Watch for these Superbowl Gamification efforts
Today is Thursday. Thursday qualifies as “almost the weekend” and therefore brings us that much closer to Superbowl XLVII between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. As the biggest televised event in America, you can be sure you’re going to see some interesting commercial and marketing techniques that go beyond the standard big budget commercials we’ve been used to. Superbowl gamification will play a big role in a number of these efforts so keep an eye out for the following from now until the big game.
Target Opts for Game-Based Marketing instead of Commercials
Why bother with commercials when you can make a game instead? Target took their budget and put it towards Snack Bowl, a mobile game playable via mobile browser and iOS/Android apps. The game involves you throwing branded snacks like DiGiorno pizzas to living room guests as they run across your room. As you progress, the game gets faster and harder. Players are also encouraged to share high scores in Facebook.
Coca-cola Crowdsources The Ending to Their Superbowl Commercial
In what looks like an homage to a familiar Eastwood film, Coke will be running their Coke Chase ad that features cowboys, showgirls, and badlanders racing to reach their soda in the middle of the desert. At the conclusion of the commercial, all the people realized they’ve only reached a billboard that points them all into the direction of the soda and will be allowing the viewer to vote for who wins the race during the big game.
Budweiser wants you to name their Animals on Twitter
Budweiser tweeted a few days ago asking their followers to name this Clydesdale horse in their upcoming ad. People can tweet their desired name with hashtag #Clydesdale to give Budweiser their suggestions, although its unclear by how Budweiser will actually choose a name.
Win an iPad from the NYTimes by Predicting the Superbowl
The New York Times has created a gamified Superbowl survey that challenges you to make a number of predictions and earn the most points among your friends. Players can attempt questions like guessing “how many times will Jack Harbaugh appear on television” and “what color gatorade will be dumped on the winning coach” and win an iPad if they’re lucky.
There are a number of other commercials using gamification principles, including Doritos, and Pepsi, but those and half of what I’ve listed here are all relient on the crowdsourcing mechanic and allowing them to choose an outcome. They may all be effective individually but looked at in aggregate like this, they are all remarkably boring and uninspired. Its not real engagement with the consumer because these are all so temporary and its hard to tell if your votes for all these crowdsourcing efforts even really matter.
It will really come down to each of these brand’s execution strategy in making sure they let their fans know that their votes matter. What do you think? Is everyone rushing to the second-screen concept with crowdsourced decisions going to be effective?
