GAMIFICATION FOR COMPANIES
Gamification for businesses: what it is, how it works, and when it is worth it.
Gamification for businesses is the use of game mechanics—points, challenges, leaderboards, rewards, levels—applied to non-game contexts: marketing, training, human resources, events. It transforms a passive audience into active participants: those who play with a brand tend to remember it longer than those who simply watch it. In marketing, this logic almost always takes the form of an advergame: a branded web video game that converts a message into an interactive experience.
THE DEFINITIONS
Gamification, advergame, serious game: three different things.
These are similar terms but with precise boundaries — getting them wrong leads to asking for the wrong thing:
Gamification
The umbrella concept: applying game dynamics to a non-game activity (a points-based loyalty program, a sales leaderboard, a prize quiz).
Advergame
A customized web video game, designed around a brand to achieve a marketing goal: the game is the campaign.
Serious game
A game whose primary purpose is to train, raise awareness, or facilitate learning (safety at work, financial education, onboarding).
WHY IT WORKS
Why it works: the three mechanisms that stop the "scroll".
Played content beats watched content because it activates three levers that traditional advertising doesn't touch:
Interaction
The user performs an action, and every action generates active attention.
Emotion
The game leaves memories and sensations that remain over time, and the memory is what binds a person to a brand.
Challenge
Rules, objectives, and a leaderboard create engagement and a desire to try again: active attention with the brand that a banner can hardly achieve.
WHERE TO USE IT
Where it is best used within the company.
Gamification works wherever there is an audience to engage, both inside and outside of marketing:
Marketing and brand
Product launch, campaign activation, qualified lead generation, increasing dwell time on brand channels. The advergame becomes the playable heart of the campaign, with integrated calls to action: prizes, discount codes, sign-ups, shares.
Human Resources and Recruiting
Selecting and attracting talent through gameplay, introducing the company to candidates, making the onboarding process memorable. This is one of the areas with the highest potential: a played trial brings out the right candidates and makes the company memorable even before the interview.
We discuss this in detail on the page dedicated to gamification for human resources.
Corporate training
Teach procedures, products, or compliance topics without the classic course that nobody remembers. A serious game about a process or a safety topic reinforces concepts because it makes people experience them first-hand.
We discuss this in detail on the page dedicated to gamification for corporate training.
Events, trade shows, and live activations
Transform booth visitors into active participants, drive traffic, and create a shared moment. Real-time live games use the audience's smartphones as controllers, bringing the room to life.
THE FORMATS
The formats in which it is made.
Translating gamification into something concrete means choosing the right format for the objective:
Custom-made advergame
The game designed from scratch around your brand, when the experience has to be unique.
DISCOVER THE ADVERGAMES
Ready Games
Ready-to-use games to customize with your own graphics, when speed and budget matter.
DISCOVER THE READY GAMES
Live Games
Real-time games to engage a live audience during events and trade shows.
DISCOVER LIVE GAMES
Apps and loyalty programs
Continuous gaming experiences that build long-term loyalty.
THE NUMBERS
What is measured: gamification is measurable.
Unlike many branding activities, a gamified experience produces clear data. The numbers that matter:
Average play time
Unique players and total matches
Leads collected
Shares and return rate
Calls to action completed
A dedicated dashboard with real-time reports and rankings makes every campaign easy to read: you can see what worked and optimize the next launch.
CASE STUDIES
Real-world examples: leading brands that have already played.
Leading brands rely on custom-made games to create interactive experiences. Among the projects created by Dinobros:
Amazon — from the launch of 'LOL: Last One Laughing' for Prime Video to projects with the Amazon Brand Innovation Lab (Natural Elements, Google Pixel)
Interactive campaigns developed together.
Hera Group
Gamification and engagement solutions since 2021, including a game about the environment.
ESA (European Space Agency)
A space-themed video game.
Italian Labour Union
A serious game on workplace safety for the new generations.
HOW TO START
How much it costs and how to get started.
The cost depends on the format: a ready-made game to customize requires a low investment and quick turnaround; a tailor-made advergame, designed from scratch, counts as a dedicated creative production. The real variable is the goal: what the game needs to achieve. Tell us what your game needs to achieve, and we will recommend the suitable format and a dedicated estimate.
Frequently asked questions.
Does gamification only work for large companies?
Do users need to download an app?
In which sectors does it work best?
