41% of the Indian population are millennials, and it’s not shocking to know that 87% of the millennial group has access to smartphone technology. Almost 2/3rd of millennials’ decisions in their lives are directly or indirectly affected by their peers’ opinions through this metaverse of digital interactions and communities. It is thus a nightmare for brands to engage and retain millennials.

User behavior towards a brand is more than just its offering. It’s the right blend of user experience, product satisfaction, brand associations, credibility, and the feeling of belongingness with that brand. 

If you follow the textbook rules for marketing and brand recall, the user may be inclined to use your product/service, but they won’t stick with your brand for the long term. 

Your ultimate goal as a brand manager or product owner is for your brand to verbify for the problem you solve and build a long-term association with your brand users. 

How does gamification help to engage and retain Millennials?

Today, attention has become a commodity. Consumer attention spans are dwindling, and a millennial’s average attention span is just 12 seconds before they get distracted by the next available option. 

Long-processed content is likely to be 75% less processed than a short form of content, and the numbers are almost similar when it comes to the consumption of graphical-based over text-based content. It dilutes down to the point that an interactive visual interface plays a better role in getting the millennials’ user attention and increasing the probability of any brand’s interaction with them.

Gamification of any user process will help increase customer retention because when millennial users open their smartphones, they do not have any intent at their disposal. 

Hence, as a brand, you would need to create that intent by gamifying the most boring, redundant, and recurring activities and incentivizing the user to get involved in the activity consciously. 

Indian brands cashing on gamification to engage and retain millennials

Swiggy

Who would not like to have an extra cashback which suggests a spin of the wheel after placing their order? Swiggy India converted all of their first-time users to become their recurring customers by ensuring every order ends up having a push of a wheel. This gave them extra cashback on their next order, thus creating a loop of user behavior that ensures every time the user thinks of ordering – Swiggy comes to their mind. This strategy has been so successful that “Swiggy It” became more like a verb replacement for ordering food. 

Cred

Luck and gambling are two things that draw us back to our ancestors. Showing a jackpot with a simple stroke of luck makes our outlook on gambling more positive, and that’s what this new-age fintech startup “Cred” does. 

The entire cashback in the form of vouchers to deal links with a simple jackpot roll gamified event that hooks on to the users who respond by actively paying their credit card bills and earning cred coins to play the game of luck and see if they stand a chance. Nearly 71% of cred users collectively paid 52,000 crores of their credit card bills. This game is undoubtedly making Cred win its users’ hearts.

Google Pay

Scratch cards took the world of digital payments by storm when they successfully managed to catch the attention of Indian millennials and a part of the Gen Z crowd right when the demonetization hit. 

Indians were slowly getting used to the concept of virtual transfer of money through a simple tap on their smartphone. This was when Google launched its own digital payment platform.

Google Pay came with a swirl and captured 35% of the market share within six months of its launch with a simple strategy of referral joining bonus of scratch cards. It took the millennial crowd by surprise as this was the first time they got a direct monetary benefit by just asking their friends to download an app. Tez (later called GPay) got almost 4.5 million downloads in the first month of its scratch card strategy. Brilliant timing and smart execution made Gpay the most preferred digital payment app in no time.

User retention is a growing concern, with almost 70% of the brands competing with other players in the vast expanding digital space. And, with the introduction of the metaverse, things have got even more interesting. 

It has become imperative for brands to have a high brand recall when it comes to consumers’ decision-making and associate themselves well with the problems they are trying to solve. 

Why Gamify Your Brand to engage and retain millennials?

Now, why would anyone want to gamify their brand to engage and retain millennials?

Especially when they can outright spend on traditional marketing, which can give tangible traction or ROI. 

Because there is one important metric that is not calculated when you go ahead with your branding and marketing –  brand recall, how well is your brand associated with the problem it is trying to solve?

Converting your brand name into a verb that defines the problem you solve is the best possible reward you can get as a brand.

A few brands that managed to do it are:  Swiggy became a term for ordering food, Xerox became a term for photocopying, Google became a term for searching for something online, Uber became a term for ordering commute online, Whatsapp became a term for texting someone, Photoshop became a term for editing a picture and many more!  

There are more than 155,962 apps from Indian publishers on Google Play Store alone, and every application aims to make its brand a verb. Gamification is a powerful tool that can help them achieve that milestone and make them stand apart from their competitors.

How can Upshot.ai help?

Upshot.ai is an omnichannel, user engagement, and gamification platform that helps digital product owners and marketers improve product adoption and conversions. 

With Upshot.ai, brands can enhance their digital experiences with pre-built gamification features while providing personalized insights, actionable recommendations, and contextual nudges designed to deepen their relationship with their users.

Book a demo of the most comprehensive user engagement and gamification platform to achieve your digital product goals. Join our communities for more insights, guides, and best practices that keep you updated with proven strategies and tips to supercharge your campaigns.

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