The Challenge of Brand Flow
Dopamine is a chemical associated with reward. In it’s worst form, it results in addiction. However, one of its many beneficial outcomes of its release is that the brain becomes primed for a perfect state of learning. But I suspect, without any hard evidence to back me up, that even the feelings of novelty and newness are related to it. Sociologists describe this experience as flow, which is best understood as those points in time when work flies by, when productivity is best and when we stop looking at the clock wondering when’s lunch.
Games have proven to be very good at initiating flow. The result that follows is accompanied by that desired sense of learning. Even in the most entertaining game franchises there is proof that gamers are learning certain skills. The coming proliferation of gaming will be born from the targeting of skills to be learnt and defining which types of games can deliver the desired information or skill to be communicated to the learner.
The role of game mechanics in our everyday lives is growing along with the Millenial demographic. For many of us, growing up with video games may seem to be the integration of pastime into real life. When I look back on my own moments playing games, I realize that many of these were ones of intense concentration where time stood still. Fun, play and learning come together at these moments and make for memorable experiences and connection.
Over the past ten years the role of brand has transformed. It’s no longer simply a logo or a tagline, but has become a position from which we deliver experiences that connect and inspire. Gaming has a role to play in how brands build these connections through unique and useful experiences. Our challenge is to determine how gaming can best create these connections.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons user: Futurilla)