Interview: Parenting and Communicating with I’mOK
Mother’s Day is almost here, and with it comes the necessary phone calls, gifts, and communication around showing appreciation for all of those hard working mommas out there. I recently had a conversation with Matthew Bromberg, founder and CEO of I’mOK, an interesting app for parents and mothers. I’mOK aims to improve communication between children and parents and…
Messy Business: Diapers and Loyalty
A family may go through 10,000 diapers or more per child in the pre-potty training years of a baby’s life. The volume of diapers consumed and the frequency with which they are purchased can make them one of the largest regular expenses for growing families. Add to this the recent announcements by two major producers…
Chromaroma Adds Some Color to London Commutes
If everyone can agree on one thing, it is probably that commuting is terrible. A repetitive, daily frustration. What if, though, instead of simply getting on the train where you always do and getting off where you always do, you were gaining points, both for yourself and for a team? What if you gained additional…
The Proof is in the Playboy
Bunchball’s gamification campaign with Playboy digital has shown promising results. According to an interview with Bunchball’s chief product officer Rajat Paharia in VentureBeat, “We’ve seen huge growth in gamification over the past year and we’re thrilled to see that translate into genuine customer demand.”
Will RunKeeper Keep You Moving?
From the initial email you receive when you first sign up for RunKeeper, an exercise tracking and companion site, you get the feeling of a strong community. “You’re not alone on the road to reaching your goals- the RunKeeper community is here to support you along the way!”, says the message from CEO Jason Jacobs….
Help CSU Researchers Define Gamer Personalities
From the very first time I started researching Bartle’s player types, I’ve been fascinated by how well this taxonomy of player motivations for games maps to my understanding of the “non-game world”. For those who aren’t familiar, Bartle’s player types are a typology developed by Richard Bartle to understand the motivations of people who play…
iCivics Teaches Civic Duty
Education games have a tenuous history. I’m sure many readers brought up during the early days of attempts to put computers in school still harbor a deep loathing for Mavis Beacon and a deep confusion as to why teachers thought playing Oregon Trail exclusively for the hunting portion was educational in any way. Times have…
Announcing GSummit NYC Sept 2011
Today, we are announcing the Gamification Summit NYC 2011. Taking place on September 15-16, the event delves into how the techniques of social games and game mechanics can be used to engage audiences and drive behavior change in advertising, finance, branding, publishing, education, health, the enterprise and more. Speakers include Susan Bonds, the designer behind…
Why we gamify
O’Reilly Radar just put up a new post by our own Gabe Zichermann exploring “The purpose of gamification“. Gamification has been differentiating itself from the earlier attempts at dragging games out of entertainment such as advergaming and in-game advertising. It is quickly taking hold as a viable process not only in advertising but also within areas as…
Microsoft Unveils Ribbon Hero 2.0
We all know the pain of watching the uninitiated perform seemingly simple tasks on computers. Without the shortcuts and time savers that have become second nature, watching others use the computer can be as painful as nails on a chalk-board. But even software “experts” often utilize only 10% of any given software, so no matter who you…
O’Reilly Gamification Master Class
O’Reilly’s Gamification Master Class video has just been released as well as the early digital version of Gabe Zichermann’s new book, Gamification By Design. The Master Class video gives viewers the tools to understand the true power of games and how they can work with your business. It includes in depth coverage on the cutting edge…
Knowsy Knows Ad Games
The foundation of marketing is beginning to shift. For many decades, TV has been the focus of advertising campaigns, but with the Internet, social media, and now games, the structure of advertising has been forced to follow the audience to increasingly interactive mediums. Right now, social media is king, but quickly games will be the…
Games are the new TV
Increasingly, cable television has been threatened by alternative outlets like Hulu, NetFlix, and Apple TV for viewership and advertising. Hulu’s freemium and the ease of use of Netflix are far more engaging than channel surfing on Cabletown ever could be (not to mention cheaper). In his most recent post on Econsultancy, Gabe Zichermann argues that games represent…