As part of our G-List – the who’s-who of the gamification space – we will be holding weekly Tweetups with some of the awesome speakers and guests of our upcoming Gamification Summit in New York. We will be holding a series of streaming interviews via Twitter and Justin.tv. Follow @gamificationco for updates and submit questions with hashtag #gsummit.
Read on for the full interview with Keith Smith, Founder of BigDoor on the engagement economy and fostering connections to consumers with gamification.
Edited for readability.
 KEITH SMITH is co-founder and CEO of BigDoor. Keith has been working on gamification well before the term was invented. An avid game fan, at the age of six he sold magazine subscriptions door to door in an effort to buy the original Atari Pong console. Gamification again had a place later in Keith’s career when he was founder and CEO of Zango. Keith served as the CEO for 10 years and grew Zango from a startup to a multi-national company employing 300 people in six offices in four countries. While at Zango, Keith discovered a true passion for gamification after spending two years building a game-based loyalty program. Wanting to focus on game mechanics and gamification, Keith co-founded BigDoor with long-time business partner and best friend, Jeff Malek in 2009. A veteran entrepreneur, Keith started and bootstrapped two other tech companies prior to 1999. Learn more about BigDoor at www.bigdoor.com or follow him on Twitter @chiefdoorman. |
 We are holding a tweetchat w/ @BigDoor @ChiefDoorman Keith Smith in ~15min. Ask him Qs with #gsummit
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Thanks for joining us! Q1: To get started, how did you arrive at #gamification and the concepts behind @Bigdoor?
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 ChiefDoorman Keith Smith My daughter was playing sorority life, my brother was “playing” stackoverflow. Seeing the similarities was my epiphany.
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Great start. How does @BidDoor interact across age groups? Does it work better with youth?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith Our solutions span a wide variety of age groups and verticals. Youth respond well, but so do old folks like me. When done correctly, #loyalty & #gamification can impact #engagement for a wide variety of people.
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 nimblemachine Andrew Shaffer What are your thoughts about Ian Bogost’s “Gamification is Bullshit” argument?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith
We always get more customers signing up whenever Ian blogs about how #gamification is destroying mankind. Ian makes some great points, but we focus on #loyalty & user rewards and make a huge impact on #engagement for our customers.
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BigDoor’s business model is a bit different. Why did you decide to make BigDoor free? |
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith We believe that #gamification should be a profit center, not a cost center. We focus on making [money] for our clients. We are very product focused and can deliver our #gamification at lower cost by not having tons of high priced sales folks
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Can you talk about the concept of an “engagement economy”? What are the important metrics within it?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith The Engagement Economy is all about giving users value and rewards for their engagement with a brand or community. Brands can get a much deeper level of frequency, engagement, virality & $ when they build reward equity with their users. Key metrics our #gamification & #loyalty platform delivers on are; frequency, engagement, virality and ARPU.
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 stogiemonster Stogie Monster Great answers so far! Where did the brand name @BigDoor come from?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith
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How can #gamification work to channel the energy of fans of a brand such as @MLB?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith |
 gzicherm Gabe Zichermann Where do you think the big ops for #gamificationare outside of the US?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith
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 akastrenakes Alexis Kastrenakes What opportunities exist for gamification in the workplace? What [corporate] partnerships are likely to arise?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith Workplace #gamification opps are everywhere. Large companies are seeking to #gamify their sales efforts first. @sharonhenry101 is a wonderful advocate of #gamification in the workplace. We have over 300 active clients, but most of those #gamification implementations are not yet workplace focused.
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gamificationco gamificationco Last question: What is still missing from #gamification. How will the industry change in the next 18 months?
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith Good gamification is still largely missing from the #gamification industry. This will change in less than 18 months. Our private beta is yielding amazing results. When launched, it will massively disrupt the #gamification landscape.
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ChiefDoorman Keith Smith
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gamificationco gamificationco Special thanks to @akastrenakes @stogiemonster @nimblemachine for questions! Hope to see you at #gsummit!
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For past interviews,
- Check out Daniel Debow, CEO and Founder of Rypple. Visit Daniel’s G-List page for the full interview, and come back for more updates!
- We held our second tweetchat with Kiip CEO, Brian Wong. Check out the full interview on the G-List.
- Bunchball founder, Rajat Paharia shared his unique insight into gamification’s roots and its future. Check the full interview.
Gamification Co will be hosting it’s second Gamification Summit in New York on September 15-16. Join keynotes and design intensives from top businesses and creative professionals to learn how the new science of engagement is rewriting the rules of product design. For Gamification Blog readers, use discount code GCOBLOG for 25% off at http://gsummit.com/register. We look forward to seeing you there!
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