CrowdTwist recently announced a Series A round of funding of $6M from lead investors SoftBank Capital and Fairhaven Capital. CrowdTwist is a social loyalty and rewards platform that draws heavily from the loyalty side of gamification with a focus towards rewards, monetization, and a strong analytics platform, and the new round is a signal in the future…
Geoff Lewis from TopGuest begins by describing a Williamsburg Hipster, a trendsetter who knows what’s cool before it’s cool. The idea of a “hipster” first emerged in 1999, and by 2003 it was the cover story in “Time Magazine.” Now the hipster is so mainstream, Lewis suggests, that maybe 30% of the people in this…
Moderator, Byron Reeves from Stanford University engages panelists, Charlie Kim of NextJump, Obie Fernandez of Dueprops, Mario Herger of SAP, Kes Sampathar of Cynergy, and Maksim Ovsyannikov of Rypple on how large enterprises and innovative startups are constantly seeking ways to attract, retain, train and incentivize their top-performing employees. Kim talks about how experimenting with…
Moderator, Byron Reeves from Stanford University engages panelists, Charlie Kim of NextJump, Obie Fernandez of Dueprops, Mario Herger of SAP, Kes Sampathar of Cynergy, and Maksim Ovsyannikov of Rypple on how large enterprises and innovative startups are constantly seeking ways to attract, retain, train and incentivize their top-performing employees. Increasingly, they are turning to Gamification…
Sarah Faulkner from Microsoft showed up to talk about the release of Ribbon Hero II, Micorsoft saw in the first version of Ribbon Hero that users that played two challenges, almost always subsequently played 10 or more. In version II they added colorful engaging levels. The challenge idea was successful but the game itself wasn’t…
After a delicious lunch, Sarah Faulkner from Microsoft showed up to talk about Gamification – after all Gartner Group is predicting that over 50% of the world’s largest companies will be actively gamifying by 2015. With millions of users playing Ribbon Hero to interact with its Office suite, Microsoft has pulled off a coup –…
In Classroom A down the hall from the theater, Aaron Forth of Intuit/Mint.com is speaking about ways to make finance fun! I know, I know. How can that be? But Mint.com has found a way to attract 6 million users since 2007 to a fun and engaging design that uses gamification to encourage major changes…
The gamification space is continuing to heat up. We’ve already seen innovative campaigns, great client growth, and large rounds of funding, but today, BigDoor is announcing the first acquisition in the space in a partnership with OneTrueFan. OneTrueFan is a service for web publishers that enables visitors to earn points for their online activity and…
by Kevin Shane and Jeff Lopez In the past, one of the largest impediments to using games for accomplishing real world goals has been the response that the word “games” triggers in business and policy circles. But in the past few years, we have noticed a shift. Games–and now gamification–have both become accepted as a serious…
Gamification of the enterprise focuses on how autonomy and fun can lead to more productive work. An article from last week’s Wall Street Journal provides support for this idea with insight into the benefits of web surfing in the office. The new study on the “Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement,” by Don J.Q. Chen and…
Motivation in sales and innovation is one of the fastest growing sectors for gamification. Today, Bunchball–the first company to offer a gamification platform for brand engagement–is announcing Nitro for Salesforce and entering the market to bring gamification to the enterprise. Nitro for Salesforce grows from many of the key mechanics that have already proven to encourage…
This week, Gartner updated their analysis on the hype cycle of various areas in tech to include gamification. The hype cycle measures new technologies from their first appearance in research, through media hype and criticism, and finally to the plateau of productivity. Where does gamification stand? According to Gartner, it is just finishing its initial rise. Expectations of the…
I hate George Clooney. For a solid twelve months after “Up In The Air” was released, every Power Point deck at every trade show conference in the travel industry felt that it was their moral obligation to tie their presentation to a video clip from that movie. Yes, George was on an endless quest for…
As the first part of a series on gamification in Japan, we are sharing a translation of a post by by Koji Fukada and Tomohiro Uogishi from gamification.jp. Hi, folks! Today, let me explain about gamification elements implemented to “KAZASU Coupon,” a coupon distribution service of McDonald’s Japan. Kazasu Coupon is a membership-based service for those who have…
Gamification Co CEO, Gabe Zichermann, recently spoke at the Sustainable Brands conference in Monterey, CA. His talk goes over some of the more interesting uses of gamification as well as the value proposition to brands and companies. At a easily digestible TED style 18 minutes, the video is well worth the time.
