Gamification has a couple of very interesting objectives that we are going to explain in details in this post.
The first one is “to encourage an active and measurable behavior”. The implementation of gaming mechanics is one of the most efficient way to involve people in activities on the site or service. It’s a really special participation because it’s an active one: the user does something!
It’s obvious that an active contribution is more efficient than a passive one because the communication message is connected to the action itself and is melted in the context of the experience.
In this kind of environment lies another fundamental advantage: the behavior of the audience is measurable, gathering data based on actions that users do inside the game. In this way, it’s possible to profile the audience, focusing better on the target user or expanding the target audience.

These arguments lead us to the second objective: “to drive the attention of the users on the communication message”. The gamification becomes the means to convey the pieces of information and user attention can be driven on the campaign or the brand. For example, gamifying a website we can better promote the communication message, improve the involvement of the audience, reach different types of demographic categories.

This kind of communication works because it leverages on the desires and fundamental needs of people; gamification gives objectives to be reached, rewards to be earned, competition among users, self expression in the community. In fact gamification is social: users can discuss and share experiences related to the site or service.
In the upcoming post we’re going to explore the mechanics and dynamics of the gamification and the different kinds of solutions that it has started to breed.