Gamification- beyond Farmville and on to London

Gamification- beyond Farmville and on to London

Once you’ve recruited supporters and have volunteers working for your campaign both on- and offline, how do you keep them motivated and engaged? Gamification.

In 2011, 67% of US households were playing digital games (source: Jordan Raynor, vice president of media and public affairs at Engage, Campaign & Elections 2011 CampainTech conference), so finding a way to tap into people’s intrinsically competitive nature makes sense as a motivational tool.

Chances are good that you’re already participating in gamification, though you might not realise it. Businesses have been doing it successfully for years with things like airmiles programmes and loyalty card schemes, but how does it work for politics?

Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean your team needs to create the next big viral gaming app. Quite simply, gamification is “the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification)

Basically, you’re making normal, everyday campaign activities more exciting. Canvassing, phonebanking and leafleting are vitally important, but can sometimes become dull and repetitive. But by adding a leaderboard app to the supporter section of your website, each volunteer who signs up to and completes activities receives points or badges and a ranking, creating an energised, competitive community of volunteers who are all ultimately working toward the same goal – getting your candidate elected.

The rewards aren’t limited to taking part in physical, on-the-ground campaign activities, either. Points and badges can also be earned by things like sharing a campaign video on Twitter, posting supportive messages via social media or sending pre-populated email invitations to join the campaign to friend networks. All of these have a fairly low barrier to entry, which encourages engagement from more than just the die-hard party campaigners, helping your message reach a bigger audience.

On Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s 2012 re-election campaign, our digital team rolled out a supporter dashboard on the official website. Creating a user account allowed supporters to earn points by signing up for activities organised by headquarters, creating their own campaigning events and engaging with their social networks. By the time of the election, we had between 20 and 25 per cent of our email list taking part in our supporter community, with about 15 per cent actively creating and hosting campaign events right across London.

Gamification is a perfect example of how new technology can be married with traditional campaign tactics to motivate volunteers. Encouraging competitiveness within your activist base might seem counter-intuitive, but because they are all working toward the same outcome, it’s an interesting, easily adapted and ever-changing way to get the best effort from your supporters.

Bethany Wheatley

Crédit photo : rledda82