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Gamification for an Engaging Banking Experience

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  • Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking ExperienceJune 2013

    WHITE PAPER

  • 2Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

    Table of Contents

    Preface 3Executive Summary 4Introduction 5 Defi nition: What Is Gamifi cation? 5 Theory Behind: Why Does Gamifi cation Work? 6Case Study of an Electronic Giant: Samsung Nation 7 One Sunny Day in Samsung Nation 7Our Research on Gamifi cation in the Banking Industry 10 About the Questionnaire 10 Banks Plans About Implementing Gamifi cation in Their Digital Channels 10 Gamifi cation and Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Sales Effi ciency 12 Conclusion 13 Interviews 14 Lszl Szirki, Business Support and Development Leader, Budapest Bank 14 Celina Waleskiewicz, Head of New Banking Area, Alior Bank 15 Martin Kolesar, Web and UX Team Manager, ZUNO Bank 16 lvaro Morn Alonso, Innovation Manager, BBVA 19 Jaspar Roos, Inspiration Catalyst, ABN AMRO 21 Kenneth W. Olan, Senior Executive VP, CRMO, First Victoria Bank 22Case Studies 25 DenizBank: The Game-bank 25 Tradition Converted into a Game: Promise to Action 25 Create Your Island 25 Ramadan Campaign 26 Refer a Friend a Member Get Member Programme for a Mobile Wallet 26 Dig & Win 26 Games to Increase Brand Awareness 27 Games to Be Launched Soon 27 AkBank: Gamifi cation Strategies and Global Examples 30 Akbanks Approach on Gamifi cation 30 Trained and Early Adaptor: Turkey 31 Turkish Banks and Gamifi cation 31 Akbank and Gamifi cation 32Conclusion 33About the Author 34About IND 34About Efma 34

  • 3PrefaceEfma and IND are proud to present their joint white paper: Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with an insight into the experience and strategy of banks in terms of gamifi cation - the application of game mechanics to non-game environments - in the fi nancial services industry. The analysis has been carried out on the basis of a digital banking survey with 56 respondents (banks) and on several interviews with bankers.

    Banks know that customer experience has an increasingly important role in the competition and differentiation among fi nancial service providers. Customer experience is a particular key issue in online services as customers face innovative and eye catching services day by day and they expect at least the same level of service from their fi nancial service providers.

    And this is the point where gamifi cation comes into the picture: it can be a great tool to strengthen the emotional link between the bank and its customers. This is an extra connection that could also result in higher engagement with the users.

    Gamifi cation has emerged as an important trend, and it has proved successful in other industries. But what about the banking industry? Have banks already implemented gamifi cation and if yes, what are their experiences? If not, do they have plans of including gamifi cation in their business strategy? These are the questions we attempt to answer in our white paper and we hope that you will fi nd these insights both fascinating and useful.

    Balzs VinnaiCEOIND Group

    Patrick DesmarsSecretary GeneralEfma

  • 4Executive SummaryGamifi cation is a concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications in order to make them more fun and engaging. Game mechanics are important because they increase ones productivity and engagement.

    Case studies from other industries show that gamifi cation can contribute to business goals of a company very effectively. We see a successful deployment of gamifi cation in education for motivating students, in customer service for motivating agents, or in building a community where gamifi cation is in charge of the engagement of the community members.

    The survey carried out among 56 banks indicated that there is a signifi cant difference in the judgement of gamifi cation across regions: banks in South and East Europe are more positive towards gamifi cation than banks in North and West Europe.

    Some European banks (such as BBVA, Akbank and Denizbank) play a leading role when it comes to gamifi cation in the fi nancial services industry. They have already managed to acquire new customers and sell fi nancial products by implementing this new approach. Despite the proven cases when gamifi cation plays a central role in customer acquisition, most banks consider it a tool only for increasing the loyalty of the existing clientele. Thus banks with a mature clientele put a bigger emphasis on gamifi cation than the ones that have been launched just a few years ago.

    The research also revealed that banks in Western and Northern Europe are aware of gamifi cation and its increasing importance, but most of them are still considering how to incorporate this approach into their multichannel strategy. However, gamifi cation in the banking industry has several forms: it can mean gaming, loyalty programmes, or user experience banks apply the approach that fi ts their very own strategy the best. Gamifi cation does not have international best practices; its implementation varies country by country according to the local traditions and the attitude of the customers.

    The following banks revealed their strategy and experience about gamifi cation during our research:

    Akbank (Turkey) launched among others a social game for its SME customers Alior Bank (Poland) does not consider gamifi cation as a key tool in its strategy Budapest Bank (Hungary) believes mobile is the perfect channel for gamifi cation Denizbank (Turkey) reveals impressive fi gures on its gamifi cation campaigns ZUNO Bank (Slovakia) states gamifi cation is their way to communicate to the customers BBVA Bank (Spain) convinces customers to switch to the online channel ABN AMRO (Netherlands) puts customers on the central stage First Victoria (USA) uses gamifi cation for educating and motivating their staff

    Banks that have already applied gamifi cation monitor the return very closely and say that gamifi cation is an investment that generates a positive return. They expect their investments in gamifi cation to pay off in 3-4 years. All these banks will assign an increasing importance to gamifi cation in their digital strategy in the coming years.

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 5The goal isnt gameplay, its on-going engagement. Rajat Paharia, founder and CPO of Bunchball

    IntroductionGamifi cation as a concept goes back to the early 21st century, but it has become a trend just during the past couple of years. As people spend more time online, it is becoming vital to attract them, to keep their interest and to inspire them. Gamifi cation is a perfect way to motivate people since it appeals to our innate human desires: the desire for competing and winning and for making emotional connections.

    We are convinced that its high time to learn more about gamifi cation. A quick look at Google Trends shows us that the public interest in gamifi cation has skyrocketed in the past few years: *

    The purpose of this paper is to gain an overview on how gamifi cation helps fi nancial service providers to achieve their business goals, and how some banks have already implemented gamifi cation. We also look into our crystal ball to see the future of gamifi cation in the fi nancial services industry.

    Defi nition: What Is Gamifi cation?

    As Gamifi cation.org defi nes it, Gamifi cation is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging1. Alternatively, Bunchball says that gamifi cation uses game mechanics to help you drive participation, engagement and loyalty on your online property, site or community.2Gamifi cation means something extra, something challenging and rewarding added to an online service or content, and it aims to increase the users engagement and loyalty.

    1 http://www.gamifi cation.org/2 http://www.bunchball.com/products/gamifi cation

    2011 2013

    * The numbers on the graph refl ect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They dont represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. When we dont have enough data, 0 is shown.

  • 63 http://venturebeat.com/2010/08/25/devhub-scores-engagement-increase-by-gamifying-its-web-site-creation-tools/4 http://www.bunchball.com/products/gamifi cation5 http://www.snowfl y.com/pdf/Teams_V_indiv_Incentives_feb2013.pdf6 http://www.arcaris.com7 http://www.bunchball.com/products/gamifi cation

    Theory Behind: Why Does Gamifi cation Work?

    Online businesses that implemented gamifi cation say the approach helped them motivate their customers to engage more. DevHub, which offers a free website builder tool, announced in August 2010 that they have increased the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding gamifi cation elements3. Thats an impressive result, but how and why does gamifi cation work?

    Psychologists say that game mechanics increase ones productivity and engagement. What are these game mechanics? Theyre tools that leverage our innate desires for competition, achievement, status, reward, self-expression and altruism. They include: Earning badges, trophies and achievements Tracking and rewarding online activity Competing for position on league tables Creating virtual identities for self-expression Collaborating as part of a team Spreading the word via Facebook and Twitter4

    Thus gamifi cation works because it utilizes our innate desires and needs. These desires are a key to motivating individuals. However, motivating individuals is not only important to single customers, but also for teams, e.g. customer service centres. Researchers say that a well-balanced performance-reward programme consists of 75% emphasis on individual behaviour and 25% emphasis on team behaviour.5 This is why several gamifi cation platforms target groups successfully. One example of this is PlayVox6, a people management platform for contact centres. Arcaris Inc, the developer of PlayVox, claims that this platform increases the effi ciency of customer service centres signifi cantly.

    All in all, gamifi cation is built on peoples fundamental needs and desires - among others7 for reward, status, achievement, self-expression, competition, and altruism, which are important both for individual and team motivation.

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 7Start with your objectives, focus on your customers and gamify purposefully8

    Esteban Contreras, Social Media Manager of Samsung Electronics America

    Case Study of an Electronic Giant: Samsung NationSamsung Nation is a great example of successful gamifi cation implementation. Samsung Nation is the exciting new social loyalty program where you earn badges, move up the ranks and have fun discovering everything Samsung.com has to offer.9 as Samsung puts it.

    Samsungs website already had tens of millions visitors daily and they wanted to increase the engagement and the number of product reviews by their visitors. Samsungs aim was to focus on the users already engaged with their brand and to attain a higher engagement from these customers.

    The electronic giant contracted Badgeville to implement its gamifi cation platform which involves game, reputation and social mechanics combined with behaviour analytics in order to motivate users to achieve the desired goals. The visitors gain badges and scores by visiting and reviewing products, by watching videos or by participating in surveys. As a result of implementing the gamifi cation platform, the number of product reviews increased hundreds of percents per month according to Badgeville.

    One Sunny Day in Samsung Nation

    Users who want to take part in the game need to fi rst register, which is very easy and you can also use your Facebook account to register. After the registration you can see a welcome screen showing your score

    8 http://blog.badgeville.com/2012/02/20/ny-times-features-badgeville-customer-samsung-nation/9 http://www.samsung.com/us/samsungnation/

  • 8and also some hints on how to start earning points:

    The newbie receives a clear guidance on what to do and how to earn points it is very useful and you can start earning points immediately. You can read articles, become a fan of Samsungs Facebook site, register Samsung products, submit a product review, ask or answer questions in the Q&A session, watch videos and so forth.

    You are being challenged!

    Whenever you unlock a badge, you will see a notifi cation pop-up at the bottom of your screen:

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 9Why earn points? First of all, its fun. You never know when that pop-up notifi cation appears at the bottom of the page and informs you that you have earned another 100 points. Secondly racking up points and unlocking badges will enable you to qualify for special sweepstakes and for extra content.

    On the leader board you can see your progress and the score of the best players.

    The key to success in this gamifi cation example is that its entirely integrated into Samsungs website and online services, and that its simply beautiful. You are inspired to click on each badge, to see whats behind them, and to understand how to unlock them. And of course a sweepstake for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is also motivating.

    As Esteban Contreras, Samsung Electronics Americas Social Media Manager, puts it: Samsung Nation is a social loyalty program for Samsung customers and fans. Anyone can unlock badges, earn points, level up and have fun discovering everything Samsung.com has to offer.

    A value proposition banks also would favour.

  • 10

    Games are everywhere, and banks need to take notice 10

    JJ Hornblass, bankinnovation.net

    Our Research on Gamifi cation in the Banking IndustryWhether gamifi cation will fl y in the banking industry depends on whether banks believe in it and whether they are ready to invest in it. We searched for the answers to these questions in our research by carrying out a survey among 56 banks and interviewing several bankers on the subject.

    About the Questionnaire

    In the framework of a wider survey we could ask banks also about their attitude towards gamifi cation and we were provided with 56 answers.

    The banks received two gamifi cation related questions:

    Have you considered applying gamifi cation elements to any of your digital channels? How effective do you think gamifi cation can be for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, and for increasing sales effi ciency?

    Banks Plans About Implementing Gamifi cation in Their Digital Channels

    The fi rst question about gamifi cation was: Have you considered applying gamifi cation elements to any of your digital channels? The banks could choose from four options:

    Already applying Considering Not considering Dont know

    The following table displays the number of the answers per region:

    10 http://bankinnovation.net/2010/11/games-without-frontiers-the-role-fun-should-play-in-banking/

    20

    0

    5

    10

    15

    25

    No answerDon't knowNot consideringConsideringAlready

    No region North America Sub-Saharan Africa

    Middle East & North Africa West Europe

    South Europe

    East EuropeNorth Europe

    South and Central America

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 11

    The distribution of the answers within each region:

    Based on the answers the hottest regions for gamifi cation are South and East Europe. In these regions a defi nite majority of the respondents have either already applied or are considering applying gamifi cation elements. Least popular gamifi cation is in Western Europe, where more than half of the survey participants are not considering implementing it.

    If we examine the answers from the banks size point of view, the results indicate that the bigger the bank is the more important gamifi cation seems to be for them:

    And last but not least the results can also be analysed according to the income level of the given country:

    The results show that banks operating in mid-income level countries favour gamifi cation more than banks in high or low income level countries.

    0%

    20%

    40%

    60%

    80%

    100%

    No answer Dont know Not considering Considering Already applying

    No regionSouth and CentralAmericas

    NorthAmerica

    Sub-Saharan Africa

    Middle East & North Africa

    WestEurope

    SouthEurope

    EastEurope

    NorthEurope

    Small banksMedium banksLarge banks

    No answer Dont know Not considering Considering Already applying

    3 = $30000

    No answer Dont know Not considering Considering Already applying

  • 12

    Gamifi cation and Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Sales Effi ciency

    The second question about gamifi cation in the survey was: How effective do you think gamifi cation can be for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, and for increasing sales effi ciency?. The survey participants could give a score to assess the importance of gamifi cation in the following business objectives:

    Increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty Increasing sales effi ciency

    The respondents could choose from 1 to 7, where 1 marked a very low and 7 a very high importance:

    1=Very low 2=Low 3=Somewhat low 4=Average 5=Somewhat high 6=High 7=Very high

    The average of the responses for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty was 4,3. The result indicates that banks thought gamifi cation had an average importance in increasing the customer satisfaction and loyalty.

    The average for increasing sales effi ciency was 4,0, which is also an average importance, but lower than the loyalty. The result shows that banks do not consider gamifi cation as a very effi cient sales tool.

    However, the distribution of answers indicates that there are signifi cant differences among the banks opinions in different regions.

    Regional differences of the answers to the question: How effective do you think gamifi cation can be for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty?

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 13

    East and South Europe are the most positive towards gamifi cation, for them gamifi cation is somewhat important in customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, Western European banks are very sceptic towards gamifi cation, they think that the importance of gamifi cation in customer satisfaction and loyalty is somewhat low.

    Regional distribution of the answers for the second question: How effective do you think gamifi cation can be for increasing sales effi ciency?

    East and South Europe are the most positive again; although banks do not give a high importance to gamifi cation as a sales booster.

    Conclusion

    Based on these responses received from banks its obvious that they are aware of the gamifi cation phenomenon and want to incorporate it into their strategy. However, they do not expect to generate a lot of extra business from this approach. This expectation contradicts with the experience of those banks that have already seen how gamifi cation can support their business objectives the chapter on the case studies will introduce two banks that state gamifi cation did generate extra revenue for them.

    Although there are signifi cant differences among the regions, banks consider gamifi cation a means of increasing customer loyalty rather than an acquisition tool.

  • 14

    The keywords for gamifi cation are education, engagement, loyalty and active channel usageLszl Szirki, Business Support and Development Leader, Budapest Bank (a GE Capital company)

    Gamifi cation for us is a way of communicating with the customerMartin Kolesar, Web and UX Team Manager, ZUNO Bank

    InterviewsIn addition to the gamifi cation questionnaire also structured interviews were carried out in order to learn about the banks attitude towards gamifi cation. These interviews were a great opportunity for banks to reveal their gamifi cation related opinions, experiences and strategies.

    Lszl Szirki, Business Support and Development Leader, Budapest Bank (a GE Capital company)

    Gamifi cation has several defi nitions. Can you please defi ne what gamifi cation means to your bank?

    Gamifi cation is a motivation tool that inspires users to pay special attention to certain products and to use them more frequently. Gamifi cation also has an educational effect as people get to know the products better in a fun environment and if they are familiar with the product, they will use it more actively. All in all the keywords for gamifi cation are education, engagement, loyalty and active channel usage.

    What are the present and the future roles of gamifi cation in banks strategy?

    Gamifi cation has its place in our banks digital strategy. We understand that people do not spend less time in front of their TV set, but watching TV has turned to a multitasking activity: people are playing with their mobile phones and tablets while watching TV. Another important fi nding is that people often watch advertisements on their mobile. And this is where gamifi cation comes in: mobile is a perfect tool for gamifi cation since we think that people prefer doing game-like activities in their slot times or parallel with other activities, like watching TV.

    Another important trend is social media. The role of the social media is growing. We have launched a Facebook game, where customers are to build words from the letters we give them. These words are related to our investment products, thus this is an educative sales tool for us. Another way of using gamifi cation is rewarding our customers for reviews and even for complaints and rewarding those members of our community who answer their questions.

    Is gamifi cation a pure electronic service or is it a cross-channel approach?

    Gamifi cation is defi nitely a cross-channel approach with an online focus. It is a cross-channel service because if a customer uses internet bank, it doesnt necessarily mean that he or she is an online-focused customer. Customers with a branch focus prefer gaming in the branch, or seeing badges on their account statement they receive by mail. However, gamifi cation is an online technique and therefore it relies heavily on electronic services. This also means that design and user experience are essential when it comes to gamifi cation.

    Do you distinguish between gamifi cation and loyalty programs? And if yes, how?

    We also have a loyalty program where we give rewards or gifts to people who use their credit card frequently. Weve seen that certain customers can be activated this way while others do not care about this program. Maybe they dont even know that we offer a program like that. The challenge of these types of programmes is to design them in a way that results in a win-win situation for both the bank and the customers.

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 15

    Why do you think gamifi cation is important for customers?

    Customers spend several hours a day browsing on the internet and they expect their bank to offer electronic services that are on the same level as other online services, or even better. Since gamifi cation is spreading on the internet our customers would like to see the same on our website.

    Can gamifi cation be productized by software vendors? What do you expect from vendors when it comes to gamifi cation?

    Yes, gamifi cation can be delivered by a software vendor, but it has to be implemented in a way that provides unique and cross-channel user experience along with a superb design.

    What do you expect from a gamifi cation project in terms of ROI?

    I defi nitely think that gamifi cation is an investment by the banks, the return of which can and should be controlled. I do not believe that gamifi cation is a tool just for building the banks brand. I am sure that all banks will test this mean in the coming years.

    What is your experience with gamifi cation? How are the fi rst customer reactions?

    There are certainly customer segments we can reach with gamifi cation and there are some others we cannot reach with this tool.

    Especially younger generations can be attracted and engaged with gamifi cation, because they are familiar with this experience from other portals. Therefore we must build gamifi cation into our strategy in the mid-term, which means between 3 and 5 years.

    In my opinion the loyalty programmes work better with telecommunications companies. If you have a gold card it supports you in every interaction with your provider. In other words, the telco companies manage loyalty on a customer level while banks manage it on a product level. For instance, we give higher rates on deposits for those customers who transfer their salary to us. Customers like this offering, but it doesnt result in higher level of loyalty. Programs that gave advantage on the customer level and not on the product level were more successful. Some of our small business clients received a VIP card, which meant that they were appointed a personal advisor with the bank and had a priority when they visited the branch. This programme was extremely successful. I would like to see these programmes being integrated into a solid loyalty program under the umbrella of gamifi cation.

    Celina Waleskiewicy, Head of New Banking Area, Alior Bank

    Gamifi cation has several defi nitions. Please defi ne what gamifi cation means to your bank.

    Gamifi cation enables customers to take part in games that allow them to win rewards for accomplishing certain tasks. These rewards can be redeemed in different ways, the customer can for instance change the conditions of a fi nancial product into better ones (such as higher APRs) or the customer can receive smaller gifts.

    Do you distinguish between gamifi cation and loyalty programs?

    With gamifi cation we can probably win much more than just the loyalty of customers. Gamifi cation is

  • 16

    based on peoples natural desires for competition and the willingness to share their achievements with other people, for example by showing off their status in a game in social media. By involving customers in a game we are giving them the opportunity to tell the world how good they are and to feel special about it (which is not possible in an ordinary loyalty program). We as a game founder achieve additional brand communication.

    What are the present and future roles of gamifi cation in banks strategy?

    We are still uncertain whether gamifi cation is important for us or not. We also see that this topic has become fashionable recently, but we dont just want to follow a trend, but rather make profi table innovations. And it is not very easy to create and launch profi table programmes.

    What do you expect from a gamifi cation project in terms of ROI? How do you calculate the ROI?

    It depends on the business case. The key performance indicator (KPI) of gamifi cation could be for instance a higher level of customer acquisition but the question is how profi table the new customers are. Another KPI could be a higher usage of our products. The way we calculate ROIs of various investments always depends on the business case and on the assumptions of the given business case.

    Can gamifi cation be productized by software vendors? What do you expect from vendors when it comes to gamifi cation?

    Gamifi cation can be defi ned in many ways. Sometimes you dont need any software solutions for that. Gamifi cation is rather about marketing and communications. Or gamifi cation can be about the product itself, like in the example of receiving better conditions.

    What are the present and future roles of gamifi cation in banks strategy?

    I am not so optimistic about gamifi cations future in the banking industry, it may be just a short term fashion. I am sure that gamifi cation is not the one and only approach. This approach may be familiar for the younger generations, but it is not accepted by the elderly people.

    However, we also think that gamifi cation can be a successful approach for us. Thus we have developed a gamifi cation app for mobile phones that is now in its test phase. The bottom line of this app is that the user can go through the different levels of the game and by reaching a new level he or she receives an extra 0,01% APR on his/her deposit. But it is subject to the recent economic circumstances whether it is worth it for the bank to launch the game or not.

    Martin Kolesar, Web and UX Team Manager, ZUNO Bank

    Gamifi cation has several defi nitions. Can you please defi ne what gamifi cation means to your bank?

    Gamifi cation means bringing more fun into an activity such as banking. But banking does not have to feel like playing a game; it only has to use some elements of a game. Gamifi cation is rather the way the bank communicates to its customers. Any elements on the website or in the online bank that provide that extra fun can be considered gamifi cation. Gamifi cation is a comprehensive approach to all channels, thus if the bank decides to implement it, all electronic channels should be redesigned. Currently our approach is to try various simple game elements and see what works. Then we will be able to create a holistic gamifi cation strategy for all channels.

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 17

    Do you distinguish between gamifi cation and loyalty programs?

    Gamifi cation and loyalty are two different things. Loyalty programs can be gamifi ed, but gamifi cation is much more than a pure loyalty program. We are currently developing our loyalty program, but since we are quite a new bank, developing and selling new products has priority over loyalty programmes.

    Did you examine any other, non-fi nancial industries, for how gamifi cation improves customer experience there?

    We started discussing and analysing gamifi cation 2,5 years ago. The most notable player that time was Foursquare that tried to fi nd ways to incorporate gamifi cation into social location sharing. From the UX point of view the banking industry is lagging behind many other industries. So we have the luxury of taking proven concepts from other industries and adjusting them to banking industry.I think that the social media provides us with several good examples, such as LinkedIn or Google Plus, that motivate their users for instance to complete their profi le. Fitness apps, such as Strava, are also very good at motivating their users: you can compete, receive badges and so forth.

    What is your experience with gamifi cation? How are the fi rst customer reactions?

    We use gamifi cation in our design and in our online marketing campaigns. One of our most successful online marketing programmes is called myFRIENDS Plus11. It has some aspects of gamifi cation. Actually it is a member-get-member program: if a customer gets a new customer, he receives a fi nancial reward. So we use the social aspect to acquire new customers. We have a microsite for this programme on our website where our customers can invite their friends to our bank via e-mail. The friend receives an e-mail with a referral code. When the friend becomes a customer of ours, he enters the referral code and they both receive 10 EUR if the new customer meets the criteria. This is one of the best performing sources of new customers. However, from the gamifi cation point of view, the question is whether a tangible reward of 10 EUR can still be considered a proper example of gamifi cation.

    Another campaign we launched is related to our mobile banking app12. The message of the campaign is that you can bank anywhere with our mobile banking app. So we asked our customers to take a picture of a place where they have used this app and to send it to us - this is the picture of his or her very personal ZUNO branch. The community can vote on the pictures on Facebook and the winner receives a prize a trip to the Ice Hotel in Sweden or a GoProCamera.

    11 http://www.zuno.sk/myfriends/ or http://www.zuno.cz/myfriends/12 http://www.zuno.cz/mobilebanking/ or http://www.zuno.sk/mobilebanking/

    Zuno mobile bank

  • 18

    What are the present and future roles of gamifi cation in banks strategy?

    As mentioned, for us gamifi cation is a way of communicating with the customer. Sometimes this is a minor funny detail, like the name of our demo user, which is Albert Ninja. But I could also mention our innovative charts, which show the fi nancial progress of our customer, or the easy-to-use lending and refi nancing calculators, which are really engaging for our customers. Another game-like example is that we visualize the insurance products we offer with a knight in armour: the higher level of insurance you choose, the better your armour is. This is an excellent example of how you can communicate complex products in a simple way with game-like elements.

    Level 1: No insurance Level 2: Death and disability insurance

    Level 3: Inability to work insurance Level 4: Loss of employment insurance

    Working with money is rarely just about fun and people are usually worried to work with money. By introducing fun into these activities, you can turn the activities into fun and enable your customers to work more relaxed with their money.

    On the other hand, banks should be careful with gamifi cation, as too much of games could destroy the customers trust towards a bank. The extent to which you can gamify your services depends on the target group, of course.

    What do you expect from a gamifi cation project in terms of ROI? How do you/ would you calculate the ROI?

    The major threat for banking is that it becomes a commodity. And if it becomes a commodity banks can compete only with their prices, which may damage the industry. User experience can be the differentiator enabling us to compete on other than the price level.

    Can gamifi cation be productized by software vendors? What do you expect from vendors when it comes to gamifi cation?

    Gamifi cation can be offered by a vendor, but a high level of customization ability is required, because gamifi cation has to fi t the bank. If your gamifi cation is too standard, you risk slipping into the commodity market.

    Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

  • 19

    lvaro Morn Alonso, Innovation Manager, BBVA

    Gamifi cation has several defi nitions. Please defi ne what gamifi cation means to your bank.

    BBVA game is an application designed to motivate the customers to switch to online banking. It contains gamifi cation elements, but it is not a game. Within this application customers are awarded for watching training videos, using online services, ordering new online services or inviting their friends to use BBVA online services.

    What are the present and future roles of gamifi cation in the banks strategy?

    We started our gamifi cation project 1,5 year ago. Our aim is to move the day-to-day transactions of our clientele to the online channels. This is important because only about 25% of the customers use the online banking channel in Spain. Weve already had videos on our portal promoting our online banking services, but only a small percentage of our customers have switched to online bank. We also wanted to engage our customers better and help them understand the benefi ts of the online channels.

    Weve experienced in the past that a lot of our customers try the online channels, but if they are not taught how to use it, they drop it. Gathering feedback from the customers was also an important goal of this project.

    The fi rst launch was done without a big campaign; we just wanted to understand how our customers react to it. We also wanted to see if gamifi cation could be applied to banking. Getting to know the customer is an important goal of gamifi cation: customer profi ling, upselling and social aspects are important parts of it.

  • 20

    The customers get challenges and receive badges if they meet the challenges. Customers also take part in prize draws where they can win items like iPad. Transparency is very important for gamifi cation, therefore our prize draws are linked to national lottery draws: we use the national lottery numbers to nominate the winners of our draw.

    Customers also receive points that can be used to purchase movie or music tickets.

    We also have a new gamifi cation project in its pilot phase: we incentivize the usage of ATMs and cards.

    BBVA game is both a collaborative and competitive environment for the customers, as competition is a very important element of gamifi cation. There are several leaderboards (global, by city, friends etc.) and these leaderboards fuel social engagement and competition.

    What is your experience with gamifi cation? How are the fi rst customer reactions?

    Our gamifi cation system has more than 100,000 users. We have this only in Spain today, but we plan to roll it out in other BBVA subsidiaries. The results are very good: for instance the number of our Facebook fans has tripled. Weve achieved our goals, for instance our customers watched 16 times more videos from BBVA compared to last year. The average time in our online bank increased by 60% and the number of users in the online bank increased by 5%. We also measure our customers satisfaction with our bank, which increased by almost 20%. Our customers rate BBVA to 4.1 on average on the scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is the best rating they can give.

    Can gamifi cation be productized by software vendors? What do you expect from vendors when it comes to gamifi cation?

    Gamifi cation is not a big banking project and so we used just a small amount of resources. We take an agile approach where we can change the project quickly if required based on the customer feedback. The fi rst phase of the project took 5 months and we have one or two new releases every month.

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    Jaspar Roos, Inspiration Catalyst, ABN AMRO

    Gamifi cation has several defi nitions. Please defi ne what gamifi cation means to your bank.

    Gamifi cation means adding play elements to a process or communications that improve impact and transferability of a non-game product or service.

    Do you distinguish between gamifi cation and loyalty programs? And if yes, how?

    Yes, we do. The two can interact, but they live separately. Based on the target group you have to decide whether you want to increase loyalty in a client relationship and how do you want to do that. Sometimes it can be done with fi nancial incentives, sometimes with invitations to events and sometimes with gaming elements. The advantage in gamifi cation is that customers see it as a more natural way. The diffi culty is to know how to gamify as a bank, as game and bank are two words that seldom appear together in the mind of a customer.

    What are the present and future roles of gamifi cation in banks strategy?

    We put our customers on the central stage right now. For banks this means better listening, simplifying the procedures, etc. All this can be achieved with the use of gamifi cation tools.

    Can gamifi cation be productized by software vendors? What do you expect from vendors when it comes to gamifi cation?

    Most gamifi cation elements will be software based. This makes perfect sense to me.

    What do you expect from a gamifi cation project in terms of ROI? How do you/ would you calculate the ROI?

    Gamifi cation should be done in the context of a product or service. There are several ways to measure it and you can extend those by looking at NPS scores or happiness scores at work. However, we should expect a rise in sales or a decrease in costs of communication, helpdesk questions, etc.

    Did you examine any other, non-fi nancial industries for examples on how gamifi cation improves customer experience?

    My role is to talk to other non-fi nancial industries. There are many famous examples like Zappos or gaming companies who really understand how to interact with their customers.

    What is your experience with gamifi cation? How are the fi rst customer reactions?

    When my team started with gamifi cation six years ago, it was extremely new and effective. Nowadays, it feels like a hygiene factor. Without gamifi cation it becomes very diffi cult to improve fi nancial literacy, for example.

    What do you think, what fi elds should banks focus on with their innovations?

    Wow, so many areas. Just to name a few: crowd-related services, peripherals and impact investing.

    How can banks defend themselves against new providers?

    Banks need to change their culture from the top to the bottom. And for the rest, accept that role of the bank will be smaller in the future.

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    Can banks catch up with start-ups in innovations?

    Sometimes yes, but not always. However, start-ups have the disadvantage that they do not have leverage and they dont always put the customers fi rst by operating only online. It is a role for the bank, but banks should also preserve elements like offl ine and customer intimacy. Without those catching up would be diffi cult.

    Kenneth W. Olan, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Retail and Marketing Offi cer,First Victoria Bank

    Gamifi cation has several defi nitions. Please defi ne what gamifi cation means to your bank.

    Gamifi cation is a way of engaging people in the brand through an activity that promises some kind of reward especially if one performs well. It brings an important emotional element into play by creating an engagement that is fun, entertaining and results in some form of what I call ego satisfaction especially if you are doing it well. When you gamify something its all about creating the possibility of winning, in some way, Winning can include a fi nancial payout, additional prestige, additional privileges or even just a great sense of accomplishment, but there is always an underlying motivator.

    People are more involved and inspired when something is effectively gamifi ed. Game mentality creates richer involvement and a deeper emotional connection by appealing to the child in you; the need to be loved and appreciated. Gamifi cation can mean playing a game, but the substance the driving force behind it is the ego. There has to be a feel-good aspect simply for participating and a potentially something even better for winning.

    In our case, weve used gamifi cation for everything from encouraging customers to express their feelings about the bank on social media to rewards for product usage and to encourage visits to the banking centers. The payoff for the individual starts with a feeling of accomplishment for playing. Customers have a greater willingness to play if they know that doing so may result in some form of award. The same dynamic applies to employees, of course.

    Do you distinguish between gamifi cation and loyalty programs? And if yes, how?

    Loyalty programs are simply a form of gamifi cation. A good rule of thumb is if something involves you and inspires you, youre more likely to want to do it more often,. A rewards program requires involvement to receive the rewards, and the prospect of being rewarded is what inspires you. That said, if something involves you, but does not inspire you, it is not a quality game. It becomes a task. Likewise, if something inspires you, but it is too diffi cult to do or win, it is not a successful game either, since you will not want play it. For instance, if you see it as nearly impossible to gather a certain amount of loyalty points to achieve something, you will lose interest in trying. Gamifi cation and loyalty programs should be realistic and desirable.

    What are the present and future roles of gamifi cation in your banks strategy?

    Weve introduced gamifi cation into our organization on several levels. First, gamifi cation has an important role in the engagement of the employees. They contribute more to the organization if their processes are gamifi ed. Gamifi cation also has a role in learning: it is the way we teach our frontline tellers to uncover more about customers needs and to understand the motive behind a customers seemingly ordinary question or comment. For instance if the customer is asking: Until when are you open today? the frontline teller answers, Until 3 oclock. But if the banker uncovers what the customer really needs, he could answer, Well, our lobby is open until 3 oclock, but we do have a number of ways you can

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    conveniently bank after that time? May I tell you about them? The banker might then go on to explain mobile banking, online banking or even ATMs.

    To help our front line staff open their minds to respond more effectively, we created a card game called Face Value. In the game the employee draws a card with a possible customer comment on it. If he or she responds appropriately and uncovers the underlying customer need, he gets points. We gamifi ed learning in this case, because to win, one must broaden his or her ability to understand the needs of the customer. A very important skill, indeed!

    Weve also devised a way to gamify broadening customer relationships by increasing their visits to the branch so we can talk to them. We created something called a V-Source Center that adds additional value-added utility to the branch. V-Source Centers offer amenities (like photocopying, coin counting, faxing and so on). While some of the services are free, to use others one must a have a V-Source Card; a stored value card on which a customer can collect points based on the depth of their relationship. The aim of these cards is to encourage our customers to visit the branches not only for banking but also for other services. The more banking products the customer has with us the more points he gets on his V-Source Card. Its a form of rewards program that also stimulates sales opportunities.

    As I alluded to earlier, we also use gamifi cation to promote our bank on YouTube (our YouTube channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/FirstVictoriaBankYT). Our aim is to get our customers to promote our bank more effectively by doing live testimonials. We ask our customers to tell us why they like First Victoria and record their answer. Some of our customers just talk about the bank and others have given a performance. For instance some customers rapped or sang about their affi nity for the bank.

    To encourage customers to record their testimonials, we introduced something called the VIC Awards where we created categories for the videos like most entertaining video, most creative video and so forth. As of today we have 132 videos on YouTube from our customers. The video performing best in a category wins a prize. Awards are also given to employees for things like the best production, clearest video and so forth.

    After each video is shot its reviewed by our marketing team. They upload the video to YouTube and send the link to the respective customer notifying him or her that their video is now in contention for an award. The customer, of course, sends the link to his friends and asks them to like his video. As a next step, well allow our customers to shoot videos themselves, in their own environments, which we believe will increase the amount of content we receive.

    To get our customers more engaged in the branch, we have a bell inside each location, and customers can ring it when they feel

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    that theyve received great service. If someone rings the bell, we ask him or her to record a video. Success certainly depends on the local staff whose task it is to convince the customer to give his best performance.

    Regarding electronic delivery channels we motivate our customers to use their debit cards more frequently through gamifi cation. For instance they can win a cash reward if they increase their usage to a certain level. We also reward our customers, who switch from paper statements to electronic statements, with money.

    What do you expect from a gamifi cation project in terms of ROI? How do you/ would you calculate the ROI?

    We monitor the results of gamifi cation continuously. We have testimonials from our customers on YouTube which have been viewed over 7,500 times already. Each view has an economic value. We also measure the product referrals coming from staff who are involved in the Face Value game. If we look at the V-Source Centers, we monitor how many times people have reloaded their points and how many points have been redeemed. We also compare the results of the branches with a V-Source Center to branches without one.

    We plan on continuing to innovate gamifi ed engagements through the on-line collaboration platform weve developed. By getting our entire staff involved in creating these programs were certain that well get increased employee buy-in, and that will translate into greater customer engagement.

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    Games make people feel goodGrhan am, SVP, Digital Generation Banking Group

    Case StudiesTwo banks with a signifi cant experience on gamifi cation shared their strategy and experience on gamifi cation with us. These banks put emphasis on gamifi cation and are very proud on the results they have achieved; due to the outstanding results both banks will assign gamifi cation a key role in their strategy in the future.

    DenizBank: The Game-bank

    DenizBank was founded in 1997 by acquiring a state-owned maritime sector bank from Privatization Administration and its the 5th largest private bank in Turkey today. From having only one branch in the beginning, today DenizBank belongs to the Sberbank group with a range of more than 600 branches in 3 countries.

    Gamifi cation has a key role in the Banks Digital strategy; it is considered a very effective asset for acquiring new customers and for increasing brand awareness within its target groups. DenizBanks gamifi cation concept is based on gaming, which is very popular in Turkey and fi ts into the cultural tradition well. Online games are very popular in Turkey even among elderly generations. This chapter introduces the games DenizBank implemented to increase the awareness of its brand or to acquire new customers.

    Tradition Converted into a Game: Promise to Action

    The Promise to Action game is based on the Turkish tradition of people promising to do something. What can be promised in the case of a bank? People can promise for instance that they buy a product, log onto their online bank, or use a product or an ATM. And they can make this promise also via a mobile app!

    The Promise to Action game is running on a platform that also contains a badge system. The bank received 5 300 promises so far, 3 142 of which came via the mobile app. The bank received 832 payment product usage promises, 602 Internet Banking login promises and 755 ATM banking usage promises. And what happens if one doesnt keep his promise? He receives a call from the call centre and is kindly asked why he hasnt kept the promise, and how the bank can help him to do so.

    Create Your Island

    Create your Island is a Facebook application (game) similar to Farmville. Users can reach the application by liking DenizBanks Facebook page. The gamer chooses an avatar of DenizBank spokespeople fi rst, then he starts as a novice farmer and later becomes an experienced one.

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    Users can invite their Facebook friends and see the performance level of their friends. The game is based on DenizBanks Action to Promise and Direct Action infrastructures that provide the customers a chance to increase the production rate of the fruits and vegetables by promising to acquire a DenizBank products (like credit/debit card, fastPay mobile wallet) etc.). For instance customers can promise or directly apply for a Consumer Loan by entering their GSM and citizenship numbers. In order to apply or promise for a product in the game, the players are visiting the DenizBank branch which is virtually located on an island (see the picture above).

    Thanks to this game the Bank gained 216.000 additional Facebook fans, 1000 Facebook banking users, 3175 credit card applications, 1017 consumer loan applications, 775 SME card applications and 1272 fastPay mobile wallet applications.

    Ramadan Campaign

    A Facebook game application was launched in the beginning of Ramadan Bairam (celebration) and the game was available until Ramadan ended. The application is designed with traditional Turkish muppet characters, Karagz and Hacivat.

    During the campaign the customers could share their old Ramadan Bairam stories. One of the authors of the highest rated stories won a dinner for two in a luxurious restaurant. At the end of the 4 weeks one of the lucky storytellers won a 4-day holiday for two in Nice.

    The aim of this campaign was to acquire more Facebook fans and the bank gained 35,000 fans thanks to this campaign.

    Refer a Friend a Member Get Member Programme for a Mobile Wallet

    The aim of this game was to spread the new generation mobile wallet app fastPay within the clientele of the bank.

    As a starting point the bank put 50 Turkish lira to each department and branch heads fastPay account. They would then send this amount further to persons working in their reporting line. When the department head sends the money via fastPay by entering the mobile phone number of the payee, the payee receives a message about the money transfer transaction and downloads the app. After downloading the app, he/she receives the amount and sends it further to another benefi ciary. The payer enters the phone number of the new payee on the web site of the bank in order to prove that he/she referred a receiver who becomes a fastPay user. The number of references is monitored by the system and those that collected the most members received a reward, an iPad. The Bank also implement some clubs such as 100s, 200s and 500s clubs and announced frequently the most successful users who managed to refer more than 100, 200 or 500 people. As result, the new mobile wallet app had 37000 new users after the fi rst 5 days.

    Dig & Win

    Dig&Win is a Facebook application (game) that could be reached by liking DenizBanks Facebook page. Users could win an iPad or bonus points by fi nding the treasures hidden on an island by completing a quiz before Robinson catches them. The result of the campaign was 42000 additional Facebook fans and 1000 credit card applications

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    Games to Increase Brand Awareness

    Deniz Film Fest

    Users could win an iPhone or a Sony Camera by sharing a movie made by them. The most liked movies were ranked. The Bank gained 20000 additional Facebook fans.

    Make a Fan

    Make a Fan is a mobile app that enables users to dress a friend up in one of the four biggest Turkish football teams uniforms and share it on Facebook. The app had more than 7000 downloads so far.

    Credit Card Bonus Mechanism

    The Credit Card Bonus Mechanism is a credit card loyalty program. In order to engage customers more with credit cards the bank launched to be achieved campaigns: if the customer completes the challenges he was given, he receives bonus points. A challenge can be for instance to spend fi ve times more than 50 Turkish lira at fuel stations on fi ve different days. When the challenge is accomplished, he receives 50 bonus points.

    The result of the campaign was 10717 subscriptions to the campaign, 8770 challenges met and a total gross sale of 8481737 Turkish lira. The total cost including communications was 850262 lira.

    Games to Be Launched Soon

    Which Subvention for SME customers

    This game on a dedicated website for SME customers enables users to fi nd the best subvention provided by government for their business. It begins by creating a profi le on an island, then sailing with a boat to another island where you specify the potential of having proper subvention by answering questions. Finally youll see the result of the questionnaire by reaching the treasury box in the end (Which subvention is proper for you?).

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    ideAlem Innovation Platform

    ideAlem is an innovation and customer empowering platform located on Facebook that enables personal and corporate users to have a business communion, share ideas and remarks, and taking part in innovation activities and crowdsourcing. One of the nnovation activities is a money rewarded competition through sharing innovative ideas. The ideas will be rewarded both according to the number of Facebook likes the idea receives and to the jury evaluation.

    Gold Field

    Gold Field is a game application on Facebook similar to the mine sweeper game. The users can reach the application by liking the DenizBank Facebook page.

    The user starts to break the bubbles to collect all gold without the bombs exploding. If the player blows up a bomb and loses his life, he can only continue playing by promising an action (e.g. follow DenizBank Twitter page, request a life from a Facebook friend, download fastPay, enroll in Facebook banking). The winner is planned to be rewarded a car. There will only be one winner and the probability of fi nishing the game is low, therefore the prize is big.

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    What I Said and What Happened

    This game is like a competition on Twitter about following hash tags or special accounts: questions are asked within some predefi ned hash tags. The one who gives the most correct answers will be the winner. The Action to Promise infrastructure will be used in this competition too.

    Fan Has the Ball

    Fan has the Ball is a virtual football match between the big four Turkish football teams.

    The goal is to support your team by using Twitter hash tags while the virtual match is being played. There will be a football commentator on Twitter publishing tweets about the match.

    Moreover, a website will be available for the game to follow the fi xture and points of the teams and to see the virtual football fi eld. The outcome of the match is decided upon the number of tweets the teams receive. The fans of the teams can increase the power of their tweets by promising actions to the bank usually a product application.

    Tweet Loan

    Tweet Loan is a Twitter game aiming to increase the sales of consumer loans. Customers can publish tweets and hash tags and if their number achieves a certain quota, the interest rate of the loan decreases. Due to lower interest rate, the number of loan applications will increase which will result in an increasing interest rate. Thus the game refl ects the logic of the markets where the price (the interest rate) ensures the balance between the demand and the supply.

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    Akbank: Gamifi cation Strategies and Global ExamplesAkbank is a private Turkish bank, operating a distribution network of 961 branches. After executing several successful gamifi cation campaigns, Bilgen Aldan (Direct banking-Digital Channels Management and Marketing VP), Can Elbeyli, Gokay Dede (SVP Alternative Delivery Channels), Tuncay Tuncer (Mobile Banking Unit Manager), from Akbank share their strategy and experience about gamifi cation.

    Akbanks Approach on Gamifi cationGamifi cation is usually used to make banking more fun and engaging and to drive specifi c consumer behaviour towards more profi table channels, or making prompt applications to loans and credit cards. By defi nition gamifi cation works by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviours, by showing a path to mastery, and by taking advantage of humans psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. Considering frequent application of loyalty programs (especially on credit cards), the main rationale is similar.

    However, make no mistake just because a bank gives out points, badges, discounts or other free perks, it does not mean the main principles of gamifi cation are being applied. Gamifi cation puts in an additional secret ingredient that engages customers in a more robust way. And it is not a light ingredient, rather a taste defi ner that makes the channel and product more sticky using gaming psychology. Therefore, loyalty is just one aspect of a successful gamifi cation campaign.

    There are several global examples of gamifi cation where it is applied either as a standalone application or through social media. Some interesting examples from other fi nancial services providers:

    BBVA Game a Facebook app allowing customers to earn points by using BBVAs transactional banking site. Those points can be redeemed for products and services (direct-download of music and streaming of online movies) or applied to sweepstakes. As of a month ago, BBVA Game had attracted over 37000 players vying for 28 prizes (iPad, Samsung Galaxy, concert tickets, etc.).

    CIMB YOUth another Facebook-based app, this one for CIMB, a Malaysian bank. It involves a rather complex scheme of credits called FUNds, issued for setting up accounts and promoting the bank.

    PNC Punch the Pig A simple but no less signifi cant example of gamifi cation from PNC Bank. When someone is banking online, they just punch the piggy bank whenever it pops up and money of the amount of the users choosing will transfer from their Spend account to their Growth account. (For smartphone users, the punch is actually a shake.) Users decide how often the pig pops up, or for more spontaneous types, PNC will surprise users by throwing it out there at random moments.

    Foursquare Check-Ins some fi nancial institutions like DBS Bank in Asia and Dupaco Credit Union in the U.S. have experimented with GPS-based social media platforms such as Foursquare. Both rewarded people for making frequent branch visits by tracking check-ins.

    With social networks and smartphones becoming more vital to consumers daily lives, gamifi cation is likely to become a more valid method in banks strategies in the distant future. As the Gartner Research Report suggests; By 2015, more than 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes.

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    Trained and Early Adaptor: TurkeyAs gamifi cation starts to take foot on a global level, banks in Turkey are catching up with this trend as well. Turkey has always been an early adaptor country in banking and telecom; especially with credit cards and loyalty programs.

    Its a well-known fact that competition in the banking industry is very fi erce. Banks come up with innovative ways for credit card models and rewarding mechanisms to become more relevant and penetrate more into the daily lives of the customers in terms of needs and behaviours. Banks not only utilize their own products, but also setup partnerships with major players of other industries such as tourism, retail and food. Today, each and every bank in Turkey has credit card or monthly channel interaction campaigns that reward customers with airline miles, discounts on retail chains or popular restaurants.

    In this regard, Turkish users bank or non-bank are somewhat educated and fast to comprehend the details of new models and to respond to options that generate more value to them. Therefore, we believe gamifi cation methods will help serve banks purposes in different aspects as long as they are applied the right amount towards the right group of customers through the right channel.

    More supporting data in Turkey in terms of gaming:

    Based on a recent report by GP Bullhound there are 22 million gamers in Turkey (29% of the population)

    There are 11 million paying gamers Mobile phones/games account for 10% of the money spent on games while social games are at 9%.

    Turkey also has a very active customer base regarding social media: 32 million Facebook users (globally a country with 6th most FB users), and 9 million Twitter accounts.

    Turkish Banks and Gamifi cation

    All above mentioned benefi ts are valid reasons for Turkish banks to utilize gamifi cation more frequently. In summary the main motives for Akbank were: Gamifi cation is a proven model to encourage engagement There is defi nitely a market for gamifi cation (gamers, social media, mobile penetration & usage etc.) Turkish consumers are well trained for gamifi cation Turkish banks keep trying to outdo each other in digital customer experience and gamifi cation serves

    this purpose

    Akbank is convinced that gamifi cation will be applied by several banks in Turkey and is probably here to stay for a while. Gamifi cation is not a standard approach and there is no cookbook how gamifi cation is to be implemented. Thus every marketer will have to judge, according to their goals, what gamifi cation means for them and how well gamifi cation meets these goals.

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    Akbank and Gamifi cationAkbank has been including the gamifi cation approach regularly in its standard marketing approach. Below are the major activities the bank has performed that involve gamifi cation:

    Regular campaigns: As a means to increase awareness and traffi c on direct channels (mobile and web), Akbank launches 3rd party promotions targeting online shoppers. Customers who log onto web or mobile channels receive discount coupons from the most well-known e-commerce sites in Turkey (Morhipo.com, Lidyana.com etc.). The more customers use direct channels, more campaigns they will be able to benefi t from (with increasing amounts of discounts). Some campaigns also include prize draws, where lucky frequent users are rewarded with trips to China, Italy and so forth.

    Mobile only campaign: The Bank launched a mobile only campaign, where SMS discount codes were sent to customers who visited the mobile application. Discounts were valid on a private shopping site (www.daybuyday.com). More than 300000 people joined this campaign.

    Social SME Game: A Facebook game called The Social SME was launched targeting mainly SMEs. Facebook followers who played the game were asked to build their virtual company / factory and to manage it (like a small scale business version of SIMS). Gamers earned points for activities you would perform as you grow your company, such as applying for a loan to buy machinery and equipment, selling products and paying back the loan, opening new departments within the company and inviting friends on Facebook to work for them in these departments (assigning managers and consultants etc.). The game had 19 levels, and the earners of highest points received several prizes such as iPad minis, Playstations and Samsung Smart TVs. The game was live for 5 weeks (as planned), and the results were a huge success even though the period was short:

    60000 people subscribed to the game, 52000 played it actively. 400000 visits (130000 unique) were received. 32% of these were fi rst-time visitors. Average visit duration was 8 minutes. Around 4000 unique gamers tweeted the game progress several times during the campaign period. 8000 people fi nished the game (all 19 levels). Game was played from 38 different countries and 78 cities in Turkey.

    The social game was also considered a try-out for a more complex gamifi cation scenario. The bank is working on new models where they integrate direct channel interactions and provide a holistic approach that is mutually benefi cial. The banks strategy in this regard will be a longer term initiative, where they make their services fun to use, along with educating the customers on the advantages of using direct channels and making their services as sticky as possible.

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    ConclusionThe case studies prove that gamifi cation is a perfect tool to engage users and to increase their loyalty. There are several successful companies where gamifi cation contributed to their business objectives signifi cantly. The secret why gamifi cation works is that it is based on our most fundamental desires and motivations.

    However, the fi nancial services sector is lagging behind other industries in terms of digital innovations. Although some banks have already implemented gamifi cation, most banks are only in the approach evaluating phase. Those banks that are considering implementing gamifi cation are about to use just a light version of gamifi cation by selecting a few elements of it, such as loyalty or user experience. Real, 360gamifi cation can hardly be seen in the fi nancial services industry.

    On the other hand banks know that their customers enjoy gamifi cation of the digital world and that they expect it also from their fi nancial services providers. Thus banks need to do something on this fi eld. And the outcomes of these pilot projects will determine whether banks will continue to implement gamifi cation.

    Gamifi cation is not necessarily something big: it can start as small add-ons to recent electronic services and be enhanced later based on the experiences.

    Good news for gamifi cation fans is that those banks that have already implemented gamifi cation elements into their online services plan to incorporate it further into their strategy on the long term. However, gamifi cation is something that should fi t into the culture and tradition of the local people; Turkish banks may have a big success with their games in Turkey, but it may not work in other regions.

    Gamifi cation is about establishing an emotional connection between the bank and the customers. If this connection is established via online games, badges or visual elements it may vary from bank to bank and from country to country. The bottom line is to add an extra buzz to plain fi nancial transactions.

    The fi rst banks to successfully solve this challenge will build up a more positive emotional connection to their customers than those who fail to fi nd the proper approach. And after fi nding the right way other banks will be forced to incorporate gamifi cation into their strategy, or else customers will abandon them and join other, friendlier providers. Gamifi cation in the fi nancial services industry seems to be rather a tool for customer engagement, loyalty and higher usage of digital channels while customer acquisition or cross sales are less important benefi ts of gamifi cation.

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    About the AuthorMark Gerzso has more than 10 years track record in the fi nancial services industry. He started his career at SAP where he delivered projects for banks all over the globe. In 2006 he joined IND Group and he was responsible for the product management of the company. Later he headed Bankfutura E-Finance Research, an analyst company for the fi nancial services industry.

    About INDIND Group is a digital banking, PFM and payments technology software vendor for fi nancial institutions. We focus on customer experience and our product portfolio meets the expectations of 21st century users. We aim to transform online banking technology into web 2.0, and turn it into a sales and customer engagement platform.

    Growing since its inception in 1997, IND Group operates in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and the UK, and is represented through local business partners in CIS countries and in the Middle East.

    For more information: www.indgroup.eu or [email protected]

    About EfmaAs a global not-for-profi t organisation, Efma brings together more than 3,300 retail fi nancial services companies from over 130 countries. With a membership base consisting of almost a third of all large retail banks worldwide, Efma has proven to be a valuable resource for the global industry, offering members exclusive access to a multitude of resources, databases, studies, articles, news feeds and publications. Efma also provides numerous networking opportunities through working groups, online communities and international meetings.

    For more information: www.efma.com or [email protected]

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  • Gamifi cation for an Engaging Banking Experience

    June 2013