Gamification in Banking: 5 Best Examples

What is Gamification in Banking?

To understand gamification in banking, let’s start by understanding what gamification is. 

The answer is in the word. Gamification is when elements of gameplay are introduced to a set of events. 

What do we mean by elements of gameplay? Well, these are all the things we love about games without even realizing it - rulemaking, engagement, fun, rivalry, and entertainment. 

What does this look like in banking? 

Today’s busy customers are finding it harder to carry out the most basic account actions. So, being encouraged to do these tasks as part of a game is a powerful motivator. 

Gamification in banking contains key areas that you will see in the application of the idea. 

This article will discuss these key areas: 

• The benefits of gamification in banking. 
• Some useful gamification strategies. 
• Examples of gamification in action. 
• Challenges to wider adoption. 

The article will also attempt to investigate the future to see what is to come for gamification in banking for those who embrace it. We will tell you how to achieve this. 

The Benefits of Gamification

Games have always appealed to humans. As social creatures, we thrive on entertainment, social interaction, competition, and reward. 

Gamification uses these attractive sensations to get banking clients to do what game creators want them to do. 

Using these game-like elements to excite and engage banking audiences, companies can get their customers to act in a gamified way when it comes to their banking matters 

These are some of the known benefits of gamification in banking:  

• It engages and motivates the customer base 
• It can turn a boring or repetitive task into a fun one 
• It can change mass behavior by consistently rewarding certain actions 
• It can encourage the audience to advance their levels within the game 

But what is the goal of all this? In real terms, this is what a gamification program could yield for a bank: 

1. Gamification as a strategy to get new customers  

By incentivizing actions like sign-ups and referrals, banks can expand their customer base as they attract more game players and turn them into customers. 

Customer acquisition through traditional channels such as marketing is expensive and highly competitive. Gamification adds a new method of customer acquisition.  

2. Gamification as a method of customer retention  

Banks know that new customer acquisition is important, but customer retention should never be taken for granted. The book Marketing Metrics estimates that the chances of selling a product to an existing customer are 60-70%, but only 5% when selling to a new prospect.  

Gamification builds customer loyalty by helping customers find easier and more consistent ways to do hard things like making regular deposits. 

They will find it an easier decision to stay with a bank that helps them bank better. 

3. Gamification to help customers reach their goals  

Different customers have their own goals, be they savings, investing, managing their money to stay out of debt. Gamification helps nudge clients to become consistent in ways they would otherwise not have. 

For example, introducing a savings leaderboard could alert customers to how well or badly they are doing in terms of savings. 

Introducing gamification in banking could get customers to do these often-neglected tasks that are the basis of good financial management.  

4. Gamification can get useful customer insights  

Through gameplay elements, banks can show customers their habits in graphic dashboards. This information can easily highlight the behavioral shortfalls that clients are facing. 

If insights are presented to customers in interesting and engaging ways, customers can be nudged to correct their behavior.

If overspending is the problem, a customer can act from a graphic that shows how much of their money goes on non-essential purchases. 

5. Gamification can keep your house in order 

One neglected element of gamification programs is that they can help banks keep their internal house in order. 

Banks are subject to lots of regulation and have internal issues around record-keeping and compliance. Maintaining an up-to-date CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system for KYC (Know Your Customer) purposes is a problem banks share.

Gamification can help this by motivating modern digital customers to keep their personal banking information in order. This is not the main reason to start a gamification program, for sure, but it’s a benefit that banks can’t ignore. 

Gamification Strategies in Banking 

Banks can use gameplay elements to engage with busy customers and prompt them to act in a certain way. 

Receiving a helpful nudge based on gamification principles can end with mass behavioral change. Here are some of the main reasons why gamification works on the human psychological level: 

Extrinsic motivators are rewards that make customers want to keep up to date with an action that is not rewarding by itself. The reward comes when these markers can be converted, like when points yield an actual reward like a free coffee. 

These motivators could be: 

• Points 
• Badges 
• Leader boards 

Intrinsic motivators cause deep internal satisfaction. 

It’s not an actual reward, but it makes the customer feel better because they have achieved something that takes great focus to achieve. 

This could be:  

• Autonomy 
• Mastery 
• Purpose 

Banks use smart combinations of each of these psychological triggers to craft their gamification programs. 

The following items can all be found in the toolkit of a good gamification system: 

1. Rewards. Banks will give points rewards that can be converted to monetary rewards if clients perform certain tasks. 
2. Competition. By knowing that they are part of a league, customers derive value from striving to do well in the league. This helps get customers moving. 
3. Points awards. Points are a constant validation that the customer is doing something right. A steady drip of regular points that leads to an end goal is better than one huge annual goal. 
4. Assigning spend value to points. What good are points if you can’t use them? Banks can commodify points and allow them to be used as currency. 
5. Keep the game winnable. If the game is easy to win, this keeps players interested and does not discourage them by being too hard. 
6. Allow them to tell their friends. Social proof is a large part of human psychology. People love to tell others about what they are doing. This has the added benefit of giving the bank extra exposure and attracting more customers. 
7. Insert educational options. If a bank really needs to get an educational message across, they can build in their educational program into the progress levels of the game.
8. Promote new services. Remember that it’s 60-70% easier to sell to existing clients than to new ones. Banks can insert new services into their games. 

Leveraging Technology for Gamification in Banking

Let’s explore the crucial role certain technologies, particularly mobile apps, artificial intelligence algorithms, and data analytics systems, play in shaping gamification in digital banking.

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps are crucial components of gamification banking. To provide a comprehensive experience, developers embed numerous game mechanics into these banking apps, including challenges, milestones, and point systems for completing actions and reporting progress. Additionally, community-building features, such as contests and social media integration, are incorporated. This enhances user engagement, motivates users towards their goals, and boosts retention.

AI

Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, financial institutions can offer personalized content and optimize user experiences while using gamification in banking. This is made possible by training AI algorithms to analyze user behavior, anticipate user needs, and suggest relevant financial products. Specifically, by leveraging AI, banks can offer their clients personalized financial advice based on their investment patterns and goals.

Data Analytics

The best gamified platforms are skilled at learning and adapting to user behaviors and preferences through data analytics features, such as behavior prompts (e.g., push marketing), social proofing, tailored marketing, and automated chatbot functions. By customizing the user experience, banks can drive customer engagement and make their services more appealing to use. Whether it’s savings methods, investment options, or debt servicing approaches, personalized experiences based on data analytics can significantly enhance user satisfaction and loyalty.

How AI Technologies Have Transformed Gamification in Banking

It’s no secret that AI has major transformative potential in various applications. Gamification in banking is no different. For one, AI can help analyze market trends and determine which gamification methods big banks use are the most effective. Then smaller institutions can put their own spin on these approaches and find their success.

It would certainly feel better to innovate and create your own gamification strategy, which is another area where AI can be helpful. By feeding it data on users and their activity, you can train it to develop games for banks. It will then offer a gamification system that fits your bank and your customer base specifically.

After all, different age groups, income levels, and locations are likely to have varying preferences, and understanding their preferences is key. AI-powered gamification isn’t just a theoretical thing, either, as Indonesia’s Hijra bank proves. Their foray into AI resulted in MISHA, a digital assistant that tailors itself to customers’ needs and teaches them financial literacy.

As you can see, AI’s role in gamification in digital banking can be pivotal, as it allows banks to hone their offerings and make them suitable for any type of customer. Anticipating the clients’ needs and interests is the mark of a good business, and AI can help you with that. Investing in AI-powered gamification might entice customer loyalty and encourage new clients to come on board.

Examples of Gamification at Play 

Several banks and financial institutions have already used gamification with great success:  

1. BBVA Game 

Lately, the Spanish bank won the Bank Innovation Award and gathered an impressive 100,000 game players in just six months. 

The game was based on a points system that allowed users to win prizes like sports tickets or music vouchers. In time, they added other elements to the game that were more banking-focused, such as savings and budgeting tips. 

The game was exciting and engaging and allowed customers to run the game as they would a bank account. Customers could perform regular tasks like pay bills, but the pay environment was loaded with points and rewards at every turn. 

2. PNC Bank's Punch the Pig game 

Based in the US, PNC Bank introduced a Virtual Wallet, which was a hybrid of their checking and savings accounts. Customers could move their money between different accounts for varying purposes. 

Sometimes they would need it for normal spending, and sometimes short or long-term investments. The game introduced a Money Bar feature which showed customers how much free money they had to spend.  

In a clever turn, the game initiated a money-saving mindset by adding a feature called Punch the Pig. To Punch the Pig that appeared on the screen, customers had to transfer a certain amount of money into their savings account first. 

3. Extraco Bank's account conversion app

Extraco Bank risked upsetting its 145,000 customers when it decided to phase out free checking accounts. To ease customer unhappiness, the bank rolled out a game that explained to customers how losing their free checking accounts gave them bonus banking. 

Customers had to go through several questions about their spending habits. In this process, the game explained how customers could reduce their own fees by making online bill payments or direct deposits. 

Rather than use the tried and trusted explanation letter format, the bank was able to realize account conversion rates that were seven times higher than normal. 

Top 5 Banks Leading The Way in Gamification

Some financial institutions are using gamification in banking with great success. In this section, we will explore the 5 prominent gamification banking examples, their goals, mechanics, and end results. 

BBVA

Spanish bank BBVA stands out for its innovative gamification banking example, BBVA game. Launched in 2012, award-winning BBVA game rewards customers for using the bank’s website. This engagement campaign aims to improve BBVA’s online customer experience and boost customer retention. To participate and earn points, users complete tasks — making transactions and watching financial literacy videos. One challenge even involved getting users to rate the game and its impact on customer experiences. Speaking for its results, BBVA says many customers rated the program as “addictive,” and the number of active users has reached 100,000.

DBS Bank

According to the United Nations, 40 percent of all food produced globally is wasted, leading to significant income losses for farmers and nutritional insecurity for consumers. Addressing this growing challenge, DBS introduced DBS BetterWorld, a gamification banking program, to drive awareness about food waste and engage its clients. As part of the virtual experience, users undertake various activities inspired by the Five Businesses for Impact, such as saving wasted food, growing crops, and brewing beer from bread. Although specific outcomes are yet to be disclosed, DBS’s broader initiative, Towards Zero Food Waste has made a substantial impact, including reducing food waste, redistributing and recycling over 2,000 tonnes of food. 

Ikano Bank

In June 2014, Swedish Ikano Bank concluded that to encourage young people to feel motivated about saving and not obligated, they had to make savings fun. To accomplish that, they took the most downloaded game at the time Flappy Bird, tweaked it, and ran a three-week engagement campaign. Ikano replaced the bird with a flying piggy bank and implemented pipe obstacles with saving obstacles, such as fast food, jewelry, shoes, etc. At the end of the campaign, the player with the highest score won $10,000 into their savings account. As you just might imagine, the success of Ikano Bank’s Flappy Savers was evident, with over 1.5 million plays in three weeks. 

Commonwealth Bank

With the help of creative agency BMF, Commonwealth Bank released Investorville in 2011, an investment game for novice property investors. Leveraging real market data, the game tasks players with searching for properties like a real investor would do. They were tasked to set rent, pay property taxes, repair or renovate properties as necessary, buy or sell, and respond to real-life events like market crashes, etc. To date, Investorville has recorded more than 100,000 visitors. What’s more, over 600 players have applied for an investment home loan, making Investorville an ideal starting ground for novice property investors. 

Revolut Bank

In 2017, Revolut Bank hosted a competition between European universities encouraging users to sign up and invite their friends in exchange for points and free premium accounts. Intending to spread brand awareness and engagement among younger audiences, Revolut centered this program around a leaderboard that tracked the ranking of universities, their respective users, and their total accumulated points. A lesson to take from this example of gamification in digital banking is the use of social relatedness. Giving individual universities the shared goal of coming out on top made students feel like they belonged to something, and research tells us that the need to belong is an intrinsic motivation. By the end of the campaign, Revolut had tapped into a prioritized segment of its audience and registered thousands of students as customers.

Gamification in Digital-Only Banks vs. Traditional Banks

Modern-day banks don’t have to be like the old institutions with big, concrete offices hosting hundreds of employees. Some banks have now opted to go digital, broadening their area of service and enticing modern, forward-thinking customers. Of course, it’s only natural that such places invest in gamification in banking, a significant digital-space trend.

However, traditional banks don’t have to fall behind or reject gamification, not at all. According to a comprehensive report, gamification, including game development for banks, is a hit, generating a healthy $12.25 billion in 2021. That number includes all sorts of companies, from startups to massive corporations.

Gamification in digital banking and traditional finance alike has the power to “alternate consumer behavior”, which is a recipe for success. In fact, gamification is also about altering the banks’ own behavior, since traditional institutions need to keep up with digital ones. It also allows legacy banks to meet the interests of modern generations, catering to millennials and Gen Z.

By embracing gamification, traditional banks embrace progress and savvy business decisions. It’s no different than the advent of online banking and mobile banking apps, just a new step in the evolution of modern financial services. Taking this opportunity to engage customers and educate them is a clear advantage and should be taken regardless of the bank’s business model.

Challenges to Wider Adoption

As with every process, there are some risks to gamification. Some of the challenges to adoption come when banks must decide which element of human psychology to leverage.  

Humans enjoy winning and generally dislike losing. But choosing the right buttons to press can have its challenges.  

The biggest wins of a banking game are that it encourages the desired behavior. If the program is not designed well or is received badly by the market, it can be an expensive distraction. Here are some reasons why full adoption of gamification can be slowed down:

1. Players can manipulate the system. Opportunistic players can use the game to their own benefit in order to cash in on rewards. This leads to zero-sum competition. This would be a massive waste of time and money and even set you back in other areas.
2. The user experience can be poor. This is not the fault of the game designers. In some markets, there is an inconsistent internet connection which would make an otherwise interesting game a buggy and annoying distraction.
3. Games can be addictive. When creating a game, banks must be careful that the game is not too immersive, or it could be said to be manipulative or exploitative. This can surface tough ethical questions. 

Regulatory Considerations for Gamification in Finance

As with most things in the financial sector, gamification should be done carefully and with an understanding of how legislation may impact it. After all, banking is a heavily regulated industry and for a good reason, too. Gamification in banking impacts real people and their savings and financial stability, so it’s important to navigate it respectfully.

For one, while we may be talking about “games” here, the bank has serious obligations to its customers and practically any action has to have a specific, contract-mandated outcome. Promising specific benefits and not delivering them or even bringing something less than you offered could be grounds for regulators to take interest.

So, gamification in digital banking should have clear consequences for each action and provide customers with precise information on their engagement results. That means banks can’t advertise their new gamified features with flashy, embellished announcements.

Plus, if you hire someone who offers game development for banks, you must ensure that customer data is secure. Regulations like GDPR dictate the need for privacy and preventing unauthorized access to client information. Therefore, any external contractors building your gamification must be vetted and bound by an ironclad NDA.

For future gamification considerations, it may be worth considering smart contracts that conditionally allow your development partners to view data without further access. The same goes for bank employees, who will need partial control of the data for analytics and reviews. In short, installing precautions that guard user data is an essential level of concern for any bank doing gamification.

The Future of Gamification in Banking

In the future, gamification in banking will become more personalized and customized to individual preferences. Finance institutions will also rely on AR/VR technologies to offer more engaging user experiences. Banks are expected to promote interaction with their services by gamifying several customer experience aspects, from savings to debt and financial literacy. 

Personalization 

Banks are increasingly relying on AI technologies to gather user insights. This helps them understand each client’s banking needs better, so they can offer the right product at the right moment. In the context of gamified programs, banks can set up AI advisors or app companions to walk customers through various financial scenarios, analyze their unique challenges, and offer rewards or features according to the client’s life stage.

Technological Developments and AR/VR

Given the rise and accessibility of mobile devices, virtual reality, augmented reality, and cloud computing, the possibilities of banking gamification solutions have been significantly expanded. Similar to DBS Bank’s virtual reality program or Commonwealth Bank’s Investorville, these gamification banking initiatives aim to provide more interactive experiences. With AR/VR simulations, banks can simulate real-world financial activities, such as investing in stocks, planning for retirement, and managing debt for their clients.

Emphasis on Customer Engagement

To promote engagement with their services and improve brand advocacy, financial institutions are using gamification in digital banking techniques and creating game-like environments on their websites. Whether it's saving money, servicing debts, or taking educational classes, banks use these game elements i.e. loyalty programs, badges, challenges, and leader boards in virtually every context to engage customers.

Financial Literacy 

Many banking consumers lack an understanding of financial concepts, such as interest rates, forms of investments, the impact of debt, or inflation. To address this and make financial literacy engaging, banks are focused on incorporating the right gamification elements that make learning more immersive, engaging, and thus effective — quizzes, simulations, leaderboards, challenges, and levels. 

Employee Engagement

To improve employee productivity and motivation, banks and all sorts of financial businesses are turning towards gamification solutions that increase performance, promote a healthy work culture, and reward desirable behaviors. Games and features like milestones, status, badges, and rewards make workplace challenges more engaging, develop new skills, and motivate employees.

The Bottom Line 

When done well. Gamification can be a boost to a bank by energizing its customers. 

Banking can be serious and stuffy at times, so there is no harm in making it exciting and enjoyable. This will lead to greater customer engagement and loyalty.  

By bringing down the wall of seriousness, banks can be more customer-centric and they can forge stronger and longer-lasting relationships.  The world is going more virtual and digitally immersive, and gaming programs are here to stay.