June 12, 2026
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loyalty

john reynolds for restaurant.com

How Restaurant.com Creates Loyalty with Gamification

Kevin Shane01 mins

Restaurant.com is the largest source of dining deals in the nation. Despite the huge inventory of amazing offers, the company needed a way to create, sustain and socialize customer loyalty. So they turned to gamification with amazing results. Along the way, Restaurant.com learned some of the best — and worst — ways to create customer loyalty with gamification.

Learn from their lessons as Restaurant.com CRM Manager, John Reynolds, and Badgeville Producer, Zachary Bodnar, walk us through some design principles and lessons learned for achieving loyalty success in ecommerce.
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 John’s presentation by downloading it here.

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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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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 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:




Download this episode (right click and save)
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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earn your wings foodie badge

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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Foursquare and the Fun Gap: What Foursquare Should Have Been

Gabe Zichermann410 mins

Today Foursquare announced a new round of debt-based financing amounting to $41M in loans and convertible notes. It has been controversial, because debt-based financing suggests the company has a significant performance problem (Jason Gelman has a good wrap-up of the spirited discussion). Foursquare’s problem has become increasingly clear to Gamification folks over the past two years – it’s just not fun anymore. In the transition from a (great) game to a (good) loyalty program to a (mediocre) recommendations engine, they lost the plot, alienated customers and wasted a ton of resources and time.

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Bitcoin: The First Universal Loyalty Program Currency

Gabe Zichermann68 mins

Bitcoin — the buzzy virtual currency that’s focused on privacy — continues to gain major traction. For some time you’ve been able to pay for games (or a hitman), invest your earnings and speculate on Bitcoins. In recent days, it’s become possible to use the world’s first Bitcoin ATM and pay your employees in Bitcoins. In short, Bitcoin is angling to be the first broadly accepted virtual currency not issued by a nation-state.

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6 Steps to Successful Loyalty Programs that Win

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan27 mins

Reward programs are nothing new. They all work under the simple premise of “more you do business with us, the more we will recognize your loyalty in the form of discounts and/or prizes.” For example, airlines give out frequent flyer miles that can be redeemed for free trips depending on how many times you have flown with that certain airline. Rewards program extend to any and all retail, from airlines to Starbucks to your local gelato store. However, did you know that in 2011, it was reported that Americans accumulated $48 billion dollars on loyalty programs. What’s worse, $16 billion of that $48 billion went unredeemed. Would you ever want to throw away a third of your money?

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Wufasta Aims to Reward Video Game Loyalty with Physical and Digital Prizes.

Ivan Kuo134 mins

Many people believe the video game console market is dead. In the face of growing mobile and casual games market, some would even go so far to say that traditional games are dead altogether. While we won’t know what the market will shape out to be just yet, there is one thing for certain: there are die-hard loyalists on each side of the spectrum and TechCocktail has recently written about a new startup wants to start rewarding these people.

Wufasta will be partnering with companies to produce branded promotions, reward gamers for completing in-game challenges, and even sponsoring professional completive gamers.

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GSummit 2012 Behind the Scenes: Josh Kramer

Ivan Kuo01 mins

(4/26 Gamification Expert Interviews Unlocked)

Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.

Watch Josh Kramer, Founder of Leapfrog Builders, explain where he thinks the future of loyalty systems are:

To see more expert gamification videos, visit our Video  page or Subscribe to our YouTube channel!

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New Vendors Added to the Gamification Buyer’s Guide – 3/1/2013

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Need a place to start looking for gamification solutions? Our gamification buyer’s guide is a comprehensive database featuring numerous prominent companies, their vital stats, and a filtering system to find which company is right for you. Here are this week’s new gamification solutions added to the Buyer’s Guide:

  • FantasySalesTeam is an application that allows sales teams to run more engaging sales contests based on fantasy sports concepts.
  • Mobitto is a crowdsourced mobile loyalty app that rewards people for doing the things they like the most.
  • PAKRA works with you to understand the knowledge, skills and behaviors critical to maximizing your customers experience, and to explore opportunities for business improvement across all channels of contact

See the full gamification Buyer’s Guide for the complete list of gamification vendors. If you would like to be apart of the Buyer’s Guide,

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Modern Loyalty Done Right: MOGL Joins Virgin America for More Loyalty Rewards

Ivan Kuo33 mins

Loyalty is changing and MOGL’s gamified rewards platform is really shining through. MOGL is a gamified loyalty platform that rewards users for dining out at restaurants by giving 10% cash back on select restaurants and donating a meal to Feed America for every $20 spent. Their new partnership with Virgin America will allow MOGL to power Virgin’s new Elevate frequent fliers dining program.

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Status in the Subway: Montreal STM Introduces VIP Program

Heong Weng Mak04 mins

Loyalty programs have been commonly associated with airlines and retailers but Montreal’s recent plans may soon change that perspective to include public transportation systems. Montreal operates the Opus-à-l’année also know as the Opus & Cie subscriptions, a subscription service which recharges a commuter’s OPUS card automatically every month.
Montreal STM will be introducing a VIP class for its customers, which will only be made available to 20,000 commuters (9% of the 217,000 who regularly buy monthly Société passes). After subscribing for more 12 months, Opus & Cie users will be given the opportunity to upgrade to their new “maestro” status.

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