How Kia gamified ads pushing purchase intent, product awareness

Recently automotive brand Kia tapped SocialVibe to launch a gamified ad campaign for their Optima sedan. Targeting adults between ages 25 and 49, the campaign showed:

• Ad completion rates of 95%
• Average 'plays' per user: 1.27
• Average time spent at 129 seconds per user
• Click-through Rates of 19%, to Kia Optima site

Perhaps of even more importance, though, the campaign helped to improve both purchase intent and product awareness. In the study consumers 'very likely to purchase' an Optima improved by 11 points, a 73% increase over a control group whose members did not complete the ad. In addition product awareness showed a 7 point increase, 11% higher than the control group.

Gamification is the use of game design techniques, mechanics and thinking within a non-game environment - like advertising.

SocialVibe is an engagement marketing platform; campaigns are available across digital screens and ads - or engagements - are shareable, meaning that friends can share where or how they've engaged with a product ad through social networks. According to company information the number of engagement ads doubled in 2011.

"One of the biggest challenges facing marketers today is effectively reaching consumers where their attention lives, which is why our unique engagement approach has been embraced by so many brands," said Dave Levy, co-founder of SocialVibe. "SocialVibe's engagement ads provide a motivation or reward in exchange for interacting with a brand message, and in turn, consumers welcome the experience and provide their active attention. This consumer-minded, opt-in approach has raised the bar for what's possible in online advertising, and we look forward to building on our success to make this technology available to a broader audience in 2012."

SocialVibe powered more than 500 engagement campaigns. Consumers spent more than 1 billion seconds with these ads throughout the year.

Tags: advertising trends, gamification, gamified ads, Kia, social marketing, social sharing, SocialVibe