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I Led a 3-Month App Gamification Project, Which Failed Spectacularly
Everyone can learn a thing or two from my failed attempt at marketing game design
The day had arrived.
It was the first day of Freshers Week — a week, where the Universities in the UK welcome new and returning students and show them a good time with a load of parties, fairs, and promotions to somehow get them ready for university.
Our team had a weekly agile meeting. It was a Monday morning. The campaign had been active for about an hour at this point.
15,000 students had received a notification that a treasure hunt is happening — an interactive app gamification campaign to mark the launch of a new version of the student mobile app. More than 100 prizes, more than 20 challenges to complete, custom riddles, and puzzles to solve, more than ten different departments engaged with giving prizes and facilitating challenges. The entire university expecting the outcome of this campaign in anticipation.
A senior back-end dev, whom I’ve been working with to get the functionalities right just congratulated me, saying he ran a query to check the number of people, who said they will participate. It was 280. An hour after the launch!
