There’s a fun new trend in online marketing these days and it gets to the inner competitive child in all of us.  The technical marketing term is ‘gamification’ but it essentially means taking something mundane and turning it into a game.

Remember the games you made up when you were a kid?  You avoided the cracks in the sidewalk.  You had to burst every bubble in the bubble wrap (ok so that’s not restricted to just kids). You learned to count to ten by playing hopscotch and on a long road trip, you played ‘punch buggy’ with your brother.  And don’t doubt for a second that the urge to play games goes away when we grow up.

Today’s average online gamer is 34 years old, according to a study of 1200 households by the Entertainment Software Assocation.  The most frequent game purchaser is 40.  Nearly half of all gamers are between 18 and 49.  More surprisingly, more than a quarter of the gaming population is over 50.  The average adult gamer has been playing computer or video games for 12 years.  The ESA reports that 48% of parents play video games with their kids at least once per week. And 67% of American homes either own a console and/or use their PC to run entertainment software. The average 21 year old has already spent 10,000 hours playing video games in their lifetime and as any parent will marvel, they read no instruction booklets.  They just know.

At first blush, you might say that gamers live in a parallel universe and that the popularity of gaming has no bearing on marketing.  But if you take a moment to think about the appeal of gaming, it has just about everything to do with marketing.  What if your marketing could be as interactive as a game?  What if your product tutorial awarded points for completion or measured the speed or accuracy of the task? What if your website could have the same effect as a good game on our potential customer? Why not!

The online world and most creative marketers have begun to employ the principles of gaming (winning, failing, rules) to online development:

• Take Foursquare and other geo-tagging applications.  You get badges and points for checking in and there’s a leaderboard to compare your results with your friends
• In LinkedIn, you’ll see a progress bar showing the completeness of your profile, urging you to add more until you’ve achieved the goal
• At NikePlus, you track your steps with a traditional stepcounter and upload your results to compete or collaborate with friends
• At Weight Watchers Online, your food intake is measured in points and you can bank, save and spend them on special occasions without feeling guilty

Think about your product, your training and your customers in terms of game structure.  Who can get gather the most points?  Who can get to the goal first?  Who can complete the task fastest? Who can make the streak longest? It’s the principle of loyalty programs but turned into an online interaction.

Some truly innovative marketing ideas are borne of the idea of making it interactive and even fun.  If your customers can engage in a way that is competitive,  collaborative, social, fun or rewarding, you’ll begin to see true marketing benefits emerge:  metrics to monitor the progress, revenue to build your business and ultimately customer loyalty.