Social Media Trends: Playing Games

We're all familiar with the marketing ploy of collectible toys in Happy Meals. As if a friendly clown and golden arches weren't enticing enough, getting the next toy in the series is a brilliant business strategy - albeit a little sneaky and questionable, ethically - by the world's largest fast food chain. Perhaps less familiar but still just as brilliant were (are?) the Monopoly pieces taped to giant coke (only) cups. The collectible nature of the game Monopoly elicited a commitment on the customer's part: when making the decision about where to buy the next Coke, the fact that they were "playing" Monopoly (and the shot at winning, ahem, real money) influenced them to be faithful to McDonald's. Health did not seem to be a factor in this decision (referring either to drinking coke or eating at the fast food chain who includes some of the same ingredients in silly putty in some of their meals), but that's what makes this "gaming" marketing technique so genius: if you can keep customers committed despite health risks, you're probably doing something right...at least in the "good business" (read: profit) strategy.

This seemingly unrelated discussion of McDonald's toys and games is actually illustrative of a small but growing social media trend. McDonald's picked a cultural familiarity and incorporated it into their business. Monopoly, already a popular "past time" in America, became associated with a quick and easy food choice, and McDonald's won customers for life. A social media trend that is just starting to emerge is showing signs of this very thing. That is, over the past five years, gaming has exploded in popularity - they even have orchestrated Nintendo music (that young children can recognize!) - and gaming is becoming a cultural relic, if not centerpiece, at least among younger populations. (It was popular enough even ten years ago that the local media of Colorado blamed violent video games for the Columbine High School shooting.)

A predicted social media trend is that, more and more, we will start to see gaming aspects incorporated in social media sites. Because the social media trend of using such outlets as a way to advertise to thousands of potential customers daily is already present, this "gamification" of social media will greatly influence marketing and advertising strategies. Games have an addictive nature - as many Facebook app users will tell you - and so, if you can get your brand associated with a gaming platform of any kind, you're likely to be all over the map, not to mention constantly in people's minds.

For businesses, marketing is no game. But, there are certain ways to increase the "fun factor" in and of any business, product or service. The better businesses of the next year will follow the social media trend, and "gamify" up.

Photo Credit: Dru