Gamification is going to get stronger — but for good or evil?

Imagine a world where every TV commercial, print ad, billboard, and social media campaign is no longer just saturating you with brand logos, messages, and videos like a couch potato. Instead, imagine that it starts to look and feel more like an interactive game. Marketers have been using gamification for some time, but new immersive technologies such as augmented reality and the Internet of Things (IoT) are about to make this much more potent.

This hyper-engaging world is rapidly coming, and it’s going to give advertisers a superpower they’ve never had before because the ability of gamification to incentivize and change human behavior while simultaneously entertaining the audience is vastly more powerful than any tool in the traditional advertising arsenal. But this new power is a double-edged sword. Will advertisers take the high road and choose to delight customers, or will they take the low road and instead use these tools to manipulate and abuse them?