How Sunny Cars used gamification to get a competitive advantage.
Sunny Cars is one of the biggest car rental providers in Europe and they participated in a holiday convention expo with over 100,000 attendees (we should mention that this was before COVID-19). They wanted to use a tool that would help them stand out at the event and get a competitive advantage. Their primary KPI at the event was to collect subscribers to their newsletter.
Sunny Cars had also attended the expo the previous year, and with good results: they collected 1,700 subscribers for their newsletter. However, they had a suspicion that this could be improved by activating visitors through gamification. They aimed for 2,500 subscribers at the upcoming expo.
About the campaign
LeadFamly has several game concepts and Sunny Cars decided to go for the Scratchcard, because this is a “high converter” and ideal for trying to grow the database. The purpose of the game campaign was two-fold: (1) to be engaging for expo attendees; and (2) an easy way to begin a conversation with a potential customer. The game was easy; participants only needed to add their email address on one of the iPads and they could start “scratching” and immediately see if they had won or lost.
The campaign included many prizes over the four-day convention. Using LeadFamly’s advanced prize settings, Sunny Cars knew the timeframes within which the top prize could drop. Using time-based prizes allowed Sunny Cars to know when the photographer needed to be around to take a photo with the winners and post it to their social media accounts right away. Every participant received a consolation prize, but to keep things exciting for the attendees they also made sure that there were many “medium” prizes distributed throughout the day.
Results
The event campaign worked! They gained 2,600 subscribers over four days. That amounts to almost three per cent of the total visitors at the event and surpassed their campaign expectations. Three per cent is a solid number considering the large number of participants at the events and that they are all looking for the same outcome: getting more leads.
After the holiday convention, Sunny Cars sent a follow-up email to their new subscribers that included another game campaign. This automated email included a Personality Test that enabled Sunny Cars to create a deeper engagement with their new subscribers.
They asked questions about holiday plans, who they go on vacation with, and how long their holiday is, so that they got a more relevant and personalised email about whether they are a city-tripper, an adventurous road-tripper, or a relaxed holiday-goer.
The information that they gathered via the campaign is used in their email marketing campaigns to segment the subscribers and personalise the communication.
Why LeadFamly works for Sunny Cars
For Sunny Cars gamification has been an important part of their marketing efforts, even before they began using the LeadFamly platform. The games have been received positively by their customers, which has been an important indicator that gamification is an interesting tool for them.
“We have done some gamification by ourselves in the past. For example, on social media, guess how many Santa hats there are in the picture and win a prize. We saw that our target audience wanted to interact with us, so the games were always a great success. Therefore, we also wanted to grow our database with people we didn’t know. Gamification helped us do that by giving us a way to engage with would-be customers.”
Evelien Dekker, Senior Online Marketer, Sunny Cars“When looking for an engaging way to generate leads on the Vakantiebeurs, LeadFamly turned out to be a perfect match for us. The platform provides more than enough game concepts and many ways to customise the games via the settings and front-end editor. This allows us to create an experience that matches the brand. Gamification is widely applicable; it can be used in email marketing campaigns, but also on social media or at events. I believe that the one-to-one time in which a brand can engage with a customer is truly valuable and by creating a fun experience, the customer is more likely to remember you.”
Claudia Voncken, Head of Online Marketing, Sunny Cars
The LeadFamly platform enabled Sunny Cars to gain new permissions from potential customers even before they had ever rented a car via Sunny Cars. Game mechanics enable Sunny Cars to warm up the relationship before a transaction occurs. This has traditionally been a difficult barrier, since many people don’t share marketing permissions with a car rental company until they’ve been a customer.