¿Cuáles son algunos ejemplos de campañas de growth hacking que utilizaron gamificación o incentivos?

Um case de sucesso foi do Duolingo, em relação a PLG (product led growth) e as estratégias de gameficação dentro do app. Você pode se perguntar: como a empresa vale US$8 bilhões sendo que os usuários não pagam nada? E não são poucos usuários, cerca de 34 milhões de pessoas usam o app todo dia. Eles focaram em testes A/B, gameficação, UX/UI totalmente focada em possibilitar melhorias diante de pesquisas com os usuários. A ideia deles é, de fato, transformar clientes em usuários. Essa é a chave do sucesso. Isso aumenta o LTV, uma métrica de extrema importância para negócios que desejam escalar.

Starbucks Rewards: Who doesn't love collecting stars for free coffee? This loyalty program gamifies the buying experience, turning every purchase into a point towards rewards, keeping customers engaged and coming back for more.

The first step to having a referral program is a benefit that is part of the entire customer journey, which is easily identified as a benefit if the customer shares it with other people. Sometimes customers want things that companies underestimate. I've seen surveys being carried out and the answers were "I would like a mug from the brand". In other words, customers would share their solution with people they think are important, if they could win a mug.

One cool example is Dropbox's referral program. They gave users extra storage space if they invited friends to join. It felt like a game to see how much free space you could earn. Another one is Starbucks' loyalty program. Customers earn points for every purchase, unlocking rewards like free drinks. It's like a game where you collect points to win prizes. These tactics use fun and rewards to get people excited and engaged!

Give $25, Get $25: Airbnb launched their "Invite Friends" referral program in August 2014 to boost user growth and cut customer acquisition costs. Both the referrer and the referred received $25 travel credits upon the first booking. This strategy quickly created a viral loop, adding over 300,000 new users and significantly increasing bookings within months, showcasing the power of referral incentives

Align your incentive with your product’s core value. For Dropbox, it was storage, so it only made sense to give out more space as a reward. Ask yourself, what can you offer that’s tangible and valuable to both parties? Keep it simple and tied to your product’s core.

Never underestimate the power of celebrating your customers! I've seen first hand how adding a confetti animation to an app screen can drive meaningful retention. Sending a "congrats" email after a user takes a specific action can do the same. Celebration is a powerful growth lever because it humanizes your brand, creates a conversational dynamic between your product and your customer, and adds fun & personality.

Nike+ Running Club: Running can be lonely. Nike's app uses gamification by tracking runs, awarding badges for milestones, and creating virtual challenges. Suddenly, your run becomes a competition, keeping you motivated and wanting to reach the next level.

Keep Moving with Fitbit: Fitbit launched their daily goals and badges system to motivate users to stay active. Users set daily step goals and receive virtual badges for meeting targets and hitting milestones. This gamified approach resulted in significant engagement, contributing to Fitbit’s user base growing to 38.5 million active users in 2023, with over 128 million registered users. The system helped boost user retention and foster a sense of accomplishment, making fitness tracking more engaging and fun.

You know how people talk about not breaking their “gym streak?” Duolingo took that concept and applied it to learning. When you see that number of consecutive days go up, it feels like progress, even if you only spent 5 minutes on the app.

M&M's Eye-Spy Pretzel Challenge: Remember searching for the letter M in your M&M's? M&M's took gamification offline with a social media contest where people hunted for hidden pretzel shapes in the candy bags. Fun, interactive, and free publicity? Genius!

We've seen travel brands use gamification in a different way - other than the plain referral credits. They witnessed how Wordle went viral and helped the New York Times (NYT) attract millions of new subscribers - without NYT having to offer any financial incentives or discounts. Custom word and puzzle games are used to promote the travel's brand packages and offers. Travelers play those games to discover what makes this destination unique. Those games went viral on social media as it's fun and memorable experience. This triggers free word of mouth marketing and travel brands can then charge full price for their packages.

Uber's Free Rides Program: Uber launched their free rides program to rapidly expand their user base. The program offered new users a free ride credit when they signed up using a referral code. Existing users who referred friends also received ride credits. This referral program helped Uber grow exponentially, contributing to over 5 million new users within a few months. The free ride incentive not only attracted new users but also encouraged existing users to share Uber with their network, driving significant user engagement and platform utilization.

What made this genius is that the credit went back into the ecosystem, encouraging more usage. It’s like getting rewarded to continue using the platform. No third-party perks or irrelevant rewards—it was all about experiences, which is exactly what Airbnb sells.

Optimize your LinkedIn Profile, really, it helps me so much to generate opportunities. It motivates users to add more details, enhancing engagement and data quality. Completed profiles lead to better networking, benefiting both users and LinkedIn. The feature creates a positive cycle: as users add more information, they gain more from the platform, encouraging further engagement. This approach helps LinkedIn grow its network organically, as more detailed profiles attract more connections and interactions.

Pokémon Go: This global phenomenon took the world by storm. Using augmented reality (AR) and location-based gaming, Pokemon Go incentivized people to explore their surroundings and socialize with fellow trainers. Talk about a massive growth hack!

Facebook's Friend Finder: Facebook launched their Friend Finder tool to encourage users to connect with more people. This tool prompted users to import their email contacts to find friends on the platform. Additionally, Facebook displayed a progress bar showing the number of friends added and suggested actions to increase connections. This gamified approach led to a significant increase in user engagement and network growth. Within months, Facebook saw a 60% increase in connections made through the Friend Finder tool, demonstrating the power of gamification in boosting user activity and retention.

Sephora Beauty Insider: Who doesn't love exclusive perks? Sephora's loyalty program rewards points for purchases, unlocks special offers, and makes shopping feel like a VIP experience.

Spotify's Wrapped is genius because every year everyone shares their top listened to music across all socials despite nobody caring. Brilliant.

Strava's Year in Sport: Strava, a social network for athletes, launched the Year in Sport feature to engage users and generate word-of-mouth. This feature provides a summary of users' athletic activities over the past year, including total distance, elevation gain, and number of activities. It also highlights personal records and fun stats, creating a sense of achievement. Users can share their Year in Sport on social media, creating a viral effect. In 2022, Strava saw a 101% increase in activities uploaded outside athletes' home countries and over 7 billion activities shared globally, showcasing the effectiveness of this feature in boosting user engagement and platform growth.

[Crypto Trading Platform case] My team created a fun quiz to match users with a crypto coin that fits their personality for investment (kind of a Tinder match). Based on fun personality questions, users could get answers like Bitcoin for those committed to long-term investments, Dogecoin for those seeking a casual date, or Solana for an intellectual connection. Upon completion, participants were given a small bonus to get started with their first crypto purchase. This quiz increased community following and generated a buzz with zero marketing budget, proving that personality tests are still trendy and can be used in creative ways.

Headspace's Free Trial with Gamification: Meditation app Headspace offered a free trial with gamified elements – daily challenges and progress tracking – to get users hooked on the benefits of mindfulness.

Here are more examples of successful growth hacking campaigns using gamification or incentives: Nike+ Run Club: Users earn badges and rewards for completing running challenges and milestones. Starbucks Rewards: Customers earn stars for purchases, which can be redeemed for free items. Fitbit’s Daily Goals: Users receive badges and notifications for meeting their fitness targets. Khan Academy’s Learning Streaks: Students earn badges for consecutive days of learning. How to Create the Best Programs: Focus on understanding your users' motivations and design programs that offer meaningful rewards and incentives. Use data to continuously optimize and improve your strategies.

Robinhood's referral program! They offered users a free stock for referring friends to sign up for their investment platform. This incentive not only encouraged existing users to spread the word but also gave new users an immediate benefit, driving growth for the platform. Giving a free stock instead of money directly into the account is smarter because it introduces new users to the platform's core product - investing. It aligns with Robinhood's mission of democratizing finance by getting people involved in the stock market from the get-go.