Upstream launches real-time personalisation on its ‘Gamification Engine’ to drive consumer engagement over mobile

London, UK and San Francisco, USA – 25, May 2011 – Upstream, the global mobile marketing solutions provider, today announced the addition of new features to the gamification engine that forms an integral part of its Marketing Technology Platform (MINT) technology platform. With gamification, Upstream is able to dramatically increase levels of responsiveness, engagement and enjoyment, transforming the mobile marketing experience to benefit both the mobile consumer and the marketer.

Upstream’s gamification engine’s new, real-time personalisation features deliver key insights into interactions as they happen, enabling the platform to tailor campaigns so that their frequency, progress and content are driven by highly targeted mobile consumer segments, making it ultimately more rewarding and enjoyable for them.

“The new capabilities will enable Upstream to customize our gaming engine in very sophisticated ways to help carriers and brands drive the highest possible engagement and value from their mobile campaigns,” says Guy Krief, Vice-President, Innovation, Upstream.

Gamification on MINT combines game mechanics – which include points; rules; countdowns; ratio, repeat and interval bonuses; levels; penalties; challenges; viral mechanics; virtual goods; digital and physical prizes – with game dynamics – which include rewards; urgency; reinforcement; pride; appointment; status-building; competition and achievement – to provide a powerful engine that drives high responsiveness, engagement and enjoyment of the mobile experience.

“Gamification is an essential part of mobile marketing and we’ve been using game-like techniques in our campaigns for mobile operators and brands long before the creation of the word,” continues Krief. “Every interaction on mobile must reward the consumer or it is likely to be ignored.”

Upstream’s MINT platform has delivered campaigns to more than 500 million consumers for top-tier carriers and brands around the world, increasing customer responsiveness by as much as 400 per cent. Game dynamics introduce the concept of rewards that can take many forms, whether it is correctly answering all the questions in a quiz; getting free entertainment content; a status announcement or winning bonuses, points and even large cash prizes.

“We’ve proved with operators all over the world, that combining the intensely personal nature of the mobile medium with the engagement and loyalty that Upstream’s gamification engine engenders creates a very powerful marketing tool,” says Krief.

“With Upstream we identified new consumer sectors to target and employ the MINT platform, with the best gamification techniques built-in, to engage and incentivize our subscribers, increasing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.’