Introduction

During the pandemic Wärtsilä needed to drive engagement through digital experiences that would resonate with their customers and leave a lasting impression. In-person events geared to educating and communicating the technical detail of Wärtsilä’s products and services had to be replaced by digital interaction – Playable’s platform provided a fast, flexible and scalable solution through the use of game mechanics. 

An Introduction to Wartsila

Wärtsilä is a global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. By emphasizing sustainable innovation, total efficiency, and data analytics, Wärtsilä maximizes the environmental and economic performance of the vessels and power plants of its customers. In 2020, Wärtsilä’s net sales totaled EUR 4.6 billion with approximately 17,500 employees. The company has operations in over 200 locations in more than 70 countries around the world. 

The team at Wärtsilä were already familiar with gamification as a concept but had never worked with it in their highly technical business – it has now become an indispensable part of their digital engagement strategy. Enabling them to create meaningful customer experiences in the B2B environment they operate in. 

Huge potential for Wärtsilä to improve service offers

Wärtsilä ran a ‘running hours’ campaign using a ‘scratch card game’ that enabled them to better understand future servicing requirements for fleet vehicles and vessels. The results from their campaign allowed for better planning and more targeted service offers, ultimately ensuring better customer service. 

The campaign needed to represent good time spent and value from a customer perspective,

therefore, each participant had the opportunity to enter into a “give away prize” draw, as well as help Wärtsilä deliver improved service.

Gamification made customer engagement easy

By using gamification in their conversion and nurturing process, their aim was to engage their customers in activities they normally wouldn’t do. To accomplish this the campaigns were simple, quick, and fun.

Gamification used to improve learning

Wärtsilä also used gamification to personalize and improve their training courses. The business was able to simplify and personalize a lot of technical information and make it easier to digest and understand. An additional benefit came through the use of a ‘prioritization puzzle’ game to gather insights into which part of the training courses their customers valued most. These valuable insights helped the team tailor the content and give an even more personalized customer experience based on their priorities.

Integration with existing IT systems was a game-changer

The Playable platform was integrated with Salesforce Pardot which created an opportunity for the team to measure and gather data on the campaigns and ROIs – and they will keep going! With the world now opening up again, the Wärtsilä team has already started implementing gamification into their physical events too – a natural next step in their great journey with gamification.

Great results in a complex and technical world

From their campaigns – and their general use of gamification – Wärtsilä experiences great results! With more than 600 customer sessions in just a month, the team suddenly had the opportunity to connect with new prospects outside their immediate customer database – and get information the customers would not have provided otherwise. 

The best part of Wärtsilä’s experience with gamification? They’ve gained a competitive advantage as well as optimising the lead process and nurturing due to extended knowledge of their customers. Through the use of gamification, Wärtsilä has been able to effect meaningful change in service to their customers.