Ntrails helps attract business to SME websites using gamification
UK games site Ntrails.com is helping SMEs get more traffic to their websites by using an online treasure hunt.
Gamification – the use of games online- is one of the new ways that companies are trying to get viewers onto their websites, but many small companies cannot afford to create such games.
Ntrails uses the online treasure hunt game to encourage players to visit sponsors websites to look for clues and games on it. The company charges a fee (61p) to play, with the first person to find all the correct passwords winning the money.
Ken Gauld, director of Ntrails.com said: “Unilever recently released a hugely successful game as part of its product launch for Clear, an anti-dandruff shampoo, in China. Since going online two weeks ago the game entitled ‘Doomsday on Dandruff’, which has been launched on the Chinese social networking site QQ.com, has been downloaded some 4 million times.
“Companies have woken up to fact that by having word searches, puzzles, treasure hunts and such like they can engage with their existing audience, branch out a bit to attract new customers and keep them all coming back for more.
“One of our sponsors, a charity, saw the number of unique visitors rise by some 337% and a 600% increase in page loads, in less than a week. All our game hosts have reported a boost in website visitors with people staying on their sites much longer than usual.”