Setting Up Gamification and Prizes for Virtual Events

Gamification is a fantastic way to engage, promote, and analyze your event in several ways. Especially for virtual events, where every little way to encourage more engagement and attention is critical. PheedLoop's gamification module is hybrid and live event ready as well, as you can use several engagement point triggers in the event app (relevant only if you have purchased the event app) and physically at the venue. The great thing is, the gamification systems like all of PheedLoop's other systems are synchronized between live and virtual event experiences. This article will focus on gamification for virtual events. Gamification helps you:

1. Encourage your attendees to do the things you want them to do (e.g. participate in sessions, visit booths, engage on social media, etc.)
2. Promote your sponsors and draw more traffic their way by creating sponsored prizes and giving them their own spot codes
3. Gain additional engagement data and analytics by strategically incorporating gamification codes throughout key aspects of your event

How Does Gamification Work?

For virtual events, at the crux of the gamification system is the ability for you to create custom spot codes worth a certain number of points, and include prizes in which attendees can exchange points they earn for. The codes are often placed in locations such as exhibit booths, within (or after) session streams, in announcements or push notifications, outside PheedLoop on social media, and all kinds of other creative locations event planners come up with.

Attendees find these codes, enter them into the gamification module in the virtual event system, collect points, and choose from a collection of prizes. Prizes are optional but highly recommended as they help close the loop for attendees and give them something to strive for, and a great opportunity for you to promote sponsors as well.

If you do have prizes available, once they claim a prize, fulfilling it will be up to you. You will be able to track all points earned and export reports (valuable data for you to track engagement), and also track who won prizes. Common prizes include things like gift cards, event or sponsor swag, travel vouchers, etc. Where you incorporate spot codes and what prizes you select are entirely up to you, let your imagination run wild!

Configuring Virtual Event Gamification

Step 1 - Turn on the gamification feature

Visit Experiences > Virtual > Settings, and check Enable Gamification Section. Then head over to your virtual event portal by clicking on Event Portals > Virtual Event, and you'll see a new tab called Gamification on the left-hand side menu.

Note! It's important that you've actually added the event gamification module to your event as it is a paid upgrade, so in case you do not see the gamification module in your virtual event portal after activating it, visit the billing section of your PheedLoop account to ensure gamification has been added to your event.

Step 2 - Add a gamification spot code

Visit Advanced > Gamification > Codes, and click on Create to create a new gamification code. Enter a Title, Description, Points (an integer value), and a Text Code. The Text Code should just be a short representation related to what the spot code is connected to, and is typically capitalized with no spaces. For example, "GOOGLE" if you have Google exhibiting at your event and you are giving them a spot code to give out at their booth. The other fields are less relevant to virtual events. For example, the QR code is helpful for on-site/live events where the same code is useful for attendees to scan via the event app.

Exactly how and where you distribute the codes depends on your event.

Step 3 - Configure automatic gamification points

You are now able to automatically award points to your attendees for completing specific actions in the app and virtual portal, including posting in the event feed, voting in polls, asking questions, scanning other attendees, participating in exhibitor lead retrieval, downloading slides, submitting feedback, and more! For each activity, you also have the ability to set limits so that attendees can keep collecting points for completing a specific activity until they reach that limit. 

To use this feature, navigate to Advanced > Gamification > Settings. 

Step 4 - Add gamification prizes

Visit Advanced > Gamification > Prizes, and click on Create to add prizes available for redemption. The important fields to set are Name, Description (optional), Points, Quantity Available, and Purchase Limit. Set the Promo Image (larger image in the main prizes menu), and Thumbnail (smaller image, ideally square dimensions).

To view who has claimed your prizes, click on the Actions menu for any prize and click on View Purchasers.

Step 5 - Test gamification

Open up your virtual event portal, and click on the Gamification option from the sidebar. Enter your code, click on Claim Points, and watch your points soar! In the same gamification popup, select the All Prizes tab, and try claiming a prize.

Step 6 - Add/Remove gamification points manually

If you would like to ever manually add or remove gamification points to an attendee, you are now able to do this! To do this, simply navigate to Attendees > select a specific attendee > Actions > Add/Remove Points. This is a brand new feature and super convenient for event planners who want to have more control over the points system for individual attendees. For removing points, please use a negative number when using this feature.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I download the QR Codes in bulk? 

You can download the QR codes in bulk by using an external service called QR Explore. Here are the instructions:
(1) Download the table data from Advanced > Gamification > Codes via the downwards arrow cloud icon.
(2) Copy all entries in the "code" column into https://qrexplore.com/generate
(3) Generate your QR codes

How can I disable prize redemptions?

You can disable prize redemptions for everyone at your event globally by navigating to Advanced > Gamification > Settings > and toggling on/off Enable Marketplace Purchasing.

Can attendees enter the same code twice?

No, codes can only be entered once per attendee per event. Once entered, the attendee cannot remove the code either.

Where can I see a list of attendee's gamification point totals?

Navigate to Data & Reports > Reports section, and please download the Attendee Data Report. Search for a column called Total Gamification Points.

How are prizes claimed if attendees are tied in point count?

If you have a limit on the number of prizes, then it's simply on a first come first serve basis.

How can I export data related to my gamification codes?

From the Data & Reports > Reports section, please export the report called Gamification Code Data.

How can I export data related to my prize redemptions?

From the Data & Reports > Reports section, please export the report called Product Purchase Report.

How should code text be formatted?

It's important for codes to be simple so that attendees make fewer mistakes and get frustrated, which is somewhat challenging to avoid for large events. To minimize confusion, we suggest using capitalized letters, no spaces, or special characters (numbers are fine). E.g. "EXHIBITOR23", "SESSIONCODE", "WINBIG", etc.