Who's Got Game? Some Buyers Intrigued By Gaming Tactics, If Not Badges

Two years ago, this magazine asked whether gamification was "the next new thing to drive compliance." In retrospect, a better question would have been whether new data and reporting tools were helping harness competitive spirit between business units or individuals to support travel policy compliance. The answer is yes, illustrated by well-publicized benchmarking, scoring and incentive programs at big firms like Accenture, Coca-Cola and Google.

References to corporate travel program managers posting performance metrics of different business units—tapping into what now often are called game mechanics—date back more than a decade in the archives of Business Travel News, Travel Procurement's sister publication. McKesson nine years ago used this tactic to boost online booking adoption. Qualcomm used it in 2002 to improve restricted fare and preferred supplier usage. The concept of incentives for good behavior is age-old, and many big travel loyalty programs are older than Millennials.

With the right setup, travel buyers nowadays can apply frequent, detailed reports to those traditional concepts about incentives, competition and loyalty—and then consider penalties or rewards that match company culture. If it's not stinkin' badges, perhaps it's something taxable or a splurge on future travel.

"In my experience there was a lot of exception reporting and notations of positive or negative behavior, but I'm not sure it has been done with the capabilities that are available now given the proliferation of new tools," said Harriet Washburn, a former corporate travel buyer and travel management company executive who now is global travel strategy leader for global process services at IBM. "It was never as formalized or structured, and I don't know that it garnered senior-level attention as it does now. What's really potent are scorecards indicating which business unit did what, quantifying savings lost."

Washburn also referenced a "rapid proliferation of benchmarking applications." Among the firms to recently release new or refreshed benchmarking tools are airline settlement company ARC, tech firm Concur, agency tech provider Cornerstone Information Systems, travel data firm Prime Numbers Technology and mobility firm Runzheimer, as well as global distribution systems and travel management companies.

Coca-Cola Co. four years ago worked with Ruesink Consulting to develop scorecards that are sent to travelers to underscore their performance on various policy compliance metrics. Carlson Wagonlit Travel provided Accenture the data necessary to push reports to individual travelers highlighting their individual performance, and Accenture travelers two years ago started receiving updates on airfare spending, tickets booked outside policy, advance-booking averages, missed savings, miles flown and carbon output. At Google, an internally developed system offers travelers incentives to save money essentially by letting them reuse the difference between what they spend and benchmarked rates; Google is helping Concur with a commercial version of the concept.

Are those examples of gamification, per se? The term introduces a lighthearted connotation that some professionals want kept away from policy compliance efforts.

Runzheimer International product manager for travel and expense management Austin Klein suggested the term "gamification" is troublesome. "It offers the perception of gaming or working around the system," he said.

Why Pay For Compliance? 

Whether it's gamification in the sense of virtual trophies, more traditional incentives or simple naming and shaming, the use of game mechanics clearly is a dynamic area of travel management. Yet travel policy performance programs enhanced with competitive elements have not enjoyed rapid proliferation due to a host of issues. According to consultant Evan Konwiser, "There are definitely some applications of it and it can impact behavior, but these are more niche implementations to drive particular results, not any massive trend towards gamification."

Travel Procurement contacted more than two dozen mainly U.S.-based travel buyers (not including those at aforementioned corporate giants) for their commentary on the concept, and almost none had ventured into gaming territory. More than half said they had no intention to consider it while the rest found it interesting but not serious, and cited some imposing challenges. Some found no value in creating an incentive with compliance already at acceptable levels, others cited a lack of financial and staff resources to manage such an effort, while some pointed to a potential corporate culture clash.

"I see cool ideas, but it always seems like it's a lot of effort for what end?" asked SAS travel operations director Richard Clowes. "My gut says you don't need to pay for compliance. The employee should be saving money anyway. I like to think I'm open-minded about new ideas, but to me gamification seems like a potential 'side industry,' and I have enough things to work on."

Princeton University travel program manager Cindy Shumate considered the concept and is "a bit conflicted."

"I'm not sure we should be coming up with reasons to do what you should be doing anyway," she said. "It feels like a bit of a distraction for travelers and perhaps an emphasis on travel that we shouldn't have. And it's yet another component that you have to configure and support. If you have the bandwidth, go for it. But my hands are pretty full."

Informatica global travel manager Judy Emma described her firm as having "a strong company culture where people follow the rules and do the right thing for the company, so we don't foresee implementing new travel policies that would reward behaviors that are already exhibited. That said, we need to be cognizant of emerging trends to best serve the company, employees and shareholders."

At Oracle, gamification is not an initiative, primarily because of good travel compliance and no time to manage such a program. "We would probably consider it if someone came to us and said they were choosing another company over Oracle because they do this stuff, but for now, we haven't found it's needed," according to director of global travel and executive travel services global process owner Rita Visser. "I think it works for some programs."

False Starts 

Most of those not using gamification techniques nonetheless stated interest in learning about them. As with any emerging concept, part of the challenge is having pioneers to demonstrate return on investment. So far for gamification, there are few.

Nestlé group procurement manager for travel and event planning Marc Zuber for several months has been investigating gamification and said case studies remain "extremely limited." Zuber does not see gamification as something to apply for improved compliance, arguing that corporations should not reward employees for following rules. Instead, he believes it could be a tool to promote behavioral change and provide employees an opportunity to make an added difference. He suggested a game program could address various employee behavioral aspects—not only for travel but also sustainability, responsible sourcing or work/life balance.

"We need something compelling that goes beyond the stick concept," he said, noting that Nestlé is just beginning to consider an approach. "Effective sourcing isn't the end of the story. The end is to drive travel behavior."

General Mills global travel manager Kristin Ojala said the goal of gamification "may not be just to drive compliance, but hopefully to promote good buying behavior as well. If there are elements of fun that generate greater employee engagement with regard to policy, and good buying behavior, we are absolutely interested and would look forward to gamification becoming more readily available."

It was a big topic at the Global Business Travel Association convention in August, where American Express Global Business Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel separately announced initiatives. Amadeus also revealed in an interview with BTN that it is testing in this area.

Amex client Citrix Systems is piloting the new platform, provided in conjunction with Badgeville, to recognize employees for actions like booking in advance or buying from key suppliers. As of October, it was too early to tell if the program was impacting employee behavior, according to American Express Global Business Travel vice president for deal consulting and business services Alicia Tillman.

Ruesink Consulting president Tom Ruesink pointed to the mega TMCs' efforts as a bellwether of gamification's wider acceptance in travel management. "We'll know more in about a year," he predicted.

Amex and Accenture this year released a "gamification and mobility" white paper that noted ongoing budget pressure, observed changes in mobile technology and opined about a generational transformation in the workforce. The paper suggested that initiatives using game mechanics can be elaborate or simple, but they should be well-designed and tailored to the organization and its culture to improve the chances of success. The paper indicated practitioners should start with a small test, align with travel and expense management partners, incorporate user feedback, evolve the program slowly and share results.

One global consulting firm whose travel manager asked to be unnamed conducted a gamification pilot in 2012. "We focused on three specific travel booking behaviors that we wanted to move the needle on," the travel buyer said. "We had a variety of travel-related prizes from free airline tickets and airline vouchers to airline club memberships and status upgrades as the prizes. We found that the incentive generated great interest—we had 8,000 hits on our travel intranet social media site the day the prizes were announced. However, we didn't actually see great results in terms of improvements in the specific metrics we were tracking. What we found is that folks who were already doing the right things got rewarded for behavior they were already demonstrating. We haven't ruled out gamification for the future. We are actually considering another approach for 2014."

Research firm Gartner two years ago determined that although most gamification programs fail, more than two-thirds of global corporations would have such an initiative by next year. "For a gamified application truly to engage its audience, three key ingredients must be present and correctly positioned: motivation, momentum and meaning," according to the firm. Motivation and meaning, it explained, require identifying the right mix of extrinsic rewards (such as gifts or badges) and intrinsic rewards (i.e., something done purely for the enjoyment of it) and ensuring that they're valued by the user. Momentum, Gartner added, requires firms to "engage players quickly and maintain their engagement through deft use of game mechanics such as challenges, rules, chance, rewards and levels."

Corporate agency Travel and Transport expects to launch its Points 2 Points program this quarter with an unidentified client. The program builds on the company's existing loyalty program support capabilities, which backed a similar program that Travel and Transport introduced in 2008 but scrapped due to lack of interest. The company said surveys in 2012 found clients more open to rewarding individual travelers. It now emphasizes an ability to customize incentive programs, which can incorporate badge-type status symbols, "banking" credits for future noncompliant travel and points redeemable for gift cards, travel rewards, digital rewards and merchandise, including items from a custom catalog. "All programs are funded through savings achieved by increasing corporate travel compliance," according to Travel and Transport general manager Michelle Holmes.

"We are finding that although corporations are excited about a new model that could change the landscape of how they manage travel programs and many want to be first out of the gate, corporate compliance can challenge travel managers to provide historical data that proves rewarding business travelers is the right thing to do," Holmes added. "Because it's a new model on the corporate travel side, it's the chicken-or-egg scenario, and companies are working through which really comes first."

Some travel professionals have taken a simple approach, using game mechanics on small projects. Deltek director of global travel procurement Karoline Mayr stimulated interest in her company's social media forum by creating a contest that invited travelers to submit photos from their journeys. Since the mission was to take a photo capturing the logo of a preferred supplier—with free travel as the winner's reward—the program actually boosted compliance, Mayr said.

At Harman, corporate travel director Sally Abella runs incentive programs for videoconferencing use. Any time an employee uses such an option instead of travel for an internal meeting, that employee and others from Harman in that meeting qualify for a drawing. The winner gets a Harman product—perhaps high-end speakers or other entertainment equipment.

Trophies? Over It 

But what of badges? Weren't they supposed to be the way managements could connect with new generations of gaming travelers?

"It comes down to the culture of the company," said IBM's Washburn. "There are startups trying to create fun environments. These programs can have a positive connotation—incremental savings for you to invest in other opportunities, more trips or something—as opposed to 'You've been a bad boy.' "

BCD Travel director of emerging technologies Miriam Moscovici was a proponent of gamification back when the concept first climbed up the hype cycle, but now she refers to "gamification fatigue." During a June webcast by The BTN Group, Moscovici said, "We're beyond giving travelers badges. I think it remains to be seen how that works." On the same broadcast, Cognizant Global Technology Solutions global travel manager Kathy Kaden said, "Our associates have had enough virtual trophies and they're over it."

Ruesink pointed to the complexities of some gamification programs' scoring systems. "The providers I talk to seem to want to boil the ocean," he noted.

"Gamification doesn't necessarily have to be an actual game situation like Foursquare or those types of events where you collect badges and crap like that," noted Cornerstone Information Systems vice president for product innovation and marketing Rock Blanco. "It can be something as relevant and straightforward as following policy by booking a preferred supplier, which ends up giving you, the traveler, better status so you can walk the 'red carpet' like a celebrity and feel like you're better than everyone else."

Ego. It's a powerful thing.

This report originally appeared in the November 2013 edition of Travel Procurement.