Are you looking for a fun, original and interactive way to strengthen cohesion within your teams or to motivate your employees? Workplace competitions are an effective way of engaging and rewarding your employees while reinforcing their sense of belonging to your organisation.

We’re going to share with you some ideas for competitions or interactive events that can be launched in-house to challenge teams in a fun way.

SUMMARY

• The benefits of interactivity and games to motivate employees
• Our ideas for corporate competitions
• 5 tips for launching workplace competitions

In 2006, Netflix decided to organise an open competition to improve its recommendation algorithm CInematch. The prize is an exceptional 1 million dollars.

Armed with user data, employees of the video-on-demand platform competed to design an algorithm capable of outperforming Cinematch by predicting how users would rate a new film based on their previous preferences.

Three years later, two teams managed to beat Cinematch and ended the competition. This example clearly shows that, used wisely, in-house challenges can be a good way of pushing employees to excel, strengthening collaboration and team cohesion.

On a day-to-day basis, internal competitions can have a number of benefits for your company.

Training your teams the fun way

Rather than organising a traditional training workshop or seminar, a company can opt for an interactive competition. It’s an excellent way of transmiting information in a more entertaining way and boost internal communication.

You can raise awareness of a CSR initiative (such as environmental protection) by organising an interactive quiz around the theme, or a competition such as the Fresque du Climat.In this way, employees are kept informed of the company’s long-term strategy and are regularly involved in its implementation.

Reinforcing a sense of belonging to the company’s values

A sense of belonging is a crucial issue for a company’s success. This is all the more the case in a context where teams may be spread across several countries around the globe and where hybrid and remote working is becoming widespread.

Internal competitions and surveys, for example, are a simple and effective way of collecting feedback. They will help to improve the company’s internal culture so that it better reflects the expectations and aspirations of its employees. But other team-building challenges are just as relevant for strengthening employee support and improving the company’s image internally (and externally).

Like Netflix, you can challenge your teams by involving them in certain choices (logo change, new product design). The fun, interactive format will bind employees together around a common challenge and help new ideas to emerge.

Boosting team cohesion and stimulating performance

Internal competitions also contribute to employee motivation and productivity. After all, it’s when you’re having fun that you’re most effective, simply because you don’t feel like you’re working.

This gamified format is also an excellent way of rewarding the most motivated employees without creating tension within your teams. Everyone can take part and has a chance of winning a prize (tickets for a show, a trip offered by the company, etc.).

The whole point of workplace competitions is that they can take any form you like, depending on the specifics of your organisation and the objectives you want to achieve. If you’re looking for ideas for workplace competitions, here are some suggestions that you can adapt to your teams.

1. The photo contest

Le concours photo est un excellent moyen de libérer la créativité de ses employés et de les encourager à partager leur expérience personnelle au travail. C’est un levier qu’a par exemple utilisé l’entreprise Phillips pour renforcer sa marque employeur et faciliter ses futurs recrutements. Les salariés de Philips étaient ainsi invités à partager des photos d’eux au travail sur les réseaux sociaux via le hashtag  #LifeAtPhilips.

2. The in-house culture quiz

Quizzes such as Trivia (a quiz with several choices of answers) are also a fun mechanism that is particularly well-suited to the corporate world. It’s an excellent way of testing employees’ knowledge of the organisation’s history and values, and strengthen cohesion and a sense of belonging within its teams.

3. The performance challenge

When organised fairly and inclusively, performance competitions are an excellent way of boosting employee motivation. One of the most popular forms of performance competition is based on key performance indicators (KPIs), particularly within sales teams. This internal competition rewards employees who have exceeded their sales target.

4. The treasure hunt

A treasure hunt in the company’s physical offices (or in a virtual recreation for remote teams) is also an excellent way of engaging employees. The company can hide surprise prizes on its premises or within a gamified application.

5. The winning calendar

Companies who want to reward their staff over Christmas can do so via an Interactive Advent Calendar. Very easy to organise online, this in-house competition can be used to distribute gifts (through games such as the Instant Winner, the one-armed bandit or the random drawing) every day from 1 to 24 December.

The game is therefore an original and effective way of engaging employees and strengthening team cohesion within the company. Be careful, however, to ensure that everyone can take part and that it does not create unhealthy competition between its employees.

Adictiz recommends that you :

• Think about the objectives you want to achieve with your in-house game and choose the right format accordingly;
• Choose an easy-to-use gamification tool to organise your digital competition and enable all your employees (even those working remotely) to take part.
• Get your employees involved to come up with new ideas for in-house competitions;
• Choose the right rewards and prizes to motivate your employees;
• Ask for feedback once the internal marketing campaign is over to assess its impact and improve future initiatives.

Is your brand looking for new marketing levers to engage and retain its audience? Gamified and interactive campaigns are effective levers for achieving these objectives, particularly when they rely on the interactive mechanics of the winning moment.

This game lets participants know immediately if they’ve won a prize or a gift is just as addictive as it is beneficial for the brands that organise it. They stand out from fake games where participants never win anything (spam, scams).

In this article, we reveal the main advantages that a brand can gain from creating an instant win game online and how to run a successful campaign in 4 steps.

The principle behind instant win games is simple: it’s a game mechanic in which participants know immediately after playing that they have won a prize whether they have won a gift or not. This distinguishes it from another type of marketing game, such as a prize draw, where you have to wait a certain amount of time (usually several days/weeks) before finding out who the big winners are.

The first advantage of this instantaneous aspect is that it makes you want to participatebecause you’ll know immediately whether you’ve won a prize or not. It’s also very simple for the company. The instant win game works by time slots designated as ‘winning’. So all you have to do is enter at the right time to win a gift. And outside these time slots, all participants will lose.

Companies can also opt for a 100% winning mechanism. All they have to do is distribute a promotional code at the end of the operation (even in the losing slots) and offer larger prizes in certain time slots.

Instant win competitions have become increasingly popular because of their immediacy and simplicity. Companies set them up on their social networks or websites to engage their audience, build customer loyalty or promote a new product/service.

The different types of instant win games

The popularity of instant win marketing games is also due to their versatility. It is possible to choose from different game mechanics depending on your target audience and the objectives you want to achieve.

For example :

• Create a wheel of luck (or fortune). This is a must-have instant win game. Participants simply spin the wheel of chance to try and win a gift or promotional code.
• The scratch card game : games of chance such as scratch cards, lotteries, etc. are also excellent instant wins. Participants will immediately know whether or not they have won after scratching an image using the cursor (or their finger for mobile users). Quick and fun, scratch cards can also be used to reveal a new product.
• The slot machine (or one-armed bandit). Inspired by casino games, this instant win allows you to distribute gifts to your audience at random. Once again, you can personalise the signs so that they represent the prize to be won (a promotion, a product, etc.).
• The dice game; very popular in many cultures (where it is known as Yams or 421), the dice game is also a very popular format in gamified marketing.

Instant win competitions offer a number of advantages to the companies that organise them. The first is that their ultra-simple game mechanics allow you to maximise participation and commitment.

The ability to find out immediately whether you’ve won or not encourages members of your community to take part or even share this interactive animation with their friends and family. This makes the marketing game an excellent way of boosting visibility. What’s more, there are plenty of customisation options available, so you can boost brand awareness while enhancing your image.

Creating an instant win competition is also a very effective way of generating leads. Participants can be asked to fill in a form before rolling the dice or the wheel of chance. In this way, the company collects first-party data more easily and can learn more about its audience and consumer habits.

Finally, instant wins are particularly well suited to companies that want to increase their conversion rate or build customer loyalty. By distributing promotional codes to the winners, they can encourage participants to visit their site and place an order.

Shared in a reactivation email, this marketing game can also encourage a customer who hasn’t bought from the brand for a while to discover a new collection, etc. Or simply reward a loyal customer with gifts/promotions.

Creating an instant win game is very simple. However, to ensure the success of an interactive marketing campaign, it’s important to think it through and plan it well. Here are the steps to follow to organise a successful interactive game.

Choose the right game mechanics for your objectives and target audience

For an instant win game to be effective, it is important to clearly define your marketing objectives and target audience. If the aim is to build audience loyalty over the Christmas period, an Advent Calendar-style game will be the most appropriate format.

The target audience you wish to engage is also a very important factor to take into account when choosing the right game mechanics. Some worlds may be more effective with one audience than another. The one-armed bandit, for example, will appeal to a more male audience (even if it is possible to customise his design to appeal to a wider audience).

Choosing the best prizes

The whole attraction of the instant win game is the chance to win an attractive gift. That’s why it’s particularly important to choose the right endowment. Promotional codes are a good idea, especially during frenzied shopping periods like the festive season or Black Friday.

Companies can also boost engagement and maximise conversions from their interactive events by offering exclusive prizes. The prizes in the tech world, for example, are the ones that work best. Ahead of the launch of a new collection, participants can also win items that are not yet available in their online shop.

Define clear conditions for participation

To create a successful instant win, it is also essential to clearly indicate the conditions of participation to avoid any unpleasant surprises for participants. The conditions are generally set out in the entry form. This is another key element in a successful instant win, as it will enable the company to collect relevant data about its audience.

Promote an instant win game

Once the company has created and personalised its instant win game, all that’s left to do is promote it to the public. Social networks, QR codes in shops and banners on the website are all good ideas for raising the profile of the game. Influencers can also be good relays for boosting the participation rate.