Okay, I’ll start by admitting that when Kris Duggan, coauthor of Business Gamification For Dummies sent me this article for our Business Success column, I wasn’t exactly sure what “business gamification” meant. (Perhaps I’m one of the ‘dummies’ for whom his book titled!) Fortunately, Kris explains what it is in the very first paragraph, so if you don’t know either, hang in there… you’re about to find out. Now, after reading his article, not only am I no longer a business gamfication dummy… I’m now a true believer in its importance for increasing your company’s engagement with customers and employees.

Businesses That Are Making a Play: For Dummies Presents Ten Great Gamified Sites and Apps

By Kris Duggan

Kris Duggan

Just a few short years ago, business gamification was practically unheard of. Before 2010, barely anyone searched for the term on Google, and it’s still not in the dictionary. But that doesn’t mean you should say, “gamifi-what?” and move on with your life. The fact is, business gamification—or the use of gaming elements to drive, measure, and reward high-value behaviors by customers or employees—is becoming a go-to strategy for a rapidly growing number of companies. It’s here to stay, and it can help your organization reach new heights.

Games have been played for millennia because they’re fun and people enjoy them. Today, as I point out in my new book coauthored with Kate Shoup, Business Gamification For Dummies®, that love of games is being leveraged by smart businesses to boost customer loyalty, employee performance, sales, growth, and more.

Specifically, business gamification uses elements like points, achievements, levels, leaderboards, missions, and contests to drive desired behaviors. All of a sudden, promoting a brand becomes fun for customers, and sharing troubleshooting solutions with fellow consumers is an engaging challenge. Likewise, employees actually enjoy training instead of seeing it as a chore, and they’re motivated to work harder on a day-to-day basis.

Like anyone else, your customers and employees crave attention, recognition, approval, and rewards. With gamification, you feed this craving, and in the process convert customers into loyal fans and employees into highly effective collaborators and advocates.

Here, I share ten examples of websites and apps that feature smart—and successful—gamification:

eBay (www.ebay.com). eBay has long used a points system that enables users to show their status on the site. The success of this system, which goes so far as to issue badges to the “best” sellers, has effectively demonstrated the importance of reputation as a reward to both buyers and sellers.

As you probably know if you’re an eBay user yourself, these are key game mechanics. In the future, look to eBay to gamify more aspects of its site to make it even more engaging.

Foursquare (www.foursquare.com). Foursquare is a free mobile app that enables you to “check in” at various places and share your experiences there. As you do, Foursquare rewards you with points and badges. You might even get special deals, such as a discount off your bill at a restaurant or a freebie for bringing your friends.

You can use Foursquare to get recommendations for what to do next. And if you check in at a given place enough times, you may become its “mayor”—which can bring with it its own set of privileges, such as a special parking place.

GetGlue (www.getglue.com). GetGlue is a little like Foursquare…except that instead of checking in at their favorite restaurants, shops, and such, GetGlue users check in while watching shows, listening to music, reading books, or engaging in other entertainment-related activities.

In return, users get relevant recommendations, exclusive stickers (like badges), discounts, and other rewards, such as goodies from their favorite shows or movies.

Mint (www.mint.com). Mint.com wants to help members get a handle on their finances, and it uses subtle gamification—primarily in the form of progress bars and fun feedback—to make it happen. Members can also post details about their financial goals online to increase their chances that those goals will be met.

This site is a great example of a less-overt form of gamification. There are no badges or prizes, but the game mechanics in place are effective nonetheless.

MuchMusic.com (www.muchmusic.com). MuchMusic, Canada’s MTV equivalent, gamified its site with its MuchCloser program. Members of MuchCloser get points for doing all the stuff they normally do on the site—watching videos, reading blogs, leaving comments, sharing content, and so forth.

As the points pile up, users unlock rewards and trophies and become eligible for prizes and giveaways. The most active users are flagged as key members of the MuchMusic community.

Nike+ (www.nikeplus.nike.com). Nike+ is a fitness-oriented service that enables you to log your physical activity using a mobile app or other Nike gear. When you do, you earn NikeFuel, which is a super-cool alterna-word for points.

As you earn more NikeFuel, you unlock awards, trophies, and surprises—not to mention a banging physique. And if you’re in the mood to brag, you can share your accomplishments with your friends and with other Nike+ members.

Recyclebank (www.recyclebank.com). Recyclebank gives members points for engaging in “everyday green actions” such as using less water, recycling, making greener purchases, using energy more efficiently, or even walking to work instead of driving. For even more points, members can take online quizzes about ecology and share information from the site with friends on Facebook, Twitter, and mobile applications.

Users can redeem points for goodies such as gifts and flowers, books and magazines, health and beauty items, and music with participating local and national partners.

Samsung (www.samsung.com). Samsung’s social loyalty program, Samsung Nation, makes excellent use of gamification to recognize and empower the company’s most passionate fans. When you join Samsung Nation, you can earn points, level up, unlock badges, and gain entry into various contests and promotions by performing such behaviors as watching videos, commenting on articles, reviewing products, participating in user-generated Q&As, and more.

Top users appear on the Samsung Nation leaderboard, and an activity stream keeps users up to date on the site’s goings-on.

sneakpeeq (www.sneakpeeq.com). A retail site, sneakpeeq offers discounted goodies including gourmet foods, home products, accessories, apparel (from big labels like Kate Spade and Puma to smaller brands), and more. The twist? The site is gamified to make shopping more fun.

The more you buy, share, love (similar to liking an item), and peeq (viewing an item’s price), the more badges and rewards you unlock, and the more incentives and surprises you receive. Leaderboards make the experience more social and competitive, kind of like throwing an elbow at a sample sale.

Xbox Live (www.xbox.com). First came Shakespeare with his “play within a play.” Now there’s Xbox, with its “game within a game.” That is, Xbox, itself a game platform, uses elements of gamification…within its games. (Is your mind blown yet?)

Specifically, users can earn achievement points, referred to as gamerscore, by performing specific tasks or actions in a game. This gamerscore is separate from the player’s score in the game itself and is a way of conveying the player’s reputation across the platform, including its social spaces.

Smart use of gamification is a big win for everyone. Once it’s put into action, it helps customers enjoy interacting with companies. The more they’re recognized and rewarded, the more loyal they’ll be…and the more your organization will grow.

According to Gartner Inc., by 2014, more than 70 percent of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application. Some experts even project that the gamification market will grow to $2.8 billion by 2016! So don’t wait—get in on the gamification action now.

Business Gamification For Dummies®  is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher by calling (877) 762-2974. For more information, please visit the book’s page at www.wiley.com.

Digital Anarchy says new algorithms in its Beauty Box Video 3 improve automatic masking, and greatly increase the quality of the automatic retouching.

The update of the award-winning digital makeup skin retouching plug-in for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Apple Final Cut Pro 7 & X, also further refines OpenCL support and increases rendering speed on ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, the company adds. “The retouching is now faster and better than it’s ever been, creating a more accurate skin tone mask under varying lighting conditions.”

Also, there are 35 preset styles that video editors can choose from to “make things even easier when getting the perfect look for a feature films, commercials, and music videos.”

The $200 Beauty Box gives “an incredible makeover in post-production, using state-of-the-art face detection, masking, and smoothing algorithms that preserve important details and the natural skin texture,” Digital Anarchy says. “All this combines to create realistic digital makeup. The retouching is subtle and the resulting video looks natural creating a look that is indistinguishable from real makeup.”

Don’t want to upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements —especially just to support a new camera raw file type? Now you may not have to:

The Plugin Site says its new MetaRaw extends the functionality of the Adobe Camera Raw plugin in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, to open unprocessed files and provide automatic lens correction and chromatic aberration removal features.

“MetaRaw empowers users to open the latest variety of raw files with Adobe Camera Raw, even if they use such old applications as Photoshop CS1 and Photoshop Elements 3,” the company says. MetaRaw can also apply the Camera Raw effects to image layers, to “provides users of older Photoshop versions and Photoshop Elements with a similar functionality as the new Camera Raw filter in Photoshop CC.”

The Windows version is now $40; a MacOS version is planned. More information is here.

I guess basic black is out of fashion? Pentax is offering not just your three primary colors, or even an array of rainbow hues… No, you can order the K-50 SLR in 120 customizable color combinations.

The company also debuted the entry-level  K-500 SLR, and offered an improved new version of its tiny ILC, the Q, this time with a larger sensor.

The K-50 boasts 81 weather seals, to “incorporate Pentax’s long-standing heritage of weather-resistant products, making cameras that extend shooting environments to wet, rainy, or snowy conditions,” the company says. The body is $700; there are also two new weather-sealed lenses.

The K-500 has the same sensor as the K-50: a 16-megapixel APS-C sensor, 23.7mm by 15.7mm in size, for sensitivity up to ISO 51200. It offers in-body shake reduction, and advanced auto focus, the company says. It runs on four AA batteries, and is $600 with a kit lens.

The Q-7 also comes in 120 color combinations, but the tiny interchangeable lens camera’s main distinction is a larger-than-the-other-Q-models 1/1.7-inch, back-illuminated sensor for sensitivity up to ISO 12800. It has a 3-inch LCD, weighs 7 ounces, and the compact body is pocketable, Pentax claims. It will sell for $500 with a lens.

What’s in a name? Well, Leica Camera AG announced a compact camera that seems overpriced for its specifications: while the X Vario has a larger-than-average APS-C format sensor, its lens zooms only from 28–70mm, with a not-great f/3.5-6.4 aperture range.

Perhaps the intended customer will pay for the logo and styling: the company cites the “linear design and premium materials …reminiscent of the Leica M-System. For instance, the top plate is machined from solid aluminum,” and “high-grip leather trim.”

The 16-megapixel camera also captures HD video, and has a 3-inch display. It will sell for about $2,850.

More information is here.

McCurry Marketing Idea Exchange #484 – June 11, 2013

Les Berkman, Wholesale Photo, Midland Park, N.J.

It’s the ET-type aliens we’re talking about here, the ones which show up in prints made with dirty camera sensors. Les Berkman uses a bit of humor when talking about a serious subject with his customers, and creates a serious revenue stream.

Wholesale Photo staffer Tim Straight came up with the idea. When staff sell an interchangeable lens camera, they plant the idea of the need for sensor cleaning, reminding them the camera’s not sealed and will be open to the elements. They also show customers pictures of what happens, i.e. “flying saucers.” Check out the picture.

Wholesale charges $50 to $80 dollars to clean the sensor, depending on the sensor’s size.

Now it’s your turn:

• Got a promotion that worked? An idea generated by a staffer? Something that’s exciting and/or motivating the crew? Doing something that’s bringing customers in, got customers buzzing, got them buying? Tell us.

• We’d appreciate getting pictures to help illustrate the ideas.

• Send your ideas to editor@McCurryAssoc.com.

• Don’t worry if you’re not the best writer; we’ll be happy to tidy things up for you.

• The archived editions of the McCurry Marketing Ideas Exchange contain more than 1,000 marketing ideas as a resource for you: http://www.TinyURL.com/McCurryIdeas.

So, you were tired of Instagram-like filters in mobile photography many months ago? Well, not only are they not going away any time soon — but Apple has added them as a built-in feature to its upcoming update to its iOS.

“iPhones are used to take more photos around the world every day than any other camera,” Apple says, “and with iOS 7 the new Camera app features filters so you can add real-time photo effects.”

At its developer conference Monday, the leading computer and mobile maker announced plenty of new innovations — improved laptops, a radical new powerful desktop, and improved desktop and mobile operating systems — but little directly involved with imaging apart from some cosmetic changes to its iPhone OS.

One potential stand-out is the Moments method for organizing and accessing photo collections based on when and where they were taken — “a new way to automatically organize your photos,” Apple says. You can zoom out to see all your photos organized by Moments, Collections of Moments and Years.

Also, the Camera app now includes a square camera option, “and you can quickly and easily switch between your four cameras—video, photo, square and panorama—with just a swipe” Apple adds.

iOS 7 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini, and iPod touch fifth generation this Fall.

Most of the negative reactions against the Glass wearable computers Google is now testing relate to their built-in camera: how can you have privacy when everyone’s headset is taking pictures or video all the time?

Google can’t really negate that controversy — it’s inherent in the idea. It has for the time being insisted there will be no facial recognition running on Glass, but that’s likely only a temporary limitation.

In the mean time, Google has updated the Glass software to improve the camera hardware’s capture capability. Much like some smartphones, it will now automatically take HDR pictures in bright scenes, and capture a rapid sequence of shots behind the scenes every time you press the camera button which, when combined, gives you a better picture than what you would get with a single shot,” Google says. Also, “you no longer have to be afraid of the dark; it’ll detect low light situations and automatically capture a brighter, sharper picture.”

The software will also now record voice-to-text captions. “They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but we understand that you may want to add a few,” Google says. “So now, when sharing a photo, you’ll see a message inviting you to add a caption. When you see this, simply tap the touchpad, speak your caption, and voilà! A captioned photo is born.”