Success Story
Breaking taboos and achieving great marketing results one gamification campaign at a time.
Blush, a pioneering sex toy retailer based in Iceland who specializes in high-quality pleasure products for adults, embarked on a groundbreaking mission. Their goal? To open up discussions around sexual health and shatter the societal taboo surrounding the topic. To achieve this as well as to strengthen their marketing efforts, Blush turned toward the power of gamification, and more precisely Playable to create immersive and game-changing experiences for their audience.
In less than a year, Blush harnessed Playable’s gamification platform to launch a series of innovative games, each designed to achieve specific marketing goals and foster meaningful connections with their audience.
Let’s take a closer look at some of their campaigns and their promotion strategy: Blush’s wheel of fortuneBlush’s swipe it gameBlush’s Pride quizBlush’s drop gameBlush’s promotional strategy
All the playable campaigns we have done so far have worked very well. Gamification has been a very good way for us to generate brand awareness and conversions because it’s just more engaging than simple product ads. Fanney Skúladóttir, Marketing Director at Blush
All the playable campaigns we have done so far have worked very well. Gamification has been a very good way for us to generate brand awareness and conversions because it’s just more engaging than simple product ads.
Blush embarked on their gamification journey by launching a straightforward yet impactful wheel of fortune campaign. Crafted to gather participants’ marketing permissions and birthdays, the playable game invited users to spin the wheel to win discounts from 10% to a generous 50%.
The outcomes surpassed Blush’s expectations, serving as proof of the incredible potential of gamification, and illuminating for the Blush team the remarkable results it can yield.
As part of their onboarding with Playable (an 8-week process with robust platform and gamification learning), they successfully launched two live campaigns. One of them was a campaign distinctly tailored to achieve a different marketing goal – collecting valuable insights about their customers’ preferences. In a “Find your summer love” swipe it game, simple, yet engaging, participants swiped through a selection of 10 different Blush products. They indicate their preferences by swiping right if they liked the item or left if they didn’t. Beyond the “Tinder” factor that boosted engagement, this campaign provided Blush with valuable insights into their customers’ product preferences.
To further enhance user experience, the campaign incorporated a pre-filled registration form for those who had previously engaged with the wheel of fortune game. This ensures they didn’t have to fill in the registration form again. After the game, all participants received a 15% discount code applicable to the products in the game, with a compelling call-to-action button.
Additionally, beneath this final CTA, participants could view all the products they had liked, accompanied by more detailed product descriptions for each. Participants also had the option to click on their preferred items, redirecting them to the respective product landing pages on the Blush website to encourage purchase.
The Blush Pride quiz is another successful gamified campaign. In this interactive quiz, participants are challenged to identify the LGBTQIA+ group associated with each of the 10 displayed pride flags. By answering all 10 questions correctly, participants would automatically earn a 20% discount code. What made this campaign particularly engaging was the opportunity for participants to try the game again and again until they achieved all correct answers, fostering awareness and learning about the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community. Plus the 20% discount, available only for a limited time only, added a sense of urgency, contributing to remarkable results in driving sales compared to other discount-driven campaigns Blush had launched.
Remarkably, the concept for this game emerged one morning during Pride Week itself. Blush wasted no time and leveraging the skills gained through Playable’s onboarding process, and ease of use of the Playable platform, swiftly built and launched the game on the very same day!
With Blush’s Pride quiz, the idea sparked one morning, and we had the game up and running later that day. I think this was only possible because of the great onboarding process we had. I wouldn’t change anything about it. The onboarding team was really helpful; they explained the different games we could make depending on the marketing goals we had, and they had really great ideas for our company on what type of campaigns we could do, which was really insightful. They also helped us connect with Klaviyo, our marketing automation platform. Fanney Skúladóttir, Marketing Director at Blush
With Blush’s Pride quiz, the idea sparked one morning, and we had the game up and running later that day. I think this was only possible because of the great onboarding process we had. I wouldn’t change anything about it. The onboarding team was really helpful; they explained the different games we could make depending on the marketing goals we had, and they had really great ideas for our company on what type of campaigns we could do, which was really insightful. They also helped us connect with Klaviyo, our marketing automation platform.
Blush also utilized gamification to generate awareness and boost sales for their highly anticipated annual physical advent calendar; including 24 daily gifts from the Blush product range, to a value of approx. €175. . Using a captivating drop game, players aimed to catch advent calendars in their basket while strategically avoiding items that deducted points. The game quickly gained immense popularity in Iceland because people wanted to win the calendar and those making the top 3 spots of the leaderboard would get it for free.
The game’s popularity didn’t stop there—it went viral, with enthusiastic participants actively discussing strategies in Facebook groups and sharing tips on maximizing points! The campaign even attracted the attention of DV.is, a well-known Icelandic newspaper, which featured a dedicated article, driving even further awareness and traffic to the game – over 7700 visits came from this article.
The competitiveness reached unprecedented levels, leading to some individuals even attempting to cheat to gain more points and secure a free calendar! Blush proactively monitored the leaderboard, ensuring fairness by excluding participants who used such tactics from the competition. This campaign not only generated awareness and propelled sales of their advent calendar but also created a buzz and excitement around Blush’s brand, underscoring the great impact of gamification in capturing audience attention and fostering meaningful engagement.
The successful results of these campaigns are incredible, considering the relatively small population of around 375K people in Iceland. Achieving 29K sessions on a wheel-of-fortune is indeed impressive, and Blush is making significant strides in their mission to normalize discussions around sexual health for all genders, thanks to gamification.
Blush didn’t allocate a substantial ad budget to their gamified campaigns. Only one or two of their games were promoted with Meta-sponsored ads throughout the year. Their success lies in creating games that truly resonate with their target audience. Their drop game promoting the advent calendar, for example, got 34,600+ sessions, without paid media. Instead, Blush strategically employed organic posts on Instagram (22.8k followers) and Facebook, complemented by an email sent to their email database. It’s a testament to the power of gamification. When you really understand your audience, you can tailor your campaigns, drive huge engagement, and deliver remarkable results using organic reach.
We use our social media platforms to promote our gamification campaigns and we also send emails to our email list. Only once or twice, we used paid social media ads to promote our playable campaigns. So, it’s amazing really the results we are getting with almost exclusively organic promotion. Fanney Skúladóttir, Marketing Director at Blush
We use our social media platforms to promote our gamification campaigns and we also send emails to our email list. Only once or twice, we used paid social media ads to promote our playable campaigns. So, it’s amazing really the results we are getting with almost exclusively organic promotion.
In less than a year, Blush has strategically leveraged gamification to achieve remarkable marketing success. Each campaign has not only delivered impressive results but has also helped Blush in maintaining their brand image as a leader in innovative marketing practices in Iceland.
What sets Blush’s story apart is t a deep understanding of their audience, coupled with a commitment to creating tailored, organic gamified experiences. Blush stands as proof of the profound impact gamification can have on elevating marketing strategies and fostering meaningful and game-changing connections with your audience.