40 vs 7 Hours for Analysis & Strategy (Without or With AI)
Gamification is gradually moving beyond apps and loyalty programmes. It is appearing on labels, in influencer kits, educational projects and retail spaces. Pentawards even included gamified unboxing among the ten key packaging design movements for 2025–2026.
From a design perspective, the product gains a new interaction scenario. The customer has something to do: find, collect, unlock, complete or maintain. For a business, every action creates another point of contact with the brand.
Sometimes a few stickers are enough. Sometimes it takes a digital twin of an entire supermarket.
For Connect 4 Wine by Javier Garduño Estudio de Diseño, circular elements on the packaging become removable pieces for a game of Connect Four. Most people already understand the mechanic, so the design requires very little explanation.
Wine is often bought for dinner, a gathering or as a gift, and the game fits naturally into those occasions. The customer gets an extra activity for the evening, while the brand gains a distinctive presence on the shelf and an easy conversation starter.
Only 160 individually numbered kits were made for influencers and editors. The opening process already contains a ready-made story for a video or social post, while the complex construction supports the premium positioning of Belvedere 10. Here, gamification builds intrigue, reinforces a sense of rarity and helps the campaign travel through content.
The Pack by Kotex was developed by Pearlfisher to support menstrual health education for teenage girls in South Africa. Kat Mellor was the lead designer on the project.
The team created a kit built around four characters, physical products, illustrated materials and digital content. The characters explain information in a language that feels familiar to teenagers, while a reusable tin holds the essential products they may need at the start of their period.
The project sits within edutainment: learning through participation, visual storytelling and relatable characters. For the audience, this approach makes a sensitive subject feel calmer and easier to understand. For Kotex, it builds trust and creates a more meaningful introduction to the brand than a conventional product campaign.
For the Oreo × Pac-Man AR Experience by Form & Fun, an Edeka supermarket in Germany became a Pac-Man maze. The store was scanned and recreated as a digital twin that customers could explore using their phones.
The game ran in the browser through WebAR, with no separate app to download. That choice significantly reduced the barrier to entry: customers could start playing as soon as they encountered the activation.
A familiar supermarket visit became a small event. Oreo gained a longer interaction with its audience and connected the distinctive shape of its biscuit with the visual world of Pac-Man.
Customers scan a QR code, point their camera at the lid and control Pac-Man through an on-screen joystick. The experience includes three difficulty levels and an arcade-style leaderboard inspired by the 1980s.
A delivery box usually finishes its job within minutes. The AR mechanic gives it another purpose and keeps the customer within the brand experience for longer. The two Pac-Man projects show how differently the same cultural reference can be used: Oreo turns a supermarket into a maze, while Pizza Hut fits one onto the lid of a box.
To launch its Nike React shoes, Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai created Nike Reactland.
Customers put on the shoes, created their own avatar and stepped onto a treadmill. The character’s speed responded to their real movement, while the game world visualised the main qualities of the product: softness, lightness and bounce.
After finishing the game, each participant received a short personalised video to share on social media. The product trial became an experience, and that individual experience continued beyond the store.
According to Wieden+Kennedy, 48% of players bought the shoes after taking part in Reactland. In this case, gamification helps people understand the product through direct physical experience and has an immediate influence on the purchase decision.
The annual Starbucks for Life promotion is connected to the Starbucks Rewards programme. In the 2025–2026 edition, participants completed a 90-second run through virtual versions of Seattle, Milan, Tokyo and New York.
Players collected red cups and menu items, earned points and competed on a leaderboard. Extra prize plays could be unlocked through Starbucks visits and weekly challenges.
The game connects the festive campaign with specific customer actions: repeat visits, participation in Rewards and exploration of the seasonal menu. Its visual world is built entirely from recognisable Starbucks elements — cities, winter streets, red cups and the brand’s own products.
At Duolingo, gamification is part of the core product experience. Streaks, points, leagues, characters and rewards accompany learners every day. One of its best-known mechanics is the streak: the number of consecutive days a user has completed a lesson.
In its official research on streaks, the Duolingo team explains how animations, milestones and Streak Freezes help learners build a habit and maintain it with some flexibility.
According to the company, an updated streak animation increased the likelihood of a new learner returning after seven days by 1.7%. Learners who reach a seven-day streak are 3.6 times more likely to complete their course. For a product with millions of daily users, even a small interface change can have a noticeable impact on both learning outcomes and retention.
Across these projects, we see one shared principle: people are given a clear role. They move a piece, crack a code, explore a shop, control a character or maintain a learning streak. The design guides them towards the next step and responds immediately to the result.
In our view, the strongest mechanics are closely connected to the product and the situation in which it is used. Connect 4 extends a relaxed evening over a bottle of wine. Belvedere creates a theatrical unboxing experience. Nike helps people feel the qualities of its shoes. Starbucks links the game to store visits, while Duolingo connects it to genuine learning progress.
The barrier to entry matters to us as well. Familiar rules, a clear QR code and browser-based access allow people to start straight away. Every additional step between interest and action gives the idea another chance to lose its appeal.
The technological scale can vary enormously, from a removable sticker to an AR maze the size of a supermarket. We believe the quality of the connection between the mechanic, the design and the product matters far more. When that connection works, the customer gains an engaging experience and the brand gains another meaningful moment with its audience.