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Gamification – horrible word, profitable concept?

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Gamification – horrible word, profitable concept?

Gamification. It’s a horrible word, reeking of trendification, buzzification and bandwagonification. But ignore the word itself, and look at the idea behind it – introducing the playing of games into people’s interactions with companies. Can the idea help a business such as a mobile operator make more money, improve its customer interactions and customer loyalty, or is it likely to be an annoyance?

In this guest post on Mobile Europe, Velti’s Mobile Solutions Manager Tom Twigg outlines the thinking behind adopting some elements of game-play into customer interactions, and gives results of where it has been tried. Now, if only we didn’t have to call this process gamification…

Keith Dyer

Guest post from Velti’s Tom Twigg:

It has been widely acknowledged by brands and agencies that successful marketing and advertising is about connecting with people, not just speaking at them. With consumer attention being increasingly fought for by numerous forms of entertainment and advertising messages, is there something that marketers can consider to ensure they connect with consumers over a longer period of time than an advertising impression? Well, applying the mechanisms from the highly successful world of gaming could provide the answer.

It’s no secret that over the past couple of decades, gaming has become big business, especially when you consider that:

  • There have been 225m Mario games sold worldwide, about the same number as iTunes accounts
  • Virtual goods are set to grow to over $653m in 2011 in the US alone – roughly the equivalent to the gross takings of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film
  • The video game, Modern Warfare: Black Ops grossed $1bn sales within 6 weeks of being released – The entire set of Harry Potter films spanning 10 years, grossed $4bn (excluding the latest film)
  • 927m hours are spent gaming on Facebook each month. This equates to every adult in London doing it as a full-time job!

Gamification is the process of taking the mechanics that make games engaging and applying them to non-games. There are many gaming mechanics that can be applied to real-world problems, however there are five key elements outlined by SCVNGR back in 2010:
Points: Points are everywhere, and they’re often used in non-game apps as a way to denote achievement. Points also measure the user’s achievements in relation to others and work to keep the user motivated for the next reward or level. They can even double as action-related currency.
Badges: While badges have their origins in the physical world, Foursquare popularised the digital variety with its set of real-life merit badges.
Levels: Zynga uses levels to make the seemingly mundane task of tending to crops all the more enticing. Whereas the EpicWin! App on iPhone used levels to provide incentive for doing everyday chores such as taking out the rubbish.
Leader-boards: Leader-boards rank users and work to motivate and encourage them to become players. Foursquare started with city-centric leader-boards, but now places the emphasis on ranking users against their friends. Earn a few points for a check-in and Foursquare will show users which of their friends they’ve just overtaken on the leader-board.
Challenges: These range from the simple to complex and often involve communal activity or group play. In our workshop at The Cannes Lion Festival this year, we had teams work to solve a number of different tasks using game and mobile mechanics, including how to drive footfall to a local record store.

Using these mechanics, gamification looks to reward players in two ways:

  • Intrinsic rewards: The participant enjoys completing the task and gets a reward simply by taking part. The most engaging computer games are intrinsically rewarding.
  • Extrinsic rewards: The task itself is not enjoyable, but the end reward motivates you to participate. For instance encouraging people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.

Sometimes these processes can be so subtle that we hardly notice them. Take a social networking profile page for example, there may well be a bar at the top saying your profile is 85% complete and that you only need to perform action ‘x’ and ‘y’ — one of which is usually a sharing or social activity, in order to complete the profile. It’s a simple but often effective gaming mechanic, perhaps more familiar in a coffee shop loyalty card scheme, buy nine coffees and get the tenth for free. By showing that a customer is close to a reward, it spurs them on further to participate more frequently in order to get that reward. So what part can mobile play in all this?

If we combine game mechanics with mobile, services can become incredibly powerful and sticky. Take FourSquare for example, it has people repeatedly reaching for their mobile to check in at different places to not only gain actual rewards like a free drink or discounts, but just vying to be Mayor – it almost becomes a status level-up and a boasting point to friends, peers and rivals.

An example of the sort of campaigns Velti has been running with operators and implementing game mechanics is our work with T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile’s ‘4G PayDay’ trivia contest is part of an integrated mobile initiative to engage and reward T-Mobile customers. By leveraging entertaining content, the 4G PayDay campaign is designed to celebrate T-Mobile’s 4G network leadership as America’s Largest 4G Network.

T-Mobile customers enter by texting “START” to 4444 to review and accept the game rules and participate in the 4G PayDay mobile trivia contest. The goal of the game is to correctly answer the most consecutive multiple-choice questions delivered via text message within one hour. Players can text “HINT” to narrow choices or “SKIP” to pass a question. (Both options are limited to three per game and cost $1.00 each plus tax.) The game ends with one incorrect answer or by reaching the one-hour time limit. Customers are allowed to play up to three games each day. The player with the most consecutive correct answers in one game each day will win the daily $4,000 (or “4Gs”) prize. The weekly Audi Q5 vehicle winner is determined by the most consecutive correct answers in a single game for the week. In the event of a tie, the most consecutive answers in the shortest amount of time will be declared the winner.

These types of campaigns have also seen huge take up across Europe with over 11 million consumers participating in SMS gameplay in the last six months alone. These campaigns have resulted in almost 103 million interactions with operators, with around 18% of operator’s customer base participating and each customer interacting up to 20 times.

Operators have enjoyed the success of these campaigns so much that some are on their fifth (customer in Romania) or sixth (customer in Pakistan) consecutive campaigns. In fact, out of the 13 current programmes Velti is running with operators across Europe, six are follow-on campaigns.

With a recent Gartner report from April predicting that more than 50% of all organisations will ‘gamify’ their innovation processes by 2015, it’s clear that gamification techniques are only going to implement themselves further in to our everyday life and mobile will be the main channel for gamification going forwards.

Swedes push Sony Ericsson into five of top ten sellers

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Swedes push Sony Ericsson into five of top ten sellers

iPhone 4 still top, more than a year after launch

Five of the top ten selling smartphones in Telia stores in September were Sony Ericsson models, the Swedish operator has said.

Overall, the top selling phone was the iPhone 4 – a position the device has held every month since its launch over a year ago. The iPhone 3G is still holding onto third place.

Yet underneath that, five of the next seven phones were Sony Ericsson models, with its new Ray model in ninth place.

Telia said that while sales of Android phones reaches record levels, sales of handsets running Symbian are down to record lows.

Smartphone sales for September 2011 in Telia stores (figure in parentheses is last month’s position):

1    Apple iPhone 4 (1)
2    Samsung Galaxy Mini (2)
3    Apple iPhone 3G (3)
4    Sony Ericsson X10 Mini (new)
5    Samsung Galaxy S2 (4)
6     HTC Wildfire S (5)
7    Sony Ericsson X8 (9)
8    Sony Ericsson Arc (7)
9    Sony Ericsson Ray (new)
10  Sony Ericsson Neo (8)

Berg Insight says 98 billion mobile applications will be downloaded in 2015

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According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of mobile application downloads worldwide will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 56.6 percent between 2010 and 2015 to reach 98 billion at the end of the period. Berg Insight estimates that revenues from paid applications, in-app purchases and subscription services – so called direct revenues – reached € 1.6 billion in 2010. Berg Insight forecasts direct app store revenues to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 40.7 percent to reach € 8.8 billion in 2015. Apple’s iOS is the current leader in direct monetisation of mobile applications and will keep the number one position during the forecast period. The Android and Windows Phone operating systems are anticipated to be number two and three respectively in 2015.

“Even though the download numbers will increase during the forecast period, most apps are free to download and app monetisation will be a challenge for developers”, said Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “Free to download monetisation strategies such as in-app advertising and in-app purchasing will be increasingly important. This is especially true in the APAC region, which will account for over 40 percent of all mobile app downloads in 2015.” He adds that for the next coming years, the native mobile app is here to stay. New web technologies such as HTML5 are promising and will eventually be relevant alternatives to native apps. It is also important to remember that web apps and native apps are not mutual exclusives and publishers looking for maximizing reach should develop for the web as well as for the major mobile platforms.

LTE 800MHz trial goes live in Cornwall, UK

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LTE 800MHz trial goes live in Cornwall, UK

Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale have launched the first live trial of LTE services using 800MHz spectrum in the UK. The two operators have moved from a test phase into live trials, with 200 triallists in St. Newlyn East and the surrounding area of South Newquay, which has low or no broadband service availability, accessing a trial LTE network.

The trial combines mobile and fixed access, with one hundred mobile and one hundred fixed-wireless broadband triallists testing the application of 4G LTE as a shared fixed and mobile platform, using 10MHz of test 800MHz spectrum.

The customer trial follows an eight week laboratory trial which tested the network deployment in simulated conditions, to prove it would be possible to share, manage and optimise valuable radio resources between two service providers.  The field trial will now examine the experience of live triallists to help both Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale test and better understand realistic 4G LTE speeds, as well as general mobile broadband data service conditions in rural areas.

The trial is being implemented with support from technology partners Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei.

 

(Photo credit: Tony Atkin)

Aptilo launches SIM-based authentication for WiFi connection

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Aptilo launches SIM-based authentication for WiFi connection

Aptilo Networks has launched its SIM Authentication Server, a product designed to enable automatic mobile data offload. The company said that “Nordic’s leading mobile operator” has already selected selected the Aptilo SIM Authentication Server to enable mobile data offloading through more than 4,000 Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the region.

The Aptilo SIM Authentication Server authenticates users via the SIM card (utilizing EAP-SIM/AKA) in their mobile device as they move from the 3G/LTE network to a Wi-Fi network. Users are authenticated based on the information retrieved from the Home Location Register (HLR) or Home Subscriber Server (HSS), which reside in the mobile core of the 3G/LTE network.

One of the key benefits of using SIM authentication is that it utilises 802.1x technology which is a standard method for encrypting user credentials and user data in the Wi-Fi session. In this manner the Wi-Fi networks become as secure as the 3G network, virtually eliminating the risk of eavesdropping or confidential information falling into the wrong hands.

The Aptilo SIM Authentication Server is one of the two pillars of Aptilo’s mobile data offloading solution; the award-winning Aptilo Service Management Platform (TM) – currently enabling carrier-class Wi-Fi networks for more than 120 operators worldwide – is the other. The pre-enabled integration between these two systems provides a best-in-class mobile data offloading solution for mobile operators.  For users, this means an “invisible” and uninterrupted transfer from the cellular network to Wi-Fi.  For mobile operators, this tight integration means that they can optimise resources across their cellular and Wi-Fi networks as users will automatically flow between the two and policy and charging control will be maintained.

“With our carrier-class Wi-Fi service management platform already deployed with 30 mobile operators worldwide, the demand from our customers to provide an optimised end-to-end solution for offloading to Wi-Fi that included SIM authentication was strong,” said Torbjorn Ward, CEO, Aptilo Networks. “Our holistic approach to mobile data offloading with integration toward the mobile core for authentication, policy and charging provides a best-in-class alternative for mobile operators while our SIM Authentication Server still can be integrated with any Wi-Fi service management system.”

Information about the Aptilo offload solution.

cVidya Introduces ProactiV

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Revenue Intelligence with Risk Management

cVidya Networks announced today the release of ProactiV, the first solution which integrates Risk Management methodologies into Revenue Intelligence products. The new solution, which is based on the TM Forum’s emerging standards, enables Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to proactively prevent revenue leakage by providing automated tools for ongoing monitoring on the risk level.

Currently Revenue Assurance (RA) and Fraud practices are mostly reactive in nature and focused on retrospective experiences, therefore their effect on preventing leakages is limited. In addition, operators usually rely on intuition to identify high leakage areas or utilize one-off consulting services when initially deploying the RA and Fraud solutions. In reality there is a need for ongoing consulting and business support with the use of automated tools which have the capabilities to identify, measure, and mitigate risk. cVidya’s ProactiV provides these capabilities.

“Having been in the revenue assurance (RA) and fraud industry for many years and with over 150 customers worldwide, we recognized the growing need to proactively spot areas of revenue leakage,” said Alon Aginsky, CEO and president of cVidya. “By adopting Risk Management methodologies into the RA and fraud practices, CSPs will become more effective in their Revenue Intelligence processes. The revolution in our new offering is seen by providing automated tools with a “consultant inside” that supports these ongoing methods to assist our clients.”

cVidya’s ProactiV solution enables CSPs to benefit from a new top-down, proactive approach to Revenue Intelligence. It allows management to increase risk awareness and monitor the reduction in exposure to that risk. This  combination of Risk Management methodologies with Revenue Intelligence solutions meets the newly introduced TM Forum best practices which is already embedded into cVidya IRIS©  suite. This will also enable the Revenue Assurance, Fraud and Pricing specialists to benefit from an easy adoption of this methodology in their day-to-day operations through built-in wizards and knowledge base support.

Zinwave DAS solution sets the new gold standard for wireless coverage in the Healthcare sector

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Zinwave’s 3000 active DAS offers flexible future proofing for Martini Hospital in The Netherlands

The new €153 million Martini Hospital was designed by renowned architects Burger Grunstra with flexibility and uniformity in mind. The healthcare sector is constantly evolving with rapid developments in technology, so in using this approach in their design, they hope to have created a hospital that will last for the next forty years and can easily adapt itself to an unknown future.
The complex consists of a newly renovated 6 storey building covering approximately 38,000 sqm and a newly constructed building which covers approximately 58,000 sqm and houses a total of 580 beds over 96,000 sqm.
The need for flexibility in design was also a major consideration for the hospital when assessing their in-building wireless coverage needs. The Martini Hospital was legally obliged by the local government Safety Region to have C2000 TETRA coverage inside the building. The hospital decided to take the opportunity to also gain coverage for a mix of services both now and in the future. The project was awarded to Zinwave, in partnership with Radio Access, a leading system integrator based in The Netherlands who installed the Zinwave 3000 DAS through to commissioning.

The Zinwave 3000 DAS was selected for the project as it has the only wideband active Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that can carry any mix of services between 150MHz and 2700MHz on one hardware layer, making it easier and more cost effective for a multi-service project with future service additions planned. The system comprises of 16 Hubs and 121 Remote Units currently carrying a service mix of C2000 TETRA and Clarity Private GSM1800. In the future the Martini Hospital plans to extend to a further 2 floors in the old building and will also look at the possibility of adding in GSM 900, GSM1800 for Vodafone, T-Mobile and KPN and 3G UMTS

“We are unique in using the Zinwave 3000 Wideband active DAS system for both C2000 (Special Coverage Locations), Clarity Private GSM and commercial carriers. More and more of our customers are asking us for a Wideband solution without installing thick coaxial cables in their building and so we have deployed the Zinwave solution for numerous projects. We feel that by providing our customers with this cutting edge technology, we are providing the very best solution for in-building wireless coverage. ” commented Daniel Seesink of RadioAccess B.V.

“The Healthcare sector is a rapidly growing market for us and one in which we have been very successful.” said Colin Abrey, President of Zinwave International.  “Martini Hospital was an interesting project with flexibility as a key part of the brief and one which the Zinwave 3000 DAS provided the perfect solution. It was the only active DAS that offered the flexibility, scalability and future proofing on one hardware layer to meet the project criteria”

Vodafone and O2 order 60 new masts a month from supplier

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Vodafone and O2 order 60 new masts a month from supplier

More due from other manufacturers

Cornerstone, the joint venture that operates Vodafone and O2’s shared network elements, has placed an order for 60 mobile phone masts per month for the next two years, according to manufacturing company Hutchinson Engineering. The contract is worth £8 million over a two year period, Hutchinson said.

The Hutchinson order equates to a potential 1,440 new masts going into the network over the next couple of years, indicating that Cornerstone is paying around £5,500 per mast.

As Hutchinson is one of a few mast suppliers to Cornerstone, the total number of new masts coming online will be greater than that number. Cornerstone confirmed that Hutchinson is not the sole provider of masts to Cornerstone, but declined to confirm the total number of masts on order with all suppliers over the next two years.

A statement from Cornerstone said, “Hutchison Engineering is one of several companies supplying masts and associated equipment to Cornerstone. We cannot confirm the number they indicate, nor the number of masts we expect to order, as it is a complex process largely driven by the planning process. It is also commercially confidential.”

Cornerstone, founded in 2009, is the joint venture that manages the shared elements of Vodafone and O2’s network. Principally it combines  the operators’ investment in passive network elements.

 

ip.access and Acme Packet reveal security partnership

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Acme Packet and ip.access will collaborate on small cell solutions, with ip.access integrating Acme Packet’s Net-Net Security Gateway into its nano3G small cells.

The Net-Net Security Gateway provides authentication and IPsec tunnel management between the Access Points and the Access Controller. It provides up to 200,000 IPsec tunnels with high-performance IPsec processing architecture in a single rack unit system. It features integrated hardware- and software-based DoS/DDoS attack protection and carrier-class high availability to protect the network and service up-time.

ip.access has more than 60 customers for its 3G and 2G small cell solutions, and its femtocell technology is deployed in more than 500,000 small cell access points.

“Service providers demand a comprehensive security solution in order to successfully deploy small cells,” said Dr. Andy Tiller, senior vice president of product strategy and marketing at ip.access. “We have partnered with Acme Packet as they provide a leading solution – the secure, scalable and robust Net-Net Security Gateway – and relevant experience fulfilling stringent IP service delivery requirements.”

“ip.access is a small cell market leader with a broad product portfolio for enterprise and consumer markets,” explained Mark Vella, vice president of business development with Acme Packet. “This partnership combines small cell authority with security expertise to create a compelling and cost-effective solution to meet current and future service provider needs.”

Operators need partners and handsets to Partnerships and handsets to meet $100 Billion Mobile Payments Opportunity

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Despite the analysis from other analyst companies that resign NFC payments to a hype-driven phenomenon, ABI Research predicts that these payments will soon become not only a reality, but also a mass market-adopted behavior in the United States and Western Europe in 2016.

“Despite the lack of definitive announcements to date, MNOs and OEMs will flood some markets with NFC payment-ready smartphones in 2012 and 2013. That, along with momentum from Google Wallet and several other MNO-led initiatives, like Cityzi in France, ISIS in the US, and the yet unnamed MNO JV in the UK, builds the installed base of NFC mobile payment users to more than 16% of mobile subscribers in the U.S. and Western Europe by late 2014,” says Mark Beccue, senior analyst, mobile money.



Total dollars spent worldwide using NFC will surpass $100 billion in 2016, ABI said, a relatively small amount compared to the tens of trillions of overall annual consumer spending.

“$100 billion is a healthy amount for an emerging payment initiative,” says Beccue, “especially when you consider it will have existed for less than four years in 2016.” 

Business models, not technology, continue to bog down the near-term progress of NFC mobile payments, but perhaps those days are coming to a close.

“With these new business models, the opportunities are too good to pass up. MNOs, OEMs, and Google are tinkering with multiple business and partnership models and will most likely use a combination of one or more. This approach will help move the business forward,” says Beccue.

ABI Research’s new report, NFC Mobile Payments forecasts the installed base of NFC handsets, active NFC mobile payment users, and NFC mobile payments by region and selected countries. The report also presents details of evolving consumer behavior and use cases for NFC mobile payments.

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