{Ask the Techxperts} @CHPA Embraces Gamification and Offers Tips for Success

This series is dedicated to learning from event experts on various topics. We cover event technology, meeting design, and much, more more! Today, we are pleased to interview MARY LEONARD, Associate Director of Marketing Communications for Consumer Healthcare Products Association..

First of all, please tell our readers about you – what are you all about?
Hi! I’m Mary Leonard, associate director of marketing communications for Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a member-based trade association representing the leading manufacturers and marketers of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and dietary supplements. We’re headquartered in Washington, D.C. On a day-to-day basis, I provide strategic direction to CHPA’s overall brand strategy through print, digital, and new media platforms. A good part of my time goes toward creating and deploying integrated marketing communications for CHPA events and educational programming, including developing dedicated microsites and mobile applications.

How do you use events to expand the reach of your brand?
We use events as a key benefit and value proposition for our members. Our events focus on specific industry issues, policies, trends, and advancements that our member companies can only find at CHPA. This helps expand our brand credibility and loyalty, increases member retention, and attracts new members.

What tips do you have for planners who are introducing gamification into their events for the first time? How can we make sure it’s successful?

1. Know your attendees. Would they respond positively to gamification? What’s your demographic? You can formally or informally conduct research among your attendee base to see what features attendees would like to see to help shape your gamification strategy.

2. Create realistic goals and expectations around your gamification strategy in coordination with your mobile app. If this is year one of deployment, create a benchmark and grow from there. Metrics will tell you how you’re doing and how you can adjust your tactics for coming years.

What were some of the goals you achieved by integrating DoubleDutch’s event app activity visualizer Game Day?
Our main goal by launching a mobile application with Game Day integration was to create a fun, interactive, and social community for our attendees to participate in throughout the event. Game Day helped showcase the gamification experience with a visualization of our leaderboard. This helped drive awareness to the app and create a friendly competitive environment. In addition, our metrics proved this goal was successful. We had 12,000 in-app actions, positive survey results, and numerous positive comments onsite about Game Day and gamification.

Finally, what is your favorite app?
I have so many! For function, I use Google Maps and DC Rider religiously. For fun, I love Instagram, Shazam, and Pandora.

READ MORE: http://doubledutch.me/success-stories/chpa.html