Toothless Tiger

Cut the bullsh*t: what is gamification and how do I use it

Henriette Weber — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:06:01 +0000

This Article is written by the awesome Kristina Björkman of Adludo.se who we have partnered up with to give you the best of the best when it comes to apps, gamification, and gamedesign=)

When you play Farmville, you classify what you’re doing as playing a game. If you’re in your garden clearing weed, then you regard it as work. Gamification is all about applying the things that make you addicted to Farmville to your garden work, making it as fun and engaging as Farmville, without turning it into a game. You will still classify what you’re doing as clearing weed.

But you will be more motivated to put in the effort, because you’ll have a clear goal to aim for, and when you accomplish your goal you’ll get instant feedback telling you how great you were. You even get a chance to beat the current high score held by your dear rival and friend, and most importantly, you’ll have had fun.

Why should i bother?
Gamification is all about motivation. Motivation to change a behavior, to spend more time doing an activity, to work harder and more efficiently. This is because we as humans like to do hard work, as long as it is of just the right level. That is, not to easy so that we get bored, but not so hard that we get frustrated and feel incompetent. Games provide us with a clear goal to strive for, and can challenge us with missions created so that we will be able to win, but only if we put in the effort. Games tell you to not give up, and rewards you for every single accomplishment you do, no matter the size of it. On top of this, gaming can be a highly social activity.

The goal of gamification is to take the goals, challenges and feedback structures from the games, as well as a strong social part, and adapt it for things that aren't games. Without making them into one.

Some examples of gamification

There is many different examples of gamification targeted to personal development. One of them are Mint.com that let you manage your personal finances, and compete to save the money. You get missions in the form of saving targets, and there is an option to compete against other people with similar targets.

A tool to increase the effectiveness in your workplace is the Email game, it rewards you for managing your emails. The goal is to help you prioritize between them, and to have you leave each session with an empty inbox. Another great tool for your business is Salesforce, a CRM system with integrated game mechanics and a social layer designed to increase sales.

How do I make this happen?

If your knowledge in game design is limited, figuring out how to gamify your business successfully can be hard to accomplish. There are many guides on the web that explains different a variety of game mechanics often used, but in order to make a successful gamification, it’s often not enough to just add points and badges. You need to create a system that applies to different sorts of people, and you need to know which mechanics best fits the targeted audience and the purpose of the project.

cut the bullsh*t: what is pinterest and how do i become pinteresting ?

Henriette Weber — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:29:47 +0000

So pinterest has been a favorite of ours for a long time now. And now it seems like the service is skyrocketing with more and more people getting in there to see if pinterest is of interest to them, both personally but also for business.

Pinterest is super addictive and a fun way to browse images and inspiration from the internet that other people like enough to want to share it with their community. We've kept our eyes on the service for a while and I was in there pretty early on because and she needed to do some research for our client fashiolista around their infrastructure and their.. well addictiveness. And that's totally the case.

Pinterest is super addictive - it's like a live magazine that keeps on being updated day and night. No more lady magazines for us - we've got pinterest to procastinate. It even averages at around 14 minutes pr user daily where facebook is at 23 minutes - pretty hot stuff for an upcoming inspirational community. So it get's a lot of users - but is it beneficial for your business ?

The answer is... yes. with moderations. Because you don't want to be seen as the company spamming the community with pictures with links to blogposts.. You need to make your business pinteresting. Here we totally rejoice because businesses are forced to think more creatively and visual if they want to be pinteresting. They need to turn their products and practices into valuable drawings, quotes, recipes and what have you. They need to go that extra mile to say what they think, why they think it and why that is beneficial to the world.

Kind of the viral effects infogram and the involvement manifesto we put on pinterest a while back... Start small though... For the next month we will be putting stuff on pinterest semi-daily with a business unusual context - so we can see if it flies better now - business wise.

free e-book in danish and english: Tendency 2012

Henriette Weber — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:30:52 +0000

So we've arrived well in 2012 - December 2011 I was busy writing Tendency 2012 - a free ebook about tendencies as I a see them in 2012. You can check it out here in english or here in danish.

Want to learn more about how to develop your identity ?

Henriette Weber — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:54:45 +0000

Today I've been launching my newest e-book "rock your identity" (in english here and in danish here). It has been quite a process to put it down in print and in writing. Which all started out with this blogpost a while back from my personal website henrietteweber.com.

I see it as my personal input on how to de-mystify digital involvement, identity and brand development - and how to use your identity as a strategic tool and as a part of your brand.

hope you'll love it to pieces =)

10 pieces of social media advice for the politicians of the world

Henriette Weber — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:20:33 +0000

As some of you might know, Denmark has gotten a new prime minister, who, these days is assembling the new government. In a lot of ways it speaks of change. One of the things we're pretty excited about is that it's the first female prime minister that Denmark has ever had - it's ace and we love it.

However, even though before the election social media was buzzing with promises of stuff that the politicians would do after the election, for some parties (some of the ones that are currently in negotiations about the new government) social media has been all quiet on the western front. Kind of as if they've been running a campaign and they've gotten a lot of likers and followers and now we are not important anymore. The thing that bothers us, is that in the two latest elections they did the same thing - bla bla bla bla bla - and then silence. Nothing. Kind of like running away from a promise of closeness that you gave to your best friends. Or not calling your mom everyday as you promised.

Anyway we have translated the advice into english so the politicians of the world gets a social web recipe of how not to fuck around with the people who love you - it's just stupid. So if you like, here's the press release in english and in danish. and here's the story in Urban - the danish newspaper.

here it is peeps:

10 tips for politicians in regards to social media

1. Live updates bring excitement, personality and reactions. The morning after the election Margrethe Vestager posted a mobile picture on Facebook from the bus she sat in on the way to a secret meeting. More of that!

2. Lars Løkke used Facebook to say thanks in regards to his election defeat - a wise move. If you are only active when it is a good thing they're missing out on the respect it also creates with interaction the negative situations.

3. The best way to outdo your constituents' expectations is to be personal. Provide answers to inquiries, person to person and take everyone seriously as individuals. This is Democracy 3.0.

4. Listen to what is happening out there and be proactive in discussions. Both in regards to the big media, but also on blogs, twitter and the like. Could one imagine, for example. Villy Søvndal put a comment on a personal blog, which discussed his future as a minister?

5. Be proactive in digital relationships and take your inspirations seriously. A polititian can also send a friend request, it need not only be the other way.

6. Use social media to talk about your visions and dreams for the future. It builds identity, and identity is, more than anything else, that which makes people choose one or the other.

7. Implement a social web strategy for how to deepen relations with your surroundings. How many hours can you or your staff spend on direct dialogue with voters? How many should you use?

8. Answers to personal messages and emails. It has been, in this campaign, not uncommon to 'unchoose' a candidate because you could not get through to them. Show respect, and answer when someone asks.

9. Show up for various events - and use digital as a catalyst to get people to meet up with you. Do you record videos when you're out? Are you taking pictures? Voters like to follow along if they can actually see you out and about in the local environment.

10. Blog. Reflect on your life. Tell voters about the processes of everyday life as a politician. It builds value on top of all that election hype.

Yeah, we make films now too!

Mark Bandte — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:49:49 +0000

So about 3 years ago, I got my first HD video camera.

It was always one of those things that I thought "Hey, I could make movies, and I think I'd be good at it too". I started out making travel films with music in the background on iMovie, and everyone I showed them to thought they were pretty good. Then I made a little film for my cousin in Byron bay to help him promote his business. Then I tried my hand at a couple of crappy short films, and since then I've just been taking some jobs here and there, getting more and more experience…

It dawned on me a week or so ago when I was finishing off a film for Alka Forsikring (not on iMovie), and my girl came up to me and said something like "I have absolutely NO idea how you do what you do", and I realized that even though there are a fair few people out there who make films, that for the most part they are über professional, what with the crews, sound guys, production teams and all that jazz, and they are extremely expensive!

I can do colour grading, basic sound cleanup, all the photography, all the cutting and everything else myself, and what's more, is that I absolutely love it! I love nerding around with all those little details, getting the shots in the right order, and shaving milliseconds off and making sure the whole thing rolls out how I imagine it should be, and BECAUSE I do it myself, Toothless Tiger can make films for a good price.

Henriette and I also pride ourselves on the fact that we are one with the creative forces of the universe, so we come up with some really cool ideas too! SO now, that's a part of Toothless Tiger: web films - including introfilms, product films, events, and whatever else our customers need.

Really, movie-making is all about 'seeing' the shot, capturing it, and cutting it together. We can do that, dammit! We've even been getting some pretty big clients, and they've been more than satisfied too, which is great for a bit of an explosion in the self confidence.

So here's me: some guy who just picks up a camera, and less than 3 years later, has a kickass camera which has been paid for by jobs, and is making money by making films for big companies. How cool is that?

If it is that anyone is interested in Toothless Tiger films, big or small, then throw me a mail at mark@toothlesstiger.com - I'll sort you out :D

cut the bullsh*t: an explanation and guide to social media

Henriette Weber — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:37:45 +0000

One of the questions we get a lot at Toothless Tiger is "what is it really you guys do?" Often we answer that question with "something on the internet" - but it's also a lot more than that.

What we do in Toothless Tiger, is social media.

in all shapes and forms really: we have the explanation of social media marketing, we are down with viral effects, we create and teach interaction and involvement.

So - what is social media ?

Social media is, when it comes right down to it, an extension of the internet where all people, companies and organisations have the possibility of being small media outlets. You can publish whatever you like out there for your audience, whether it consist of 5 people or 100.000.

Which social media is commercially the most used right now ?

It could be that it is your friends, your current/potential clients, or other people that you want to see your stories and news. And there's a lot of different levels to create stories on - everything from writing a little message on facebook with an attitude or making a huge campaign, where viral videos and app development are the main driver.

Right now - there are many types of social media you can choose from, and the right ones for you depend a lot of what impression you want to leave, and what you want people to do. Here's a list of social media that we use mostly in our work, and yes, they are some of the most common in our world at the moment. (in our part of the world)

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Even though social media is exciting, fun and game-changing in comparison to how we normally communicate, then our approach to social media is focused on companies.

On one hand, we're showing them how they can get more money out of their companies because of social media, but on the other side, we are also showing them how to look at the future of business with serious eyes by meeting and communicating with people where they already are: which is on social media!

There are so many possibilities, so many projects and ambitions you can use social media for, so it's extremely important that you, from the getgo, make it very clear what it is that you expect to acheive from using them. And this is how we at Toothless Tiger live - By having a different approach to social media compared to other companies out there.

Find the central story of your company

To make this as practical as possible you need to find something in your company that you can share with others. A good rule of thumb is to think about what people have especially noticed in and about your company. What are they asking you about ?

Most likely there are a lot of good stories in your company, in it's employees, or in you as a person (or a personal brand if you will) but to begin with, we only need one story. It's our main piece of content and it's the piece of content we are going to generate more content from.

An example could be that you're an icecream manifacturer and people always ask you about your recipe on homemade icecream. Then it's icecream that is the main piece of content. Not "just" icecream but icecream in our eyes. Our world of icecream. But just how much content can you realistically publish about icecream ?

Creativity is key

When we think about icecream we think about recipes, competitions about the best icecream in the world, ice from different countries, test of icecream machines and so on and so on. Creativity is your only boundry. It's what defines what you think you can publish about icecream from the given story as opposed to the earlier necessity of publishing advertisements every, to every other day.

To use social media as a strategic and effective part of your company, it's very important for your success that you are proactive about your stories. It's vital to put up a system where you have the opportunity to listen to relevant pages on the internet.

One of the more basic things you can do in regards to listening on the internet is to sign up on google.com/alerts where you can get mail send to you everytime somebody writes something about a given word (which could be your name, company name or product on the internet, a subject you're working in or even a competitor). In that way you can react, debate and speak your voice every time somebody is talking about subjects you are into - and even watch the surroundings of your brand.

Good luck with it ! We hope that our explanation and our advice will help you go a step further.

Inspirational monday morning explosion

Mark Bandte — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:25:27 +0000

Now I'm not usually a morning person, but I've been trying to get into the habit of waking up early, and you know what? It feels pretty damned good! It's monday - which is usually one of my least favourite days, but here I am up and raring to go. I feel really inspired to start kicking ass XD

Loads of stuff on this week, with some film editing, a couple of meetings, and a trip to Jutland among other things, and I feel like things are just going to be productive and great.

We have a new member of the Toothless Tiger team - Fie, who, as soon as I met her I felt that she was right for the company. I felt like she's would to bring a lot to the table, and even just after last thursday/friday I'm all excited about the next months. She's just awesome.

This post is a short and sweet one, because I want to get cracking - Now it's all about Black Sabbath on the LP player, coffee, and jumping into the pile of epic work that needs to be done - Look out world!

\m/ (>_<) \m/

Mark

What I thought was awesome about The Conference

Mark Bandte — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:00:32 +0000

So Henriette and I were at Media Evolutions 'The Conference' ( http://mediaevolution.se/theconference/ ) last week, and I thought it would be cool to give you guys the low-down on what was cool and such.  All in all I think it was great, and the general feedback from the attendees was positive.  It was full of inspiring talks, great projects and a great look into the future of digital media.  So let's get down to the particularly cool bits:


Generaly Cool Stuff
Guitar thing - WildChords
Blackberry hosted a competition, where the winner was drawn at The Conference.  The idea was to build an app for the blackberry errr…tablet thingy.  So these Finnish dudes built an app which teaches you, quite simply, how to play the guitar!  No plugging in, nothing.  Just take a guitar and play the notes as they come.  It's way cool, and you can check it out here: www.wildchords.com/
Unfortunately, they didn't win - 'Visit Sweden' did, and their app will be released on the blackberry Tab thingy when it gets released in Sweden.  Good for them. 
note - I googled for those interested - it's called the playbook ;)
Another cool app was Tunaspot, which is a location-based game where you can make playlists and soundtracks, and drop them at locations.  Then, passersby can pick them up and download them.  Cool huh?It's not completely available yet, but very soon.  Check them out here: www.tunaspot.com
Electric car
So MIT makes this electric car, which kind of half folds up so you can jump out the front.  The cool thing is that they are doing a test in a few cities, among others Malmö so I'm looking forward to see the snazzy broom broom around!  You can see a quick video of the prototype they had at The Conference here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1MSMj08BVU

Cool stuff on Day 1.
Man & Machine - Amber Case
One of the best speeches at the conference.  The theme was 'being a Cyborg' - which was about how connected we all are in regards to the past.  She spoke a lot about Steve Mann, who is a guy who has gone one step further, and wears his home made computer whilst he walks around.  It started out as a massive thing which drew a lot of attention in the beginning, but has been developed to the point that he can wear it as a pair of glasses!  This got me thinking - when will it end!?  I spoke briefly with Amber after the talk about the point of no return - as in "If we ever start to augment our own bodies - let's say, starting out with small implants for headphones, which gets replaced with mobile devices and on from there, where will the line be drawn?  She said that she would never add anything to her body, and I think a lot of people are probably in the same boat, but still - if enough people end up trying something and it works, and is great, it wouldn't take too long before we have a very Manga-type cyberpunk-esque future, right?  
http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3017762/amber-case-geoloqi-from
How to live a Hyper-connected Life:The Bulletproof Executive - Dave Asprey
I thought this was really cool.  Dave has 'bio-hacked' himself for the past few years, taking brain scans, and studying up on how to optimize his body and brain functions, and is now feeling the best he's ever felt, regardless of the fact that he eats around 4500 calories per day (which a large part of it is beef and butter!) doesn't exercise, and sleeps less than 5 hours a day.  He came out with a set of electrodes on his head, which were hooked up to a 9 volt battery which was giving him the optimal current to put him in the right state of mind to stay focused and alert.  He has, in the last few years, upgraded his IQ by 20 points, fixed his poor vision, and trimmed himself down from a massive 300 pounds of weight!   Intriguing stuff huh?  Read more about The Bulletproof Executive on Dave's blog: www.bulletproofexec.com/http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3017849/dave-asprey-bio-hacker-how
The Winter of our Disconnect - Susan Maushart
This was a great story about Susan, her 2 daughters and her son, who were all living a life which was mainly carried out online.  They were constantly online, be it internet, gaming, phones - until one day Susan had had enough.  She basically pulled the plug for 6 months, as  a type of experiment, but mainly to try and get her family to connect again.  It was really cool to hear what happened to the whole family - they apparently went through a stage of complete boredom, and then ended up filling the boredom with things like playing the saxophone (and apparently writing a book!).  The book is available everywhere - I think I would like to give it a read.  Check out her site if you want to know more: http://susanmaushart.com/http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3017942/susan-maushart-megan-miller
The Future of Games
Yeah, I'm a little bit of a gamer, so I definitely wanted to check this one out! =D  They spoke a lot about the difference between 'gaming' and 'playing', and the fact that the majority of digital games made for kids are focused on manipulative play - and the other types (Discovery, Physical, Creative and imaginative) are very much untapped resources.  Maybe the future of digital gaming marketed at children could tap into these other types, so as we don't raise a generation of soulless, brainy kids that have good hand-eye coordination, yet no creativity.  I think it's great!

Cool stuff on Day 2 (which was better than day 1 imo)Creation - Bill Drummond
Completely off-the-wall and funny guy. It was great and all, but I still felt it was kind of irrelevant.  But still great fun.  He talked about the evolution music, and how, since the iPod, music has gotten to be kind of….commonplace.  That people have gotten to be apathetic about what they listen to, skipping from track to track without really hearing what it is they are listening to.  And that it has actually been heading in that direction since we started recording music.  He talked about his project 'The 17' which is basically this:  "Imagine you wake up tomorrow and all music has disappeared".  All knowledge of music is gone, and yet you still have an inkling that it existed.  How would you make it?  He has been making a lot of 'one time shows' where he would take 17 people and instruct them to sing a certain tone, all at once in the middle of a city, or in a building, and once they had sung it, that was it.  No recording allowed.  So it was about having the people involved to be the ones experiencing it.  I like that.  All of a sudden the two sides of the room were chanting together.  Not so much to do with digital media, but still entertaining and thought-provoking.

New Business Opportunities with Disruptive Thinking
I loved this one, obviously.  'Disruptive thinking'….Business Unusual'…Same thing, right?  
These speeches were all about those companies who break ground in their industry, by thinking outside of the box.  By not following the same methods that they always have, but by not being scared of pushing things too far - by daring to be different.  And anything that invokes change is great in my books!  That's kind of all it was about…Pushing the envelope, not getting stuck in old patterns.
Funding Creativity with the Crowd
A great set of speeches regarding crowdfunding sites, and how they can help 'The Little Guy' get bigger.  I especially liked the talk by Simon Close about getting funding for his documentary film 'The Pirate Bay - Away from Keyboard ( TPB - AFK ).  He drew in over $50.000 US in around 3 weeks for his film, by using Kickstarter…Not bad eh? They are waiting for the court decision before the release of the film - something to do with the courts not wanting the film to affect the outcome of the verdict, but see more at http://www.tpbafk.tv/blog/http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027203/simon-klose-film-director
There was also a fantastic section by Britta Riley from WindowFarms, which intrigued me a lot, because I'm all for green.  It's a project which teaches people how to grow a type of indoor farm, right in the window sill.  Way cool.  She also earned a buttload of cash for research by using Kickstarter, but it still has only gotten in about 1/4 of the money back from how much was used on the project, so if you're into it, check out the site.  You can buy kits and fertilizers and all kinds of stuff.  There is also a wealth of info about how to do the whole thing yourself.http://www.windowfarms.org/http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027383/britta-riley-the-windowfarms
Closing Keynote with Riyaad Minty - Al Jazeera
This was probably the most poignant speech I saw at the whole conference.  I have never been much of a 'news guy'.  I don't know why.  It's never been something that I was into, although I have the sneaking suspicion that it it will be at some point.  But I love the way that Al Jazeera works, and he sold it for me.  I love the fact that they use peoples videos, and listen to what people are saying, instead of finding their own angles on the news based on what they think people want to hear.
Mr. Minty spoke at length about the network, and how it is that they differ from other news stations, by having the trust of the people  because of the fact that they broadcast what is really out there, no matter what.  Even if they get blocked in certain countries where something important is happening, they will find a way of getting the information from their sources, and also giving it out to the whole world, and to the country where they are blocked - even by radio stations if needs be.  Maybe this is the way the media used to be, but lost their way somewhere along the line?  Luckily enough, the internet is here to save the day yet again!  With complete freedom of information, everyone is at liberty to tell their story.  Everyone!  That's great, especially if we have some trusted medium which we can use to spread it.  Huge fan!
http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027903/riyaad-minty-al-jazeera

All in all, I was wicked-happy with the whole thing.  All the videos of all the talks are here: http://mediaevolution.23video.com/channel/3014916/the-conference-2011?p=1 so feel free to go through and get some inspiration -I know I'm going to watch the ones I missed out on!

the preconditions for viral effects on the social web

Henriette Weber — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:27:26 +0000

One of the things we really like doing at Toothless Tiger is to simplify some of the complexities of the the social web and social media. Take for instance: Viral effects. Such a buzzword. Such a sought after effect to your brand.

Anyway we cooked a little infogram where viral effects on the social web is playfully demystified:

I've put it up on Toothless Tiger Press (in large format if you want to download it and use it for whatever) and henrietteweber.com as well..

rock on peeps - I hope this helps out a bit =)