May 16, 2026
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myvegas

Meta Gaming? MyVegas Gamifies Sin City

Kevin Shane01 mins

What’s the best way to talk about the gamification of gambling and gaming? PlayStudios CEO Andrew Pascal took the stage at GSummit SF 2013 to talk about MyVegas,  a partnership between MGM Resorts and PlayStudios to bring gamified loyalty and rewards to the Las Vegas audience.

Watch his talk below as he details the unique challenges and opportunities associated with creating engagement in this challenging environment.

Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Andrew’s presentation by downloading it here.

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hsn arcade

HSN is Reinventing Online Shopping with Gamification

Ivan Kuo11 mins

Did you know that HSN is more than just a TV-shopping channel? Since 2011, HSN has reinvented itself as a total entertainment and shopping portal with gamification and now sees over 200K daily interactions online .

At GSummit SF 2013, Jill Braff, Executive Vice President of Digital Commerce at HSN, took the main stage to share some statistics and the story behind HSN’s awesome success.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Jill’s presentation by downloading it here.

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kiip brian wong

How Kiip is Making Rewards Work

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Entrepreneur prodigy Brian Wong has been sharing Kiip’s great case studies and strategies at GSummit ever since the first one in 2011. Check out his talk from GSummit 2013 to see what Kiip has been up to since then, the great success they’ve been achieving as a mobile rewards platform, and what it really means to “capture the moment”

If you’re interested in seeing Brian’s slides from his presentation, you can download it from the GSummit SF 2013 Slides page and be sure to subscribe to your YouTube channel to get all the latest videos as they come.

 

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J.C. Penny Sale Fail

5 Gamification Lessons From J.C. Penney’s Epic Sales Failure

Heong Weng Mak714 mins

Imagine if retailers decide that it will treat its customers fairly and honestly. There would be no more deceptions, no more tricks. Any item that was made and sold would be priced non-deceptively. Surely a well informed, objective customer would gladly embrace this honest approach to pricing if it makes shopping better for everyone, right? As J.C. Penny (JCP) and recently ousted CEO goes to show, this was unfortunately not meant to be.

In fact, Johnson’s new strategy was a complete and utter disaster.

So, what does the gamification industry have to do with the failed initiative of a retail department’s store? It may seem unintuitive that the gamification industry could learn something from a entirely different field. However, through the gamification lens, we are able to delve into key lessons of the gamification process.

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bbva game

The BBVA Game: A Shining Example of Gamification in Finance

Ivan Kuo01 mins

We initially covered the BBVA Game as one really great case study for an effective use of gamification in consumer finance and this past GSummit, we were actually able to get a representative all the way from Spain to talk about some of the incredible stats the game was able to achieve for the bank. The BBVA game also led them to win the “Best Use of Engagement Techniques in Consumer-Facing Applications” at the 2013 GAwards.

Take a look at Javier Maroto, Innovation Manager at BBVA, to see what well-designed gamification can be capable of.


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mark goldstein

Mark Goldstein Explains the Problem with Modern Loyalty Programs

Ivan Kuo02 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts. This week’s guest was Mark Goldstein, Chairman of BackOps and loyalty industry veteran.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, August 1 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we feature Tacy Trowbridge, who is the Head of Education Programs at Adobe. Watch the show to learn about all of Adobe’s gamified education initiatives!

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this week’s episode, Gabe and Mark discuss the problems that exist in modern loyalty, why they’re there, and how to overcome them. One great quote from Mark:

“The problem with most loyalty programs is that people simply don’t level up to get to the fun part”

What does he mean? Watch the episode below to find out:



Download this episode (right click and save)

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gamification startups

Gamification Startups Are Finding New Niches and Greater Profits

Kevin Shane25 mins

Gamification startups are still finding innovative methods to stake their places in new niches while producing large profits. Businesses are looking for new techniques and methods to establish their presence as the first authority to consumers. Many businesses are finding that new competition are ramping up the game which is leaving many to say: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” These new competitors are banking on the ideas and innovations coming from gamification methods and practices lending to impressive startups and profits.

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naureen meraj

Naureen Meraj on Motivational Psychology and The Leadership Game

Ivan Kuo12 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts. This week’s guest was Bob Marsh, CEO of LevelEleven, which is a company that develops gamification apps for Salesforce.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this week’s episode, Gabe asks Naureen about her work at NTT Data as a behavioral psychologist who led the implementation of a leadership game worldwide. Expect to learn the nuts and bolts that go into such a big implementation, important global design principles, and measuring engagement.



Download this episode (right click and save)
Keep up with NTT Data’s work by following them on Twitter at @NTTDATAAmericas

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game mechanics

Focus on the Game Mechanics, Not the Game

Kevin Shane23 mins

While games are an important and fun aspect of gamification, the main focus of gamification should not be the games, but rather the game mechanics. Game mechanics are what makes gamification so motivating and flexible; depending on the goal for implementing gamification, the games may vary considerably, but the most basic game mechanics will have the same purpose: to engage the user. Because of this, when companies evaluate the impact of gamification, they should not be focused on how many points the user achieved or whether or not they won the game, but rather on the increase or decrease in their productivity after the installment of game mechanics.

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bob marsh

Bob Marsh on Motivating Employees with Competition

Ivan Kuo02 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts. This week’s guest was Bob Marsh, CEO of LevelEleven, which is a company that develops gamification apps for Salesforce.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, August 1 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we feature Naureen Meraj, Senior Global Director, Gamification & Strategic Engagement at NTT Data.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this week’s episode, Gabe and Bob discuss the theory behind motivating sales teams with gamification mechanics. They explore interesting topics as to why employees need more motivation beyond commission, what really determines an effective salesman, how gamification allows employees to track performance, and what’s unique about LevelEleven’s approach to gamification design. They also take a number of questions from the audience and a special video guest who comes on to ask about the potential for gamification desensitization in the future. Watch the full video below:



Download this episode (right click and save)
Check out LevelEleven to learn more about their Salesforce offerings and be sure to follow Bob on Twitter at @BobMarsh5

Be sure to check out next week’s episode on Thursday at 1PM ET.

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tim chang gabe zichermann

Tim Chang on Why Gamification Works as a VC

Ivan Kuo12 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts. This past week’s guest was Tim Chang, Gamification VC and Managing Director of the Mayfield Fund.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, July 25 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we feature Bob Marsh, CEO of LevelEleven as our next guest.

In this week’s episode, Gabe and Tim get down into the nitty gritty on why gaming and gamification have always made sense as a business practice. Learn how an accomplished venture capitalist sees gamification and get a new perspective on the design practice. Also take a look to learn about Tim’s investment sensibilities as it comes to gamification and Tim’s investment case for gamification.

To learn more about gamification in ed and government, follow Tim on Twitter at @timechange.

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The Goldman Sachs NYC Scavenger Hunt for Charity

Alex Landa35 mins

With the simple rules “do not tamper with the clues” and “no private motorized transport”, 20 Goldman Sachs employee teams armed with bubble gum cards, a seating chart for Kevin Bacon’s wedding, a plastic cube, and a three-stanza poem all competed to win the scavenger hunt Midnight Madness.

Originally founded in 1996 by Mat Laibowitz and his Columbia University friend Dan Michaelson, these teams of NYC based financiers and some of their friends took to the streets to decipher clues to win the hunt – all for charity. For almost two days, these contestants live in their own reality solving puzzles that would make even Sherlock Holmes or the most hardened gamer cringe.

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employees accept gamification

6 Tips for Getting Employees to Accept Your Gamification System

Gal Rimon36 mins

Julie has recently been hired to a global sales team, she is eager to prove her worth. She keeps receiving countless emails letting everyone know her new co-workers are being awarded badges and accumulating points in some way. When she tries to find out why she is getting all these public notifications that are clogging up her inbox, her manager tells her it’s some gaming platform his boss made him use – “it’s a mandate from up high, I had nothing to do with it”.

During lunch, her cubicle mate tells her that three months ago the company decided to implement a gaming platform announced with great fanfare by the higher ups, but since then the only thing that’s different is that they have a desktop app that gives them “meaningless points for meaningless actions”. Once her lunch break is over, she marks all the emails as spam.

Could this have turned out differently?

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measuring the ROI of gamification

How to Measure the ROI of Gamification

Gal Rimon45 mins

Measuring ROI is an elusive task: you have external factors that affect the results; measuring the baseline is a subjective process; forecasting future impact is hard and even calculating the actual investment is a project by itself.

That said, one can measure almost anything (I recommend reading the book How to Measure Anything). There are testimonies of increased sales results after implementing gamification systems by 5-15%. But, I believe we need to dive in to understand how to analyze success.

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