With virtual events becoming the norm more and more each day, event runners are getting creative with ways to keep their audience engaged. Gamification for one, has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past couple years, and has proven to be one of the most engaging features for virtual events, especially here on PheedLoop! According to Forbes, using gamified features can help a company boost customer interactions by at least 40%. In this article, we will be discussing how you can use this feature to your advantage and make the most out of your virtual event experience for you and everyone involved at your event!

What is Gamification?

Those who are not familiar with the term must be wondering what exactly gamification is and what could be the benefits of integrating it into your virtual events? First off, gamification is the application of game playing as a marketing or engagement tool in a non-gaming context. Starbucks, Nike and Duolingo are great examples of companies that have successfully integrated gamified features into their marketing strategy. Starbucks has one of the most popular gamified reward and loyalty programs out there, since their customers can buy drinks to rack up points and later use those points to redeem rewards like more free drinks!

In the events industry, you too can set your event up for attendees to partake in game-like activities in exchange for a reward, such as discounts, gift cards, free products/service, etc. This can be a fantastic way to encourage your attendees to participate in event activities, boost your social media presence, generate new sponsorship opportunities and unlock key analytics for future event success. 

Benefits of Gamification

Gamification can be the perfect way to break the ice and create a comfortable and approachable environment for your attendees to connect with speakers, exhibitors, event leaders, peers, etc. There are so many advantages to integrating gamification into your virtual events including:  

• Boosting user interest, engagement and loyalty
• Turning attendees into participants
• Increasing ROI by setting event goals
• Creating networking opportunities
• Making it easier to connect with exhibitors, industry leaders, etc.
• Enforcing teamwork and collaboration
• Highlighting and promoting your sponsors

Prizes

In order to create hype over a gamified experience, prizes are everything. You need to make sure your prizes sound exciting and worth competing for. Although it’s easy to go overboard, you don’t necessarily have to break your bank to secure awesome prizes while planning an event. Some cost-effective prizes that people love include swag kits, gift cards, and even company discounts! Consider using level-based rewards and making sure that the value of your rewards are equivalent to attendees’ quality of participation.

Achieve Event Goals

With gamification, it’s crucial to set business objectives. While it’s meant to lighten the mood and feel more like fun and less like work, it’s still important to set goals and leverage gamified features in a strategic way so that you are enticing your attendees to carry out specific tasks/actions and making the most profit out of your event. For example, participating in sessions, visiting booths, engaging on social media, spreading brand awareness, etc. are all event goals that can be achieved through incentivizing your attendees to participate in gamified activities.

Introducing this idea of competition and achievement is very effective, making the outcome much more appealing to attendees and urging them to participate in gamified activities until they earn that reward. According to a study published by MDPI, integrating gamification regularly can lead to ongoing engagement, which turns behaviors into habits and therefore becomes sustainable engagement. On top of that, participants who engage in gamification feel more in control and empowered, making the whole process a much more positive experience, further reinforcing this behavior.

Gamification at PheedLoop!

With the help of our awesome gamification module, hosting an event on PheedLoop makes it easier than ever to gamify your events, keep your audience engaged and get analytics on the performance of your activities. We offer admins the ability to create custom spot codes (QR codes) worth a certain number of points and they have the option to add prizes, which attendees can earn in exchange for those points. These codes have been a great way to unite on-site and virtual attendees, and can be placed in either exhibit booths, during session streams, announcements or even on social media platforms. What’s even better is that they can be tracked and used to create reports based on the level of engagement they get. 

"Our attendees loved the gamification part of PheedLoop! We put codes everywhere - in sessions, notifications, expo booths, etc. It was a great way to keep attendees engaged throughout the event.” -Holly Bradbury from Tier 1 Performance (G2 Review).

Last year we announced our Team Gamification module, which we keep improving on constantly since everyone seems to love it so much. It features built-in prize redemptions, dynamic leaderboards, scavenger hunts, configurable engagement points, sponsored prizes, QR code scanning for on-site events, and so much more! 

We work very hard on innovating our gamification module more and more every day. Something we’re currently working on and very much looking forward to announcing is our Advanced Touch Point gamification. This new feature will allow admins to assign a certain number of points to attendees for completing specific tasks, making the gamification module much more intuitive than it already is.

Conclusion

It’s evident that implementing gamification can unlock untapped potential for your virtual events and take it to the next level. Incentivizing your attendees not only keeps them engaged, but also creates networking opportunities, boosts your ROI, and can help with promoting valuable sponsorships. When it comes to gamification ideas, don’t be afraid to get creative and think outside the box! Reward your attendees for checking in early, use gamified polling, feedback or branded mini games throughout the event. A great gamified experience can really help your event stand out from the crowd and become memorable for attendees and sponsors alike.