App Leaders in Gamification – Why They Knock It Out of the Park

Episode #10 of the Mass Appeal podcast

In the latest installment of the Mass Appeal podcast, we continue to dive deep into the strategies that make mobile apps succeed. This time around, our host Tommy is set to explore app gamification and its impact on user engagement and monetization with Tara Kirkpatrick, Director of App Marketing at Apptopia. Tara comes with a wealth of experience from Insight Timer and brings a unique insight into why certain apps, like Temu, are setting new benchmarks for user time spent in-app compared to industry giants like Amazon.

What’s the Topic?

In this episode you will learn how gamification is revolutionizing app engagement and monetization, featuring:

• an examination of Temu’s gamification strategies that significantly increase user time spent in the app
• insights into Duolingo’s success, attributing its growth to gamified learning experiences
• the importance of community-driven engagement, as seen in platforms like Reddit
• diverse monetization strategies that extend beyond traditional advertising, incorporating elements like in-app purchases and subscriptions

What to Listen Out for:

• 5:19 – Tara’s background
• 7:58 – Measuring scalable impacts for B2C
• 10:45 – What does Apptopia do?
• 14:00 – Why does Temu see higher engagement than Amazon?
• 18:00 – Why Duolingo kills the app monetization game
• 23:07 – Gaming runs upstream of all consumer tech
• 25:41 – Community as a driver for app engagement
• 31:14 – Diverging app monetization strategies

Quote

“That’s how sticky gaming really is. Even if we’re not gamers, aspects of it resonate with all people because it hacks into that human nature of just wanting to progress and complete something and make it a habit. This is really what gamification does and that’s what all these companies are doing.”

– Tara Kirkpatrick, Director of Marketing at Apptopia