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business objectives before you even begin. If you can't answer how a specific game dynamic would help you reach an important goal for your school, it's probably better not to play. 2. Understand your players and their motivations. Traditional gam- ing identifies four distinct types of players who respond to different stimuli. Killers focus on winning and attaining high rank. Achievers are motivated by attaining status or reaching goals. Socializers need others to play, but they can be engaged by newsfeeds, friend lists, and online chat. Explorers are driven to discover the unknown; they delight in obscure achieve- ments. If you know your audience, you will be able to devise the game strategy that's most likely to engage the players. (For a chart that shows the characteristics of different types of players in gamification models, visit www.bizedmagazine.com/ features/why-people-play-games/.) 3. Focus on the human. Create an experience for the emotional, playful aspects of your stakehold- ers, not their rational sides. Luckily, you and your team are humans, so you can quickly test what does or doesn't work. Try this exercise as an initial brainstorm: In what scenario would you happily spend hours reading your own school's Web site? 4. Do the reward math. Cre- ate scalable, meaningful rewards. Many audiences will be motivated by prizes or other material gifts, but the most popular tasks work because they provide customers with powerful intrinsic motivation. A school is in the enviable posi- tion of having customers who were transformed by their stays at the institution, and most of them still remember their experiences fondly. We can tap into this goodwill with game mechanics that draw on their happy memories. 5. Make it fun. Create an enjoy- able experience for your stakehold- ers, but—probably most impor- tant—have fun with it yourself. For example, taking on an organizing persona like the Campout Commit- tee can enable you to be a whole lot cheekier than school representa- tives usually are with stakeholders. Inhabiting such a persona also will allow you to learn from your mis- takes without incurring penalties. So what's preventing you from introducing a gamification proj- ect at your school? Surely your key stakeholders would like to have a good time and show their human side while engaging with your brand. And it wouldn't hurt if you and your colleagues could have some fun with a project while achieving your objectives. We dare you … double dare you … Elizabeth Hogan is the associate dean for marketing at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in Durham, North Carolina. Andrea Mohamed is Fuqua's director for marketing. BizEd November/December 2012 31