all while watching the show. With this tie-in, USA became one of the first marketers to offer a complete second screen experience, where fans could experience Psych on their TVs, as well as via mobile.Related: How Badgeville Is Gamifying the InternetAfter seeing a 130 percent jump in page views and a 40 percent increase in return visits to the Psych website with the Club Psych integration, USA decided to expand and created a social media mystery game called #HashTagKiller, which engages fans with puzzles, clues and Facebook chats with the show's actors. Jesse Redniss, senior vice president of digital, says #HashTagKiller has driven more than 95 million page views from 300,000 unique users since its launch in September 2011.Lesson learned: Turn visitors into brand ambassadors. A gamified social experience such as Club Psych can turn engaged fans into valuable brand ambassadors. Redniss notes that, "288,000 shares on Facebook's platform have provided us with over 38 million exposures of the 'Psych' brand to our users' friends and families." To reward those ambassadors, USA Network has given away prizes such as Nintendo Wii systems, Psych DVDs and character bobbleheads.The Verizon Insider game and online community2. Verizon InsiderVerizon Wireless wanted to increase the time users spend on its website and the amount of interaction with its content. In January, the company partnered with Gigya and digital agency Modal to develop a new version of its community hub Verizon Insider. Now, users can earn points and rewards for participating in contests, posting comments and promoting events.Is Gamification the Right Play for Your Business?While gamification may sound appealing to companies seeking greater customer engagement, they should be sure it's a winning proposition before investing time and money.Dustin DiTommaso, the experience design director at design studio Mad*Pow suggests that companies think seriously about why they're interested in gamification and how it could help them meet their business goals.Before gamifying, he says, a business should be able to answer these six questions with confidence:• What is the reason for gamifying your product or service?• How does it benefit users?• Will they enjoy it?• What are your business goals?• How do you get users to fulfill those business goals?• What actions do you want users to take?If you can provide solid answers to all the questions, gamification could be an effective component of your online efforts.Gamification can reward "behaviors consumers will naturally take on the site, such as sharing a blog that's relevant to their social networks or uploading a photo of themselves and their friends while attending a Verizon-sponsored concert," says Beth Tourek, Verizon's social media strategist. Verizon Insider also can be customized to match a user's interests or location.Verizon Insider seems to be paying off. "On average, users spend over 30 percent more time on-site with social login versus site login," Tourek says, "[And] the site has experienced more than 15 percent more page views."Lesson learned: Make it personal. Any gaming experience should aim to make users feel their experience is special. That's why Verizon Insider gives users customized badges to personalize their experience."The gamification element that excited us most was the opportunity to create customized badges for unique local programs," Tourek says. "For example, we're working on a 'Snow Bunny' badge for people who enter an upcoming sweepstakes to win a season pass at a Utah ski resort we sponsor."The Samsung Nation gaming hub3. Samsung NationKorean electronics giant Samsung launched its social loyalty program, Samsung Nation, in November to target the millions of fans who were already engaging with its corporate website. "We want to show them that we appreciate their loyalty and interest," says Esteban Contreras, social media marketing manager for Samsung Electronics America. Samsung worked with Menlo Park, Calif.-based gamification company Badgeville to build Samsung Nation, where users earn badges for completing activities such as writing reviews, watching videos and participating in forums. Because Samsung.com already gets tens of millions of visits per year, the company didn't need to do much outside promotion. Instead, it has focused on explaining the benefits of its gaming program on its site.Related: One Young Entrepreneur's Million-Dollar Idea in Mobile GamingOne of Samsung's gamification goals was increasing engagement and the number of product reviews. So far, results have been encouraging, with user behavior such as product reviews increasing "hundreds of percent per month," according to Badgeville.Lesson learned: Focus on engaged users. Instead of trying to reach a new audience, Contreras encourages businesses to focus on the people already engaging with their brands and figure out whether those highly engaged and passionate customers would value a social loyalty program. For Samsung, that meant learning how fans of Samsung.com were already using the site and how it could be made even more appealing.Read more stories about: Games, Online businesses, Gamification
- #18 SAPPs an MAPPs enable brands to target an engage their most valuable user segments. We can now measure and optimize the cost and value of user engagement via SAPPs and MAPPs …not just in single session but through multiple sessions - through the lifetime of the engagement. This is a new way to optimize Life Time Value (LTV)!
- #19 There are several options for creating social applications, including building your own using in house developers;using a third party agency,or using the pre-fab apps directly from vendors.
- #20 Designing your solutionHow does your design maintain authenticity? Don’t turn real-world tasks into frivolous activities; a system can still be beautiful and metaphorical while maintaining clarity about the benefits it provides to users or users provide to other participants. In addition, provide a win condition for all players. No one wants to perpetually be at the bottom of a scoreboard; demonstrate progress toward mastery for your users. The goal is not to “game” or manipulate your target audiences, but rather to mesh behavioral science with social technologies to increase the interaction and engagement with audiences.Who should help? Design teams need to be able to address the overall organizational goals, measurement and analytics needs, design of incentives, and information technology considerations. Your effort could benefit from a multi-disciplinary team that includes business-line strategists and managers, along with social scientists, marketers, game designers, programmers and those with data analytics expertise.How do I track the behavioral data? Technology providers offering gamification platforms or solutions typically make the tracking and feedback of behavior easy. But you don’t have to use vendors. You can track behavior without custom technology through manual processes if you have the resources; just consider if you are still able to provide rapid feedback. If you decide to leverage a vendor, first ask about previous results, and try to evaluate their ability to scale.Measuring results and improving processHow will you track effectiveness? It’s not enough to just capture data; you need to be prepared for meaningful analysis of the results. Return on investment assumptions should be thought of beyond simple project dollars spent. Develop formulas to measure the long-term value of more engaged or loyal customers or employees. The relationship of engagement to loyalty and ultimate profit (or improved performance) may be a cause-and-effect sequence.What is your plan for updating and creating new content? An important lesson from the gaming industry is that once a game is released, the work is not done. Because data are continuously gathered, the organization can learn and adapt as needed. Furthermore, users may eventually tire of a system or run out of tasks or challenges to complete. Frequent addition of new content may keep users engaged for a longer period of time. Piloting applications can be a low-cost and low-risk method to begin to understand how to use gamification to encourage engagement and change behaviors. From there, leaders can scale initiatives into new business areas or make existing initiatives larger in scope.