Guest Editorial: Gamification of Loyalty - improving customer engagement

Guest Editorial by Aaron Carr, CEO, Friendefi


With loyalty program membership levels hitting new worldwide records and U.S. households only active in 12 of the 29 programs they belong to1, its no wonder that member engagement is an increasing priority for loyalty programs.

Enter gamification, the practice of using game mechanics to make otherwise regular tasks and activities more fun to do. Loyalty marketers are increasingly viewing gamification as a complementary approach that can help strengthen their own customer engagement efforts. As cited last year in The Wise Marketer, companies are increasingly incorporating gamification through their digital channels in order to encourage customers to interact with them and to elicit important information from them2. This has great importance for customer engagement, The Wise Marketer argues, because loyalty program members can be more readily engaged in contests and polls to capture demographic, preference, and purchase intention data.

But, the opportunities to boost loyalty program member engagement don’t end with better data capture. In an increasingly digital world, gamification also offers a framework for motivating members to learn about your program, interact with partner offers, and to share (or even compete) with their friends.  American Airlines’ AAdvantage Passport Challenge offered loyalty members the opportunity to earn stamps for their digital passport as well as miles for completing various AAdvantage program and partner games and trivia from their computer or mobile phone, netting the airline a significant increase in purchasing at partners during the promotion as well as a 500% ROI3. Customers reported spending 15-20 minutes playing the various games and trivia, which tested their knowledge of American’s AAdvantage program and partner offers.

Air Canada has also adopted gamification to boost flight behaviour amongst its most frequent flyers with their ‘Earn Your Wings’ promotion each Fall4. The promotion pits flyers against one-another on a leaderboard in an effort to see who can travel the furthest during the promotional timeframe. Air Canada has evolved this promotion over the past 3 years and now only targets their top flyers who demonstrate a healthy appetite for competition. Participants are motivated to check their standings regularly, in particular after recently taken flights.

Social sharing and advocacy is another important feature within most gamification frameworks. Many ‘gamified’ promotions encourage participants to share brand messages and to invite their friends to join. This can be even more powerful when loyalty currencies are on offer. Aeroplan piloted social referral last year with their Connections campaign (in partnership with Air Canada) offering existing members miles for getting their friends to enroll in the program. The campaign provided participants with an online dashboard showing how many friends accepted their invitations as well as their progress towards their rewards goals.

Gamification is still a young practice, especially amongst loyalty marketers. But with multi-channel engagement an increasing priority amongst programs, it will undoubtedly play an increasingly important role in the years ahead. To find out more about gamification, you can check out Friendefi's website or contact via email Aaron Carr, its CEO.

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