In the Aug. 29 issue of Marketing, Alicia Androich explores how gamification can raise consumer engagement for incentive marketers. In researching the story, she spoke with the founder of I Love Rewards, which specializes in “results-driven employee rewards and recognition solutions” that can serve as a case study for other companies.
Incentive marketing company I Love Rewards uses several game mechanics to drive employee behaviour through online reward programs for both its clients – which include 3M and Eli Lilly – and its own business.
Razor Suleman, the Toronto-based company’s founder and CEO, says posting leaderboards, for example, taps into the “innate human drive” to be number one. Transparency with real-time rankings is a huge motivator – especially for salespeople. “They can’t really brag about their commission cheque, but with public recognition they get bragging rights.”
Suleman’s company uses an internal recruiting program called “Rock Star Recruiting” in which employees help fill niche positions. There are three
levels to the program, and those who make the third level by recommending a candidate who gets hired win a lavish trip to Las Vegas.
It’s had a massive impact on recruiting: 45% of the company’s hires are now a result of the program (it was only around 7% when the program rolled out in January).
As Suleman tells clients eager to gamify their incentive programs, “You can’t just play a game if it doesn’t align to a challenge; do you want to double sales in a year, lower recruiting costs?”
To read Alicia Androich’s full story, “Get In the Game,” pick up the Aug. 29 issue of Marketing.
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