Gamification is a strong concept that turns unusual activities into engaging and enjoyable experiences by borrowing elements from games.
It’s all about adding fun and motivation to tasks which may otherwise seem unusual. By integrating game-like features akin to points, rewards, and competition into non-game settings like work, learning, or customer interactions, gamification creates enthusiasm and participation. In this text, gamification and its relationship with Octalysis evaluation might be examined and these real life practices might be tried to be obtained through certain case studies.
What is the Octalysis Framework?
The Octalysis Framework, developed by Yu-kai Chou, is a gamification concept that utilizes eight fundamental motivations, generally known as Core Drives, to shape behavior and encourage engagement in various activities. These Core Drives are:
- Epic Meaning & Calling: This drive inspires individuals to consider they’re a part of something greater than themselves, motivating actions that contribute to a bigger purpose or cause. It drives selfless acts and the assumption in “beginner’s luck.”
- Development & Accomplishment: People are driven by the need to make progress, develop skills, and achieve mastery. Challenges and achievements provide meaning and motivation.
- Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback: This drive is about giving people the liberty to specific themselves and provide you with latest ideas. It may be completed by giving users access to resources and tools like constructing materials, paint, or musical instruments. Open-ended challenges that permit users provide you with their solutions can be used to perform this.
- Ownership & Possession: The sense of ownership motivates individuals to extend and improve what they possess, whether it’s virtual goods, currencies, or personal profiles. This principle also pertains to the possession of processes and projects.
- Social Influence & Relatedness: Social elements, including mentorship, acceptance, and competition, drive individuals to relate to others and seek what their peers have. Here, relatability and nostalgia each matter so much.
- Scarcity & Impatience: The desire for rare, exclusive, or immediately unattainable items or experiences fuels this drive. Scarcity and time-based rewards make people engaged.
- Unpredictability & Curiosity: This drive keeps individuals engaged because they don’t know what is going to occur next. Unpredictable outcomes form the inspiration of gambling, suspenseful media, and their irresistible appeal.
- Loss & Avoidance: People are motivated to act because they’re afraid of losing something or suffering unpleasant outcomes. It’s a strong motivator for avoiding negative outcomes.
The Octalysis Framework is a tool that may help businesses, game designers, and educators use core drives to create engaging experiences. Gamification is helpful since it taps into innate motivations, akin to competition, aspiration, and self-expression. Understanding consumer motivations is the important thing to developing appealing products and experiences. This may help businesses forge connections with consumers which might be genuinely engaging and exciting. It goes without saying that the octalysis framework should align with the aim of an organization’s campaign with the intention to have expected outcomes. Therefore, teaming up with professionals who know which core drives to utilize with the intention to achieve results can boost the general success of a campaign, which may be seen within the case studies below.
How is the Octalysis Framework Used for Marketing?
Prada Candy: The Case of Hidden Treasures
L’Oréal wanted more people, especially those aged 18-34, to know and like their Prada Candy fragrance. For this purpose, they collaborated with “Activision Blizzard” on the “Candy Crush” game. They made a special mini-game inside Candy Crush where players had to seek out Prada Candy hidden in chests while matching Candy Crush candies. And when players finished the mini-game, they got a free sample of Prada Candy and learned more about it. It was a win-win, more people got to benefit from the fragrance, and Candy Crush players had a blast playing and discovering Prada Candy.

The results of this campaign were an enormous success:

- 40,000 fragrance samples were requested inside 24 hours.
- Fragrance redemption site traffic is up by nearly 1,800%.
- Ad Recall and Awareness had double-digit growth.
- Favorability increased by +3.5%.
- Click-through Rate up by 6.6%.
- The Engagement Rate increased by 98.9%.
- Completion Rate increased by 96.2%.
The “core drives” from the Octalysis Framework used listed here are;
- Development & Accomplishment: Potential Users collect the Prada candies by matching the “candies”. As the sport progresses, users do that motion more and check out to pass the degrees to seek out more candies and money, which explains this core drive.
- Ownership & Possession: Normally, this drive motivates users by making them feel like they’ve won something in the sport, but here, receiving an actual gift after they complete the sport also provides this ownership motivation.
- Unpredictability & Curiosity: This was a drive coming from the Candy Crush mechanics, reasonably than the campaign. Because we have no idea which candies are available the sport and the combos are formed randomly.
TESCO: Interactive elements are the important thing
Tesco teamed up with Activision Blizzard Media to make their food products more appealing and boost the need to purchase them. They did this in a vacation campaign during November and December 2021, targeting gamers within the United Kingdom. Tesco used short 10-second videos and interactive end cards to indicate off their tasty food products inside the games. They cleverly added captions as a substitute of sound, so players wouldn’t must activate the amount. They also encouraged players to go to the Tesco website with a transparent call to motion.

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The holiday campaign by Tesco was a powerful success:
- 99% increase in Viewability.
- 98% increase in Video Completion Rate.
- 14% increase in Ad Recall.
- 4% increase in Quality Perception.
- 4% increase in Purchase Intent.
The “core drives” from the Octalysis Framework used listed here are;
Epic Meaning & Calling: This campaign targets the date of Christmas, and Christmas is an epic period for people for a protracted period that features good times, being together, and sharing with family and friends.
Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback: With the choice-based ads tool, users making different inputs getting different results, and making free decisions on this area triggered this core drive.

Maison Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld and Smack teamed up for a creative marketing campaign centered on gamification. The Pixel Collection which featured pixelated artworks of Lagerfeld and Choupette in shades of red, yellow, and blue, was aimed to introduce through a definite combination of gaming and fashion elements. They developed Karl Lagerfeld’s first-ever game, a Pac-Man-inspired HTML5 web game featuring Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat. Players collected bonus items and Karl Coins to power up Choupette, making her faster while avoiding the dogs. Players who entered their details were eligible for a prize draw, and so they could challenge friends by sharing their scores. QR codes were placed in stores and on product tags for straightforward game access. Users could also play via social channels, in stores, or on the brand’s website.

Players aiming for prime scores while collecting cool items like sunglasses, a camera, a bag, Lagerfeld’s lucky number seven, and the Eiffel Tower. Plus, a lucky player won a €250 Karl Lagerfeld shopping experience each week.
Here are the campaign’s key achievements:
- Over 21,000 visits to the net store in the primary week.
- A whopping 18,000 latest email sign-ups.
- The company also gained media and social coverage including Harpers Bazaar, Yahoo, It’s Nice That, and Creative Review through PR efforts. It was observed that these studies increased brand awareness. It was observed that this campaign also greatly increased brand awareness.
The “core drives” from the Octalysis Framework used listed here are;
Development & Accomplishment: Since the sport was developed on Pacman, one in all the classics of game history, many game mechanics are already near perfect. The aim of the sport is to gather as many points because the players can, due to that, they compete with the opposite players to attain high ranks within the leaderboard. Each week’s leaderboard winner receives a Karl Lagerfeld shopping experience that’s price €250.
Ownership & Possession: In addition to the points in the sport, Lagerfeld’s lucky number seven, sunglasses, a camera, a bag, and the Eiffel Tower. Players collect them and add them to their collection, so the motivation to gather rare limited items directs them to this core drive.
Wendyverse: Metaverse Pioneer
Wendy’s launched a creative gamification campaign called the “Wendyverse” in collaboration with Horizon Worlds. The aim of the campaign is to ascertain a singular presence within the metaverse while engaging users in fun and interactive ways.

In the Wendyverse, 4 distinct virtual worlds were created. Wendy’s planned to supply a wide range of experiences including virtual and in-person activities. Some of the activities available would come with basketball and other fun activities.
As a results of the campaign; Wendy’s established itself as a metaverse pioneer. Users could interact with the brand and one another in immersive ways. The campaign allowed the users to earn Wendy’s Rewards in real life so the corporate also boosted their digital business. Wendy’s was in a position to bridge the true and virtual worlds while also providing its consumers with latest experiences due to this campaign.
The campaign was an enormous success for Wendy’s:
- It reached a whopping 52 million people, significantly boosting Wendy’s brand and message awareness.
- The highest variety of each day lively users amongst all Horizon Worlds.
- Over 10,000 fans visited inside the first week.
- 16% of users returned for more inside the first week.
- An impressive 15% of “Wendyverse” residents who were entirely latest to Horizon Worlds, showing Wendy’s ability to draw latest users to the metaverse.
The “core drives” from the Octalysis Framework used listed here are;
Development & Accomplishment: The points and rankings within the games are essential for the shoppers on this virtual reality, because with the ability to use the points and rewards they earn here in real life triggers this core drive to a high extent.
Social Influence & Relatedness: The players go to the shops or meet their friends and do the collective activities as usual within the virtual reality provided by Wendyverse, identical to in real life, which accurately summarizes this core drive.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Octalysis Framework and gamification strategies are effective tools for businesses and types that want to have interaction and motivate their customers. These case studies achieved great success with using these tools. Whether it’s introducing fragrances in a mobile game, making food products more appealing through interactive ads, gamifying fashion with a Pac-Man twist, or immersing users in a metaverse of fun and rewards, the outcomes speak for themselves. Gamification may help businesses create stronger bonds with their customers and create long-term loyalty.
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