January 31, 2013
When Capgemini wanted to ensure employees worldwide engaged with and understood changes to its brand guidelines in 2012, it turned to ‘gamification’ - or applying game dynamics to a campaign to encourage employees to take part and train them to understand the new guidelines. A multiple choice quiz was developed that rewarded employees who took part collectively and individually, as well as incentivising people to share the quiz with colleagues.
“We had a positive and massive reaction,” says Emmanuel Lochon, head of group advertising, web and branding at Capgemini, which worked with technology platform Leaderboarded on the project. “We have more than 120,000 employees worldwide and almost 20 per cent of the company participated in our game [in just two weeks].
“There was a real buzz and the viral aspect worked really well.” It is part of a growing trend, particularly when it comes to ensuring that employees understand and buy into a brand’s culture and values, and Gartner predicts that by 2014 more than 70 per cent of large global organisations will have at least one ‘gamified’ application, ranging from mastering a specific skill to improving one’s health.
While gamification is an increasingly popular way to encourage brand ambassadors, companies are also using the approach to enable employees to build personal brands. US business consultancy Bluewolf worked with gamification specialist Bunchball to launch #GoingSocial, which helps staff use social media to collaborate more and build up their own reputations and influence - internally and externally.
