Gabe Zichermann is the name behind the world-renowned Gamification Summit – held in New York and San Francisco. He believes that Gamification is a dynamic industry that brings together mechanics and marketing to create engagement and solve problems. Gabe is an entrepreneur, author of the popular book ‘Game-Based Marketing‘, and is a highly regarded public speaker and gamification thought leader. Heavy Chef got the chance to talk to Gabe about his passion and where Gamification is headed.

Your book entitled “Game-Based Marketing” looks at the use of gaming integration into business and life. Can you explain this concept to us?

Gamification is the use of game thinking, game mechanics, and game principles to solve problems in the real world – from education and business to healthcare and marketing. For instance, adding leaderboards and achievements to an office collaboration suite is a way to gamify the enterprise and spur productivity and engagement in employees. In marketing, it means adding feedback loops, badge systems and more to your website to make it more engaging and stickier for visitors and potential customers.

Do you think the development of games over the last decade has hindered or helped the youth, with regards to socialisation?

I think there’s some evidence on both sides of the argument about games and their effect on socialization. One reality is for certain: digital games aren’t going anywhere, so social changes we observe are likely to be long term, and eventually from the ‘new normal’.

Do you think applying games to advertising is beneficial for all brands? Or is there a specific market?

I think gamification is a powerful tool for creating engagement, regardless of the industry or focus. Because gamification doesn’t always mean making something into an actual game, we can address a wide array of business cases with the techniques.

What is the 2012 G-Summit focused on, and what were some key pointers for business owners to take away from that?

Broadly, GSummit 2012 is about helping companies use gamification as a strategy to engage customers and employees. We have exciting talks from the marketing and enterprise categories, with leading thinkers from media, loyalty, sustainability, education, venture capital, design and more. Keynote speakers include Krishnan Saranathan from United Airlines Mileage Plus, and JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist of Salesforce. They’re joined by over 40 other speakers from companies like NBC Universal, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Zynga, Ogilvy, United Healthcare, and more.

Can you give us your favourite example of gamification used brilliantly for marketing purposes?

One of the most interesting examples was T-Mobile creating a live-action Angry Birds game controlled by an android device in Barcelona. People got to actually play the popular game live and in-person. Another great example is the way Nike has used Nike Fit/Nike+ to engage runners across the world to beat their personal bests. The program has put Nike back on the map as a serious running brand.

Where do you see gamification heading in the next few years?

I think that gamification is well on its way to being the most disruptive trend in the marketing industry since social networking. With the explosive growth and amazing results of early gamification examples, the approach is going to transform a wide range of companies. In addition, gamification can be a powerful tool for transforming education, healthcare, government and our environment. Many of the most exciting examples in these categories will be featured prominently at GSummit 2012 in San Francisco.

And lastly, what is your favourite game of all time?

Civilization is the game I love the most and have played most extensively in my life. I’m also a big fan of Plants vs Zombies – probably the game I’ve played the most since Civilization.

Senior Community Strategist at Dell, Connie Bensen, is a well-known name in the digital industry. She is enthusiastic about community building, social media and branding. Her blog was listed in Forbes’ 20 best marketing blogs by women, and her marketing predictions have been printed in the New York Times. Connie is also a sought-after speaker for leading social media and marketing conferences. Heavy Chef had the opportunity to talk to Connie about monitoring your brand, online noise, and some tips on how to integrate your brand across online and offline platforms.

Hi Connie. Community building can be challenging for start-ups that have yet to build up trust and loyalty with consumers. What advice would you give to new brands that are trying to do this?

The proliferation of online Communities has provided start-ups with a huge opportunity that wasn’t previously available. A start-up can utilize pre-existing communities to build their brand and a following for their products. The internet also allows for competitive insight that used to be very expensive to gather. The virtual nature removes the financial barriers that used to be required for offline networking and sales opportunities.

My suggestion is that start ups make sure that they have a plan early on to integrate community building into their marketing plan. At minimum, dedicate a resource to grow an online community and considerable money can be saved on traditional marketing and PR. It will also augment sales efforts.

Online community is actually easier for start-ups because a culture shift isn’t required. The transparent culture can be formed as the start-up grows. In an established company of any size, this aspect creates many barriers that need to be overcome.

Monitoring your brand on Social Media is crucial to all businesses nowadays, and negative experiences seem to spread faster than positive ones. What top tips would you suggest to brands that are dealing with bad information being spread on Social Media?

First of all, as stated, monitoring is imperative! A brand should be the first to know that good or bad things are being said about them. If either type of news is proliferating then a proactive response will always provide a more positive result. If a brand has established an online community and built trust around their brand, then their community will rise up and defend them if warranted. They will also help slow the spread and allow the brand time to respond.

Bottom line, every brand should be listening and have a social media and PR crisis plan in place.

What are your thoughts on potential employers requesting applicant’s passwords in order to view their Facebook accounts? Do you think unlimited access to social networking accounts is a fair judgement on people seeking employment?

When I mentor people in the community management industry I talk about the importance of ensuring that expectations are aligned between employer and prospective employee. If this information is requested, I think you should ask the employer some serious questions about their expectations. What is their culture like? Will your philosophy fit in that culture? If it is a clash then you both need to agree that it’s not a fit. It wouldn’t fit with my philosophy. It also shows a lack of understanding of social networks and privacy, along with the ability to have privacy. Ironically, I see some companies using social channels for HR recruiting, but not being interactive. Again, that’s another flag. If a company requires unlimited access before one is employed, that would beg one to wonder what the standards for employment would look like.

What top tips would you give to brands that are trying to stand out among the excessive amount of noise that is present online?

Listen and be present where your prospective and customers are at. Also, be present where those of your competitors are at. This will require resources – yes, people – that can interact and build relationships, and a community, in online channels. And it’s imperative that staff are empowered and encouraged to build their own networks. They can then amplify the brand’s messages in turn. But the brand needs to realize that if the employee moves on, that they will move on. Employers need to realize that this shouldn’t be a threat and that more good will come during the time of employment from their interacting with the voice of the brand.

When trying to create seamless integration with branding across traditional offline and online platforms, what is the most important thing to consider?

Make sure to integrate URL’s for online communities into offline events and marketing handouts. Integrate Twitter into events by suggesting a hashtag for the audience to use and encourage the back channel conversation. When I speak at events I always appreciate reviewing the comments on Twitter at a later time. When I’m on panels I find that interweaving commentary from the Twitter stream for the panel is a great way to include the audience. For a long time it was vogue to put a second screen up showing the backchannel on Twitter, but now some events have done away with that because it was too disruptive.

The New York Times published your marketing predictions for 2010. What are your predictions for 2012?

2012 is the year of big data. Companies are struggling with disparate databases and wondering how to manage the wealth of information that’s being gathered through social media monitoring, CRM’s and marketing databases. How does one merge that data and find insights and actionable data?

In regard to online Communities, they will continue to be important parts of social marketing efforts. The brands that realize that it’s about relationship building and the Community needs to be focused on lifestyle affinities will be more successful. People are so time constrained that it has to matter to them. Customer-centric communities will thrive.

Thank you for your predictions for the year, Connie. We will be sure to follow this. Readers, be sure to look at Connie’s blog, and follow her on Twitter.

When it comes to marketing speakers and writers, Seth Godin is a name that tops most people’s lists. He has written twelve bestsellers that have been translated into 33 languages. Seth’s themes focus on seminal topics, like the importance of being a ‘remarkable’ business, the spread of ideas, marketing, leadership, and constant change. In our exclusive bite-size interview, Heavy Chef asked Seth to share his thoughts on entrepreneurship, education, public speaking and, of course, his resemblance to Vin Diesel.

Hi Seth, in this crazy era of innovation, what marketing trend interests you the most at the moment?

The revolution is here. The next big thing doesn’t matter, because this is the next big thing. The connection revolution is working hard to replace the industrial age, and you’re on one side or the other.

You’re well known for the public speaking you do. Which speaker’s presentation stands out in your mind as one of the best that you’ve seen, and why?

I saw Elizabeth Gilbert give her stunning TED speech live, as well as Jill Bolte Taylor and Sir Ken Robinson. None used slides. Elizabeth practiced every word a thousand times, Sir Ken didn’t practice at all. All three told true stories, from the heart.

What would you say is the most important piece of advice you received as an entrepreneur, that other entrepreneurs should always remember?

There’s a big difference between entrepreneurs and freelancers. Get it straight or you’ll drive yourself crazy.

Also, don’t run out of cash.

How do you see online and digital influencing education in the near future?

Look at “Stop Stealing Dreams“. The ebook is free, and it’s longer than this interview but as short as I could make it. It’s been read more than 500,000 times in four weeks.

Some time back “Unleashing The Ideavirus” was an extraordinary success in that you gave it away for free, but at the same time people started buying the hardcopy version via Amazon. Since then, many have tried to emulate its success yet few have come close to Ideavirus. Why do you think that is?

Good timing, mostly. Also, it was the first book about the topic of sharing free manifestos. The self referential nature sure helped. But a big part of it was the notion that I wasn’t trying to make a profit, I was trying to make a point.

We’re huge fans of your work. Which of your books did you enjoy writing the most?

Enjoyed? Mostly you remember the hard work. I certainly liked how hard it was to write Linchpin, it felt juicy. And Purple Cow was written in memory of a friend, and that energy and love came through.

Do you ever get a tingling feeling from the thousands of people around the world clicking on your head every day?

It’s a little humbling, that’s for sure. I try not to think about it when I’m writing.

How did the idea for Squidoo come about?

The germination of entrepreneurial ideas doesn’t matter. It’s a little like tracking when or how the parents of important people met. Birth is easy, raising the kid is the hard part.

And lastly, have you ever been tempted to bulk up in order to look like Vin Diesel?

You mean it’s not showing?

Thank you Vin, I mean, Seth, for spending some time with us. We’re looking forward to your next release. Heavy Chef readers in the meantime, do yourself a favour and follow Seth’s writing on his blog, here.

Melissa Attree specialises in helping brands clearly understand the web in a simple way. Her marketing, communication and social media skills have benefitted many people through courses and workshops for brands like ABSA, Mastercard, Nando’s and 5fm. Her passion seeps through all aspects of her consulting and digital PR, where she focuses on connecting brands with consumers in a creative way. Melissa was also voted Best Social Media Marketer for 2011 at the Bookmark Awards.

Hi Mel. What would be your own definition of Web 2.0?

For me it’s about people creating and sharing or commenting on content, any type of content. It’s all about people.

How can a company best match the brand in their eyes with the brand in the eyes of the public?

You have to understand that your customer usually knows more about your brand than you do, in terms of perception that is. Companies need to get closer to their customers and understand how they feel about the brand, what they would change and suggest and appreciate. Just be honest about your brand and have an appropriate voice. If your brand is not sexy, it’s not sexy and that’s ok, just be authentic. If a banking social media profile starts talking like a teenager and dropping text speak, the majority of customers would become unsettled.

What would be your top three tips to new companies trying to cut through the online noise?

Do your homework. Listen first then plan your approach. After you’ve done some proper research you may find that you don’t need what you thought you did but that perhaps you have the opportunity to develop a new approach to digital conversations. Then, develop good content, whether it’s text, audio, video or pictures, that your customers really need. Always acknowledge people, as in real life people just want to be acknowledged.

Do you think a company can engage too much online and harm their brand?

Yes, nobody likes the desperate salesman or the office chatterbox. Have some integrity and balance your interaction.

In your opinion, should a brand outsource professionals to run their social media, or should they do it themselves? Is there a better choice between the two?

Depends on the brand and the level of engagement needed. I always like brands to work with a company or individuals who have focused on social media strategy as a professional offering. They have done the strategy and made the mistakes. Work with them, use their expertise and let them hold your hand until you are certain that you can confidently implement social media internally.

All of this being said, social media is just another communication platform. Make informed decisions and keep it simple.

Thanks Melissa. Find out more about Melissa and what she does here, or follow her on Twitter here.

As affiliate marketing becomes an increasingly prevalent method in South Africa and other emerging markets, it is essential to understand this type of relationship and how it may benefit you. Heavy Chef chats to Deborah Whitlock of World Wide Creative, to get to grips with affiliate marketing and the possible challenges that come with it.

Can you explain to us what affiliate marketing is?

Affiliate marketing is a working relationship whereby a merchant, either an online shop or advertiser, has consumers driven to it by adverts on an affiliate website. If a consumer visiting the affiliate’s site, clicks on an advertisement and goes on to perform a predetermined action on the advertiser’s site , which is usually a purchase; then the affiliate receives a payment.

Is there scope for this in emerging markets?

For affiliate marketing to work well in a given market, there are a few things that need to exist.

Well known brands in the market need to be doing successful Ecommerce, and need to deliver a satisfying ecommerce experience. There also needs to be a culture of online shopping. There needs to be sufficient online audience for affiliates to mine and channel traffic to the merchants or brands they are representing. And lastly, the market needs credible affiliate websites using accountable online marketing practices, who have a loyal following.

Emerging markets such as South Africa are in the very early stages of the first two points. Therefore affiliate marketing as a standard practice within a marketing strategy is still in its infancy.  It would be a challenge to get it right at present but that is not to say it couldn’t be done. The ROI model, that being the commissioning of a third party to market your product, is successful in and of itself.  Right now the model would probably work best as individual partnerships negotiated between interested parties. An example of this is Woolworths partnering with Discovery Vitality to promote themselves on the Vitality website, with their own profile and special offers.

Can you give an example of any affiliate marketing you have done or are busy with?

In the UK I managed two fairly large affiliate programmes with two networks.  I was responsible for the growth of both programmes, oversaw the relationship with the individual affiliates and had to ensure that the brand, Weight Watchers, had continuous exposure across the affiliate networks, with activity peaking during key campaign periods in, line with sales targets.

What are some challenges that come with choosing this route?

Well some of the key challenges are managing an offer portfolio to keep affiliates happy. They like to offer their audience an exclusive deal. And balancing this with over-exposure in the market. Ensuring consistent, high account manager service levels from the networks. This plays a huge role in the quality of the affiliates, general reporting and effectiveness of marketing campaigns, as account managers have to do a lot of following up with affiliates on your behalf. Attracting good affiliates who actually make sales is another challenge. Affiliate marketing follows the usual Pareto principle, which means that 20% of affiliates drive 80% of the sales. Lastly, finding time to talk regularly with the top affiliates to keep the brand top of mind, can be challenging.

How do you think trust is perceived though this type of marketing?

If you had asked that question ten years ago, you’d have been met with a snort and a derisive laugh.  It used to be an industry riddled with a lot of clandestine practices.  Today affiliate marketing is very well established across Europe and the USA.  Most top brands use affiliate marketing as a standard part of their activity.

It has created what are termed Super Affiliates, which have become reputable brands in themselves, churning out thousands of Ecommerce transactions both online and via social media and mobile.

A few UK examples include TopCashBack.co.uk, Quidco.co.uk and Nectar.com.

These are the type of sites which successfully represent top brands across the country and help to build those brands in the Ecommerce space.

Alistair King is the founder of King James advertising agency. The King James group is made up of eight communication agencies coming together to make up the integrated company. Perhaps best known for their Allan Gray commercials, King James’s philosophy involves everyone working under the same roof, thinking outside of media silos and drinking at the same bar. We were honored to have Alistair speak at last night’s Heavy Chef session and managed to corner the inspirational Mr King for an exclusive interview on his take on the future of advertising.

Thanks for talking to us at Heavy Chef, Alistair. How has the rising demand for digital marketing affected your agency’s approach to advertising?
There is a rising demand for what we call ‘integrated campaigns’ in which digital marketing plays a very big role. Clients are no longer asking for once-off ads that demonstrate their brand’s features and benefits, but rather for richer, broader experiences that their target market can interact with, and this obviously calls on social media and digital platforms. Having said that, I believe many marketers are still grappling with how this kind of advertising works. Many marketers are talking digital because they believe it’s more cost effective than traditional media, so their motivation isn’t necessarily right. But yes, it’s having a massive bearing on how we develop our agency and what skills we need to add to it.

Despite the hype of the ‘digital revolution’, many traditional agencies are still standing strong. Do you think there is a place for both – or will we eventually see digital and traditional merge as one?
Many traditional agencies will definitely stand strong and committed to their area of expertise, in much the same way as many PR agencies, or digital agencies, will stick with what they know. It’s not about being stubborn or shortsighted. It’s simply about an agency’s appetite to tackle something outside of their immediate expertise or comfort zone. Many ad agencies are expanding their skills into all sorts of areas, including PR, digital and social media. But how many digital agencies or PR agencies are expanding their skills back in the opposite direction? There is absolutely space for people to stick to what they know and love, although there will definitely be a lot of agencies bringing into their companies whatever skills they think are lacking. Advertising is definitely evolving rapidly, but I don’t think that merging a digital and traditional agency even fully equips you to handle where marketing communication is heading. New generation ideas are even broader than what those two merged companies can deliver. But yes, in principle I believe that if you want to be fully equipped to make great marketing in this day and age, merging traditional skills with digital skills is the very least you should be doing.

Is there a good example of King James merging digital and traditional platforms in a current campaign for one of your clients?
We have a number of clients who are aggressively pursuing integrated campaigns, and right now we have a dozen very large campaigns in development and production. Five or six creative people across three or four of our companies have sat and collectively brainstormed these campaigns, so they will look quite different to the normal sales pitch that a traditional ad might deliver. I’d rather not forewarn their competitors by listing them, but Kulula.com has been our most innovative client in this regard. We have had massive success with them on integrated campaigns like “The official sponsor of the you-know-what” and their 10th Birthday celebration. But to be honest, I think we are only just starting to find our stride now.

Ha, thanks for the tip; we’ll keep a keen eye on Kulula. Tell us about your current passion project. What are you most excited to be working on?
We will be making a very big announcement, possibly even during the course of this week. King James is always constantly evolving as a group. We believe that we have a strong sense of where marketing is heading and we’ve identified what we need to do right now to be better at what we do.  We’ll be taking a big, bold step in the right direction this week, and it will most certainly open the creative flood gates for King James.  So needless to say I’m stupidly excited right now about the way we’ll be able to think going forward. Other than that, nothing excites me more than a client who has a twinkle in their eye – who not only asks for bold creative thinking but actually buys it when we give it to them –  and we have a number of clients that fall into that category right now. I’ll be lynched if I mentioned one over another. I’ll take the 3rd amendment, if we even have one.

Alistair, thank you for chatting to us. Your work is very inspiring to us, and we’re looking forward to seeing how your agency evolves over the next few years. Heavy Chef readers, you can find out more about King James on their website (here).

This video is a talk that Heavy Chef co-founder Fred Roed presented at the 2011 WordCamp Conference held in Cape Town, on community building. Taking lessons from a defunct 60’s rock n’ roll band, the presentation covers topics such as ‘Holy Grail of Community Building’; lessons we can take from successful communities; why a community focus is important to all companies; the ‘Community Management Matrix’; the problems we’re facing in today’s digital economy; and two case studies from current community examples.

When I was studying at a well known advertising school in Denmark in the mid-90’s, I asked my lecturer a pointed question “What is marketing?”

The answer my learned lecturer gave me was not very satisfying. She mumbled for 15 minutes about communicating to markets and contained stuff about the ‘P’s’ of marketing. The response was long and rambling, and left me a little bewildered.

If you Google the phrase “What is marketing” now you will find the answer just as bewildering. There are many differing definitions.

As the CEO and Creative Director of a company concerned primarily with offering marketing services, I’ve grappled with the challenge of defining the term correctly for some time. It is a sprawling, convoluted subject and tough to get to the heart of what we marketers do.

At the same time, marketing has experienced seismic change in our generation.

Social media, in particular, is the most exciting innovation in communication since Alexander Graham Bell unveiled the telephone in 1876.

After a lot of thought and discussion, head butts and tequilas, Mike and I finally settled on this:

“Initiating and maintaining profitable relationships.”

This definition cuts to the core of the marketing process. Our jobs as marketers, digital or otherwise, is to first find customers or clients (initiate); then maintain interaction with those customers (maintain); while ensuring that the interaction has value for both parties (profitable) in order to build a sustainable community (relationships).

As the internet exposes us to larger audiences, the functions of forging relationships, building communities, mass dialogue and customer interaction are now particularly important – concepts vital for marketers to grasp if they are to remain relevant in an increasingly noisy environment.

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