May 16, 2026
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gamification revolution

Rajat Paharia discusses Loyalty 3.0 and the State of the Industry

Ivan Kuo01 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 Bunchball Co-Founder, Rajat Paharia.

In Rajat’s second appearance on the show since December, he and Gabe talk about the book’s rise up the New York Times Best Seller List and have a deep discussion on the current shortcomings of the loyalty industry. What’s holding loyalty back now and what will it have to do to really sustain itself in the future? For more information on Rajat’s new book, check out Loyalty30.com. Watch the full video to find out:




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In Rajat’s second appearance on the show since December, he and Gabe talk about the book’s rise up the New York Times Best Seller List and have a deep discussion on the current shortcomings of the loyalty industry. What’s holding loyalty back now and what will it have to do to really sustain itself in the future? Watch the full video to find out:

For more information on Rajat’s new book, check out Loyalty30.com

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Badgeville Rumored to Make Big Organizational Changes Since New CEO

Ivan Kuo22 mins
Things have been relatively quiet at Badgeville since new CEO, Ken Comée, stepped up to the plate back in April to lead the company but we recently received a tip that Badgeville is on its way to making some major organizational changes within the sales department. Comée has a strong track record in growing B2B companies, so this organizational shift is likely part of his strategy to move Badgeville forward.
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Earn Your Wings: Air Canada’s Successful Gamification Venture into Loyalty

Gabe Zichermann211 mins

There’s little question that the loyalty “industry” has an innovation problem. With few exceptions, the world’s largest loyalty programs (mostly in travel, finance and retail) are mostly the same as they were 20 years ago. Social, mobile, gamification have struggled to find a footing, even as they are the entire foundation of next-gen loyalty systems such as those developed by Square, Belly or any number of gamified providers. With so much inertia and torpor, it’s easy to give up on traditional loyalty providers when it comes to innovation…but perhaps the old dog has a few tricks left.

A few weeks ago, through a social sharing post by a friend (this data point will be crucial), I came upon a new promotion run by Air Canada, called Earn Your Wings. The program created a leaderboard of top flyers during the promotional period that were ranked based on a range of activities. These included, but weren’t limited to, miles flown and were supported by a series of badges awarded for different activity loops. Top players split a large pot of 10 million miles at the end of the promotion period, and that activity seemed especially fierce, which is what really excited me.

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engagement platform

The Quest for the Perfect Engagement Platform

Ivan Kuo29 mins

Starting my own company was always the obvious choice. I was raised to look up to entrepreneurs as successful and independent visionaries. I set out to help people to realize the potential of cloud- based services and founded Alien Interactive in 1999. Almost 14 years ago, it was not an easy task. But my vision was bigger than that. I wanted to find a way to offer people what games and sports had offered me; the enjoyment of motivation, determination and deep engagement. The word gamification was not yet heard of but I was fascinated by the thought of making an engaging game out of less exciting work-days. But almost 14 years ago, without the adoption of technology we see today, it was even harder for people to understand that idea than the potential of cloud services.

My entrepreneurial ambition spawned, and still does, from one fundamental stance: There is no reason why work shouldn’t be a thrilling experience. By adding a well-designed engagement system to our enterprise-environment we can take advantage of the elements of games and sports to truly engage users, employees and partners.

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How Keas is Engaging Employees with Wellness and Gamification

Ivan Kuo01 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 Mark Koerner, VP of Product at employee wellness platform Keas.

Gabe and Mark go through some of the features of Keas and discuss how organizations can improve their internal processes by engaging with employee health. Learn about the intricacies of data privacy, the metrics for success, and Keas’ general approach of gamification for health in the video below:



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Evangelizing Gamification in Big Corporations with Thomas Hsu

Ivan Kuo11 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.

Our next episode is taking place Thursday –  June 27th at 1PM EST, featuring Mark Koerner – VP or Product at Keas. 

This past week’s guest was Thomas Hsu, Social Collaboration and Gamification, Accenture. Gabe and Thomas talk about how Accenture first was able to adopt gamification into their collaborative sphere and what Thomas had to go through as an early gamification evangelist into the company. If you’re in a similar position as Thomas in wanting to bring gamification into a large company, this will be a good video to see:

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top influencers at GSummit SF 2013

How to Drive Repeat Traffic to Your Blog with a Monthly Top Influencer Leaderboard

Toby Beresford58 mins

For most gamifiers, a social media presence is a must-have to promote gamification skills and your services in particular.

Whether offering a software as a service or consulting (check out the list of vendors in the GCo buyers guide), a blog is a must have.

We all know that getting people to read our blogs and keep coming back for more is a tricky behavior to encourage but as with many desired behaviors, gamification certainly can help.

I’ve been using a few simple gamification mechanics for nearly two years to drive repeat, valuable, VIP traffic to my personal blog (GOW). In this post I want to share the approach and learnings with other gamification.co readers.

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Mandatory Fun: New Gamification Research from Wharton

Gabe Zichermann36 mins

One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is: “What are the biggest mistakes/risks/pitfalls of Gamification?” My answer almost always includes a cautionary note about the risks of compelling people to “play” gamified experiences, because using force reduces a sense of agency. This is a trap many companies fall into when they gamify an employee process. No matter how much money they spend building an amazing, engaging system, many HR folks fail to consider how they’ll get users to participate beyond “they have to”, or “this is the new process.”

New gamification research out this week from UPenn’s Wharton Business School puts a spotlight on this thorny question, looking at the efficacy of sales team gamification when it’s optional vs compulsory through a primary research project at a high-growth tech startup. The results indicate that gamification is effective at improving employee satisfaction, but if its compulsory it may actually reduce their overall affect.

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The Strategy Behind Gamification Consulting in Europe with Bart Briers

Ivan Kuo11 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.

Our next episode is taking place Thursday –  June 20th at 1PM EST, featuring Thomas Hsu of Accenture. 

This past week’s guest was Bart Briers, Director of Services and Solutions at CTG Belgium. Gabe and Bart talk about Bart’s approach to gamification consulting, what clients expect from Bart’s services, and even a story about training on a…train. Watch the full interview below to learn more:

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Case Study: eLearning Tourism Training Tool Raised Engagement by 65%

Ivan Kuo07 mins

Product eLearning has experienced huge growth in the travel and tourism sector in the last few years. In the UK alone there are over 300 free training courses available to travel agents. Organisations such as SeaWorld, Avis and British Airways have used eLearning as an advertising medium with transparent results and measurable ROI. However, eLearning didn’t just come out of the blue; we created it as a way to solve some problems specific to our problems in training within the travel industry.

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Objective Logistics Rewards Wait Staff Employees for Good Services

Kevin Shane24 mins

Americans tend to eat about five meals per week in restaurants. But how often do you go to a restaurant and vow never to return because of bad service? Some food service industry businesses fail based on the personalities of their servers rather than the quality of the food being served. For the business owners, this can feel like an unearned failure, which is why it’s important to make good decisions when hiring employees.

And this isn’t some tightly-kept trade secret. Customers know this and business owners know this. Customers are more likely to return if they’re treated well. Therefore, business owners — especially those in the service industry — have a remarkable incentive to retain highly performing service workers by rewarding them with desirable shifts and, especially in the case of food service, more generous financial bonuses. Objective Logistics, an innovative company in the broad category of gamification startups, is offering a service to restaurants that rates and manages servers in the food service industry.

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Ross Smith on Engaging Quality Assurance Teams at Microsoft

Ivan Kuo01 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 Ross Smith, Director of Test at Microsoft. Ross Smith was responsible for the creation of the language quality assurance game, making the process significantly faster and more effective. Learn more about Ross’ current projects as a part of 42projects‘ management innovation team by watching Gabe Zichermann’s full interview with Ross.


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SAP Database Tech Has Been Mashed With CRYENGINE3

Mario Herger02 mins

The German consulting company IDS Scheer won 2nd place in the finals of the recent SAP HANA Partner Race, a contest showcasing applications based on SAP’s in-memory technology HANA. What was especially compelling with the IDS Scheer demo was the usage of the well-known German game-studio’s CryTek game engine CRYENGINE3. CryTek, know for their blockbuster games from the Crysis-Series, provides a game engine that game-developers can use and built their own game.

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Why Gamification Design Should be Individual-Focused

Kevin Shane34 mins

While there are many benefits to gamification and many businesses are using this practice to make their website more engaging, the methods used by practicing businesses could often be more effective. Many businesses who integrate game dynamics within their company are often too focused on a corporate level, rather than the gamification of individuals. Because people play games for their own enjoyment, gamification that is too general is often ineffective due to its irrelevance to customers or employees.

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