Say you’re sitting in the dim glow of your room, your eyes glued to your mobile screen as you race your car and check a game leaderboard that constantly refreshes after each race.
As someone striving to reach 1st rank on the leaderboard to unlock the long-awaited top-notch accessory for your car, you feel your pulse quicken every time the leaderboard is updated.
Day after day, you continue to beat the best score until one day when you scan through the ranks, your breath catching in your throat, only to see your username glowing brightly in the coveted number one spot.
It’s a nice feeling, right? Seeing days of hard work reap the results you’d waited for—it’s surprising how a leaderboard can get you hooked on doing something repeatedly.
What if we told you one could leverage this leaderboard power in a non-gaming environment to benefit their business? Yes, that’s what leaderboard gamification does. Let’s see how.
Leaderboard Gamification and Benefits
Leaderboard gamification uses the leaderboard game mechanic to fuel competitiveness and increase customer engagement and motivation.
- Performance Illustration: A leaderboard illustrates rankings that show the best users or performance according to specific standards. Points, levels attained, and finished tasks can be quantifiable performance indicators.
- User Motivation: Leaderboard gamification creates a sense of healthy competition among users by publicly visible ranks. Knowing how they stack up against the competition might inspire people to work harder.
- Social Acknowledgement: Leaderboards allow users to be acknowledged for their accomplishments. A person’s position at the top of the leaderboard is social proof of their abilities or knowledge in the community and gives them a sense of success.
- Progress Monitoring: Using leaderboards, users can monitor their advancement over time. They can assess their progress and complete tasks to climb the leaderboard by tracking their rankings in response to their performance or actions.
- Brand Loyalty: Due to the competitive nature of leaderboard gamification, users are encouraged to remain on the platform for extended periods. Sustaining or elevating one’s standing on the leaderboard catalyses ongoing participation and reward winnings.
- Community Building: As users compete or work together to exchange strategies and raise their ranks, leaderboards help develop a feeling of belonging among users. This sense of association can foster a livelier and more engaged community.
- Customer Rewards: Leaderboard systems also provide incentives or badges for hitting specific benchmarks or obtaining high rankings. These incentives, including monetary or non-monetary rewards, virtual coins, badges, etc., can encourage users to interact more.
Based on the above mentioned advantages, leaderboard gamification uses people’s natural desire for advancement, competitiveness, and recognition.
This, in turn, increases user motivation, engagement, and retention in various settings and applications, and the 3 brands mentioned below using gamified leaderboards are proof.
Industry Examples of Gamified Leaderboard Campaigns
1. Nike Run Club: Fitness Gamification
The Nike Run Club (NRC) scoreboard is an essential component of the Nike Run Club app, which aims to improve users’ running experiences. The leaderboard allows runners to interact, compete, and celebrate their accomplishments in the following ways:
1a. Global Community: The NRC leaderboard connects runners worldwide, allowing them to compete in virtual challenges and races regardless of location. This worldwide community feature creates a sense of belonging among individuals who are into fitness.
1b. Competition and Motivation: The leaderboard adds a competitive element to the jogging experience, encouraging individuals to push themselves to new heights, set personal records and strive for progress in their training.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Nike’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
1c. Real-Time Information: The leaderboard gives users real-time information on their progress and ranks, allowing them to monitor their performance throughout their runs and compare it to their peers.
1d. Social Share: Nike Run Club is fully integrated with social media sites, allowing users to share their runs, milestones, and leaderboard rankings with friends, family, and followers.
The Nike Run Club app continues to gamify fitness with over 10 million app downloads.
2. eBay: E-Commerce Gamification
eBay is a well-known online retailer that displays a scoreboard to its sellers. With eBay’s “Top-rated Sellers” feature, which effectively serves as a leaderboard, sellers who continuously deliver exceptional customer service and keep high ratings from buyers are highlighted.
2a. Seller Feedback: eBay gathers buyer feedback about vendor interactions. Ratings for things like communication, shipment timing, and correctness of the item description are included in this feedback, which then serves as a ranking parameter.
2b. Top-rated Seller Badge: eBay grants the “Top-rated Seller” title to sellers who meet specific requirements, like having a low percentage of unresolved concerns and continuously obtaining good ratings. The title appears on the seller’s profile and is shared as a symbol of pride.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent eBay’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
2c. Trust and Confidence: The “Top-rated Seller” leaderboard makes sellers want to do their best to attain a distinction that indicates to consumers that they are dealing with trustworthy sellers.
2d. Non-monetary Rewards: eBay offers incentives to “Top-rated Sellers” through heightened search engine prominence, lowered fees, or admission to special offers. This motivates merchants to uphold their strict standards and continue providing clients with outstanding service.
3. DiDi: Driver Referral Rewards Program
DiDi, China’s top transportation platform with over 550 million users worldwide, launched a driver referral program in 2021 to encourage existing customers to promote new drivers to the platforms.
To improve customer acquisition in Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Perth, DiDi added a referral leaderboard showing rankings based on the number of referrals.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent DiDi’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
Here’s how it worked:
- Both app users as well as drivers on DiDi, were given a unique code or link to refer drivers interested in getting rides through their platform.
- Referrers received a referral reward if the invited driver completed a trip successfully
- The referral leaderboard measured the performance of existing users who referred new drivers to the site.
- The leaderboard fostered a sense of competitiveness among users as they attempted to outperform their peers and secure top rankings
Launch a Gamified Leaderboard with Gamize
While leaderboard gamification has its benefits, various factors decide whether one should implement a leaderboard for their customers. These include what you’re trying to achieve, your target audience, the nature of your business, and the potential impact on user experience.
Our SaaS gamification software, Gamize, makes decision-making easier via its end-to-end customisable interface. With us, you can launch a leaderboard campaign by
- Choosing a leaderboard template of your preference
- Customising leaderboard colour, text, columns and scoring mechanism
- Adding rewards such as Points to new or existing gamification campaigns
Seems convenient? We bet it is! Talk to our gamification expert today to explore more about launching a leaderboard gamification campaign.
