Discover how to get millions ($$$) for your charity with Octalysis
There has been some hype lately about encouraging people to acquire products or services to support non-profit organizations. All you need is to say something like “X% of your money goes to Y non-profitable cause”.
If design well, this approach can be effective in the majority of the cases due to Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling. However, building motivation from more than one single Core Drive is even better.
Recently Blizzard Entertainment (one of the biggest video game companies out there) officially launched a campaign aiming to collect donations for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). They launched the campaign with their most successful game so far: Overwatch, and received the incredible amount of 12,703,828 dollars in donations.
Find out below how they did it
What they did to achieve the highest possible amount of donations was pretty amazing:
The Overwatch team decided to create a new skin for one of their most popular heroes, “Mercy”. The skin was for sale on their platform for $15. By helping a charity you “heal” in the real world, while at the same time also healing your team in-game.
One thing to note is that in Overwatch players are unable to buy specific character skins with real money. The only way to get the skin you like is to open loot boxes and hope that it comes out of it.
Players in Overwatch get loot boxes in 3 different ways: the first and most common one is to level up your account, which goes all the way to level 2400 (only a handful of people have reached this level worldwide). You get a loot box every time you level up.
The second way to get loot boxes is to win arcade games; you need to win up to 3 games to get a loot box, and you can only claim three loot boxes on the arcade mode every week (Game Technique #68: Magnetic Cap).
Finally, the third way to get a loot box is to buy it from the game store for about $1. It is important to mention that the items contained in the loot box are completely randomized (CD7), meaning that no amount of loot boxes will ever guarantee you to get the exact skin that you want.
The “Pink Mercy” skin is the exception. If you choose to pay the $15, you will get the skin in your account, and you can even buy it for someone else as a gift (CD5).
How is this campaign different?
For starters, I need to say that this particular Mercy skin is one of the best-looking skins for the hero. It looks not only astonishing from top to bottom but also has unique sound effects attached to it.
We usually tend to think that offering people the option to passively help non-profitable causes (CD1) will be enough for them to take action and buy our products/services.
Turns out that also having the means to show others (Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness) your contribution to a significant cause is way more effective than doing it anonymously. Adding the fifth Core Drive is mostly what makes this skin so valuable: not only did you support a significant cause, but you also get to wear it and show others how supportive you are! (And look amazing at the same time).
Sadly, helping charitable causes is not a priority to the vast majority of people. They are however social beings that thrive for others to see them as softhearted/supportive people. There is also a sense of status in wearing the skin since it is worth almost as much as the game itself (CD5).
Overwatch would have NEVER reached the $12 million mark only by offering its players to donate $15 and get nothing in return besides the satisfaction of doing good deeds (CD1), and that is why they also included CD4, 5, 6 and 8.
So far we have covered CD1: “Epic meaning & Calling” and CD5: “Social Influence & Relatedness”. Those Core Drives are the main ones that motivate players to buy the Pink skin, but how about the rest?
The next Core Drives to highlight are CD4: “Ownership and Possession” and CD6: “Scarcity & Impatience”.
Let’s start with CD4 first:
The new (and limited) Mercy Skin is a valuable item that you can add to your existing skins collection (Game Technique #16: Collection Sets). If you don’t acquire the skin while it is available you will end up with that empty slot that will never be filled.
Have you ever had a collection set? Many people collect currencies from different countries, comic books, vinyl records, dolls, (Magic the Gathering/Yu-Gi-Oh/Pokemon cards, anyone?), even CARS ($$$)!
I own a collection of Coca-Cola bottles and every time I see cool and scarce ones I make sure to bring them back with me to add them to it. I have even spent considerable amounts of money to get the most exclusive ones because my collection means a lot to me, and how couldn’t it? I’ve dedicated a lot of time and effort building it, and almost every bottle brings back good old memories.
Fun fact: the one item that I value the most is not a bottle, it’s a “camera” made out of a Coca-Cola can. This one is especially valuable because it was handmade by someone I love, and because of that the “camera” is the most scarce item in my collection set (there is only one of it in the whole planet).
Let’s cover CD6 now:
CD6: Scarcity & Impatience: the sixth Core Drive motivates us because we are either unable to obtain something immediately or because there is difficulty in obtaining it. Which is why the Pink skin campaign had a limited time frame where players were able to acquire the skin (8th–21st of May, 2018). This limited time frame to get the skin makes it a scarce resource, and therefore people are primed to purchase it.
Finally, Jeff Kaplan (Game Director for Overwatch) mentions in his developer update the massive amounts of people and families that have been affected by cancer worldwide. He emphasizes on the devastating side of the disease and the urgent need for a cure. Jeff clearly tries to connect people using Epic Meaning & Calling and also Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance.
I hope this post helps you understand how applying more than one single Core Drive has an even bigger effect on Gamification design when the ones you choose have synergy between them.
It is essential to know your users and the context of your product/service/brand to be able to apply the right ones and nail the ROI!
Use Octalysis To Create Memorable Experiences
The Octalysis Group loves helping companies think about how to engage their audiences better. Your users matter and they will make your business thrive if you motivate them correctly.
We can help you design unforgettable experiences for your audience.
Contact simon@OctalysisGroup.com or joris@OctalysisGroup.com.
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