How to reach your financial goals through Gamification

We live in a world where 39% of adults would find it difficult to spend $400 for an unforeseen expense, without borrowing or selling something they own. For most of us, personal finance is boring. The idea of forcing yourself to limit your spending habits is certainly not a simple task. However, saving and spending money can turn into a game, a game where you can make your own rules or follow the rules of others.

As a result, fintech innovators came up with a novel approach, that of gamifying spending and savings. They’re using game design techniques to engage people in a non-gaming context. It is a fun and competitive way to challenge yourself and transform savings into a daily routine. 

What is Gamification?

It is a way of adding game mechanics into nongame contexts (scoring and winning while competing with others). It is frequently used by businesses in marketing campaigns and loyalty programs, to increase customer engagement and awareness. Gamified products and services stimulate users to reach a financial goal through competition, points, achievements, rules of play, and other methods.

3 Mobile Apps that can help you Gamify your finances

1.       Venmo

Simply put, Venmo is a money transfer service. Back in 2013, the company was purchased by PayPal and as we speak, it’s still under their control. It is a mobile-oriented App, without a web feature available. As transactions occur, users can decide to share purchasing habits on a social news feed with other Venmo clients. Many consider it entertaining since users can leave comments and reactions on those transactions that are made public.

This works by linking your bank account (debit or credit card) to the Venmo App. It is very common among millennials and younger tech-savvy users. It got so popular for its innovative way of embracing a new kind of money system. Users can pay family and friends by using a phone number or email address. Transactions are categorized based on spending habits and users can access detailed reports to monitor their financial behavior.

2.       Givling

This one is focused on students that need financial support to repay their student loans in a fun and competitive manner. Registered students compete by playing a weekly trivia game on their phones. It was founded by a Stanford University graduate.

Members are randomly assigned to a team of three. To earn points, a team needs to correctly answer several yes-or-no trivia questions to rank higher. At the end of a week, the highest-scoring team gets to split the cash prize three ways. This is available for anyone and a student loan is not required to participate.

For students that need financial support to repay their loans, they need to enroll in a so-called ‘Givling Queue’. To get in the funding queue, students need to collect as many points as they can. Points can be earned by either playing trivia for free, by watching sponsor ads, by purchasing Givling merchandise, by inviting friends to participate, and by following Givling on social media. The maximum amount allocated for a student loan is $50,000.

3.       Long Game savings

By downloading the Long Game Savings app, users can create an FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) savings and spending account. Its main goal is to make it fun for users to save money. When participants make a deposit in their savings account, they don’t just earn interest but are also awarded Coins. These coins can then be used to play games with the chance of winning cash and cryptocurrencies. With every financial goal achieved, users can level up and unlock new games as well as features. Cash earned by playing in-app games can be withdrawn at any point in time.

Create your own game to reach a financial goal

Instead of playing by the rules of others, you can get creative and begin to motivate yourself by sticking to your own rules. Here are some ideas that might inspire you.

·   Agree on ‘no spend’ weeks

Even if it sounds impossible at first, you don’t need to starve to pass this level. If you are eager to have an unforgettable holiday in the summer, ‘no spend’ weeks during cold and quiet seasons might not be so hard in the end. It can be looked at as a good strategy to take baby steps toward bigger financial targets.

When heading to work, bring your own breakfast and coffee instead of stopping by your favorite drive-thru. Forget about happy hour after work and enjoy your favorite beer at home. See, in the end, you’re still doing the same activities but slightly different. Now, try to keep track of your ‘no spend’ week costs and establish what needs to be changed and if it’s worth doing it.

·       Challenge your friends

Create a savings challenge among your friends with a tempting prize. The 52 weeks challenge is an all year competition. To begin, you need to figure out how much money you can put aside each month. Once you find out that amount, add an extra 10% to that number. Simply, divide that number by 52 and you end up with your weekly savings goal. The main purpose of this challenge is to end up saving at least 10% more than you initially thought you could. Based on individual incomes, the one that ends up saving the most wins it all.

·       Sell your old stuff

Always think of people in need and if you can, donate relevant items before posting them for sale. However, old electronics and gadgets can be looked at as an unexplored source of income. If you decide to upgrade your laptop or smartphone, sell your old ones rather than leaving them in a drawer for years. The available e-commerce platforms can accommodate your needs and help with your personal finances by selling unused items.

Bottom line

Who said that saving up can’t be fun? If you find it difficult to put money aside or don’t have enough to cover an unforeseen event, it might be the right time to give gamified saving a chance. Stick to your own rules or use any savings solution that matches your personality and motivates you to dream bigger.

At Oveit, we like the idea of making money social and transparent. We plan to enable economy members to share transactions with each other and add social media features, such as comments and likes for purchased products. Economy members will also have the option to set a spending limit, helping them to reach their financial goals in a responsible way. Stay tuned for more!

July 14, 2020 Economy as a Service, Technology, Uncategorized No comments yet

The shift towards experiential marketing

experiential marketingIt’s one thing to imagine that you are driving a sports car, it’s another to actually be behind wheel and hear the purring engine. It’s one thing to watch a billboard that invites you to visit the Canary Islands, it’s another to feel the sun comforting your skin. It’s one thing to see an online ad and it’s totally different to FEEL the benefits a product can give you.“…Involve me and I learn”, Benjamin Franklin’s quote can be adapted to the experiential marketing scene. “Involve me and I will see and feel how your product can help me”.

More and more brands are using experiences to create a bond between customers and the brand.  This is why I think that more and more event planners should be prepared to host experiential marketing events. Or to include experiential marketing campaigns as part of their existing events.

What is experiential marketing?

If we reach Wikipedia we will find that “Engagement marketing, sometimes called ‘experiential marketing’, ‘event marketing’, ‘on-ground marketing’, ‘live marketing’, ‘participation marketing’, or ‘special events’ is a marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages them to participate in the evolution of a brand or a brand experience. Rather than looking at consumers as passive receivers of messages, engagement marketers believe that consumers should be actively involved in the production and co-creation of marketing programs, developing a relationship with the brand.”

By using experiential marketing brands want to create an emotional connection between themselves and the consumer, connection that most of the times have the power to transform customers into advocates of that particular brand. In a world where the new generation values experience more than things, it is only normal to value powerful memories more than ads and pop-ups.

Experiential marketing is based on one main idea: the live interaction between the potential consumer and the brand. Although we focus on organized events, (and how event planners can partner with brands to create branded events – or even to implement experiential marketing within an existing event) engagement marketing comes in different shapes.  Its purpose is to create a memorable experience, even though sometimes it may seem that there’s no direct connection with the brand itself. A wonderful example is the Piano Staircase, from Volkswagen, a campaign that at first has almost no connection with an automotive company. But innovation and fun will always stick to people’s minds, and this campaign was highly appreciated all over the world. A good experiential marketing campaign can be more powerful than any form of “classic” marketing.

An example of a great experiential marketing event is Smirnoff’s Comic Book party, where attendees walked into a…you guessed it. Whether you like comic books or not (if this is even possible) I think that walking into a Comic Book will make an impression. Will make you take pictures and share them. Will make you talk about the party. And definitely will make you remember the brand.

What about the numbers?

I know, the theory sounds good, but do the numbers support it? A study conducted by Mosaic and the Event Marketing Institute revealed that  74% of consumers said they are more likely to buy products after they had a quality experience within a branded event. Furthermore, 98% percent of consumers said they take at least one photo during experiential marketing events and all of them (100%) said they share this content!  

Event planners can create experiential marketing events from scratch for clients that understand the power of experiences. A bond between the consumer and the brand is more important than an individual sale made using an AdWords campaign. Don’t get me wrong, keyword campaigns are very important, but their direct effect is different from that of an experiential marketing campaign. Aiming for different objectives, but not excluding each other).

Experiential marketing campaigns can also be integrated into already existing events. Festivals and conferences offer brands the chance to interact with a large number of people that are craving for memorable experiences (this is why they are there in the first place).

Oveit will support your efforts

Using a smart event management software, like Oveit, you will be able to make the experience even more memorable (especially through NFC technology). As you probably know, you can set up cashless payment systems to reduce queues, a very important aspect related to attendees’ overall satisfaction. But for experiential marketing events NFC wristbands can also be used for:

Gamification: the NFC chip is paired with the ticket (that acts like an account) and attendees can use it and mark different checkpoints in the game. You can also use them for interactive screens, to connect the character in the game with your attendee.

Perks: the wristbands can store perks (gifts, promotional merchandise, etc) and attendees can claim them by simply tapping the wristband to a reader/NFC-ready mobile device. We all like surprises, so why don’t you and your partners use it to create an even more memorable experience?

Data transfer: the NFC chip can be used by attendees to transfer their information to the brand that hosts the experiential marketing campaign. It’s easier than ever, with a simple tap, and the best part is that the transfer works both ways: the attendee can receive an email with a link that opens his/her way to new memorable experiences (for example, a registration link to an exclusivist party, sent only to those that take part at this experiential campaign hosted at a large conference).

We see how more and more brands are turning towards experiential marketing campaigns, and how more and more people appreciate the work event planners put in. Shifting our attention towards real experiences can only enrich us and more and more people will focus on feelings and memories. So be prepared, event planners.

February 21, 2018 Event management, Event professionals, Events 3 comments

How will your event app increase attendee engagement?

Technology really changed the event management game. From ticketing software, badges, or payments, to the way we gather information from our attendees, everything has changed due to tech.

The rise of smartphones offered event planners the chance of adding a new asset: the event app, a powerful tool when it comes to both gathering data and engaging attendees.

EVENT APP

Attendees engagement is crucial for every event planner. And event apps are great when it comes to measuring it. Further than the show/no-show rate, we all want to know if the attendees really were connected to our event. What are they curious about? What made them lose interest? And the event app is able to gather this information for you. You will know how many people downloaded the app, how many accounts have been activated, what messages generate interest and much more. All with the help of the app’s reports and analytics. But first things first:

What is customer engagement?

Customer engagement is best defined by the guys at Intercom in their powerful “Customer engagement” ebook:

“Communicating with your customer over the course of their lifecycle to help them get to the outcome that they want”. I really love the way they put the customer first. “To get the outcome that they want!” So the best practices involve putting your customer at the center of your activity. I am sure it is not the first time you hear this idea, but it can’t harm to hear it once more. When sketching the app for your event, ask yourself: How will it help attendees? How easily can someone create an account? What’s the added value for my guests?

Event app prior to the event

You can encourage your attendees to install the app just after they buy the ticket and supply them valuable information prior to the event. But try not to overwhelm them with your messages and send only valuable information (otherwise, why would they use it?).

Make sure you provide a schedule for the event and info about the speakers/artist, this is something most people will find extremely useful.

Using the app during the event 

The best moment to engage your attendees is, of course, during your event. But make sure you don’t use it to distract them, or it may backfire. Social media integration will help your attendees’ networking efforts, but at the same time can be used to create buzz around your event.

Gamification will motivate engagement and at the same time will help your attendees network. And considering that events are based on experiences more than anything else, it is a great way to ensure a level of loyalty from your guests.  

But don’t create an event app just for gamification, a smart event management app – like Oveit – can be used for gamification without the cost of another app.

Use polls and survey to increase engagement 

What is the best way to find out what your customers really want? By simply asking them. If you can’t read minds, of course. Remember using paper and pen for surveys and polls, asking attendees to “keep one and hand the rest to the person in your left/right/back”. Those days are over and now everybody can vote or offer feedback using the event app, in a much simpler manner. For both attendees and organizers.

Offer certification for your attendees

If your event has seminar sessions hosted by certified trainers your attendees can receive a certification for attending them. And your event app can help you automate this process and send the certification to your attendees. Simply connect their personal profiles to a specific seminar and they will be able to receive the diploma when the seminar is over. You can use the app to test their skills and give certification only to those that have answered correctly to a certain number of questions.

The event app will increase the engagement of your attendees and will help you collect relevant data about your guests. But when aiming for increased customer engagement remember to use your energy so that the attendees get the outcome that they want. And the app makes no exception.

February 2, 2018 Event management, Event professionals, Event tech, Events No comments yet