The Gamifiers: making business fun
The
Gamifiers participate in Dubai Lynx
We’ve all been there, dragging ourselves through
another long day at work doing routine tasks that kill creativity
and damage our performance.
This is where gamification
steps in, merging tasks with games, and where entrepreneurs
such as Sherif Dahan (see below) and Yehia El-Katib are
building businesses.
They launched digital gamification agency
The
Gamifiers in 2013, which uses the engaging
elements of gaming to design digital solutions for companies that
want an edge.
“We launched our company to use gaming
techniques to provide digital solutions for marketing campaigns,
product development processes, customer service activities and
others,” Dahan, the startup’s CEO, told Wamda.
The Gamifiers offer a wide array of services
from consulting and providing technical solutions, to developing
games, programs and mobile apps.
Companies seeking to add a competitive edge to
their customer loyalty programs are now using gamification tools to
achieve higher customer interaction and create ‘addictive’ habits.
This strategy is based on factors such as point scoring, competing
with others, competitions and prizes, all of which can be applied
in any industry.
In fact, gamification is used in some of the
most influential websites worldwide, such as
TripAdvisor,
Linkedin, Nike, and
the UAE government’s official
website, and in 2012 the
consultancy PWC
predicted the gamification market would be worth $2.8 billion
by 2016.
In
recent reports, global IT research and
advisory firm Gartner predicted that by next year, marketing
companies and international brands would be using gamification as
an essential marketing tool to gain clients’ trust.
A couple of Egyptian boys in
Dubai
When asked about their choice of location, Dahan
said that “we chose Dubai because it Is considered the heart of the
gulf, especially when it comes to business”.
“It’s also the location of many digital agencies
who benefit from the gamification technique. Asides from the fact
that the UAE was the first to initiate an e-government idea, and,
recently, a smart government initiative.”
Indeed The Gamifier’s location in Dubai was key
to acquiring exclusive partnerships with several
regional companies, as well as leading US business
gamification company Badgeville.
The biggest challenge for the team was getting
their initial product out into the market. A lot of
time was invested in raising awareness around gamification as a
concept and talking to potential clients.
“When our clients started seeing results, The
Gamifiers had a surge of popularity through word of mouth,”
according to Dahan.
A potential employee who takes gaming seriously? (Image
via Salesforce)
Giving back to the ecosystem
The founders want to give back to the startup
ecosystem by building several channels for their upcoming service,
an SME support platform that loosely translates as: “from
entrepreneurs back and forth”.
The team is focused on the analytics and results
of their services, relying on periodical tracking of numbers and
reports to improve their performance and reach their target
goals.
“Gamification focuses on improving the
psychological factor for employees, especially in circumstances
where it’s difficult for companies to provide monetary prizes,”
Dahan said. “For example, gain the title of fastest employee of the
month, to create a competitive atmosphere in the
company.”
Expanding
The company plans to expand to other countries
in the region but won’t give specifics on which one will be
next.
“Our expansion plans are divided into two
segments,” Dahan said. “The first is geographical, by taking [on]
more locations in the region by next year, and the other is
constant development of our services and targeting the largest
possible number of international clients in order to achieve our
highest goals, this in turn benefits the whole sector in the
region.”
As to whether The Gamifiers will
find readiness and support in the business sector to change the
face of marketing and transforming work productivity in the region,
is a fact that remains to be seen.
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