Gamification: Research Roundup
By: Nicola Brown, MPC2014
Gamification is happening all around us from our morning coffee to our personal relationships. In the following MRPs students explore the utility and outcomes of using gamification as a marketing communication strategy.
It’s All In The Game Of Love: Exploring The Use Of Gamification In Online Dating Platforms
Author: Cayley Montmarquette, MPC2014
Cayley explores what the features of gamification in online dating are, the extent to which online dating sites use gamification, and whether it’s having an effect on the number of people who use online dating sites. She discovered that more recent online dating platforms made use of more gamified elements, and that those that had more gamified elements retained a larger number of active users. She concludes that gamification is a growing trend in the online dating industry.
You can read Cayley’s paper here.
More Than Just A Game: Exploring The Gamification Mechanics And Procedural Rhetoric Of The Air Miles Loyalty Program Community
Author: Ian Barcarse, MPC2015
Ian’s research explores the use of gamification mechanics and procedural rhetoric to engage loyalty program communities on social media. His results showed that gamification mechanics and procedural rhetoric were present in the Twitter conversations people were having about the Air Miles Rewards Program. However, they were used differently to achieve various elements of community based on competing interests by authors.
Using the results of his research, Ian presents a Gamified Marketing Communication (GMC) Framework for Social Media Management to illustrate how gamification mechanics, procedural rhetoric, and elements of community can be used to develop engaging social media content.
You can read Ian’s paper here.
Brewing Up Brand Loyalty: The Rhetorical Construction Of The Starbucks Rewards User Interface And How Consumer Behaviour Is Influenced Through Gamification And Visual Tropes
Author: Emily Collins, MPC2017
Emily investigates how the Starbucks Rewards loyalty application can be used as a non-transactional mechanism to create customer loyalty in the multi-billion-dollar coffee market through the application of game elements and strategic document design within the platform’s user interface.
She discovered that Starbucks has carefully employed principles of design within loyalty marketing efforts to manipulate the communicative intent of visualizations, capitalizing on the human mind in favour of company objectives.
You can read Emily’s paper here.