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A simple, addictive cycle of planting seeds → evolving them → receiving points → taking rides → (repeat)
TLDR
- Problem: Grab wanted more users to go outdoors and take more Grab rides
- Gamification Solution: In #GrabRewardsville, players plant virtual seeds around the island, evolve them into trees, and receive GrabRewards points. For extra seeds, players could take qualifying Grab rides
- Game Mechanics: Like farming games, different soil types, evolution stages, and withering mechanics affected the type of tree grown
- Results: An additional 370,000 Grab rides were transacted during the campaign
Key Statistics
- Attracted more than 100,000 players with close to 1,000,000 seeds planted
- Over 140,000,000 GrabRewards points redeemed by players who set their minds to properly caring for their trees
- Featured by various media outlets including Mothership, The Milelion, Weekender, etc
Our Client
<aside> 💡 Grab is Southeast Asia’s leading superapp, providing everyday services like deliveries, mobility, financial services, and more.
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Grab’s Challenge
<aside> 💡 How could Grab incentivise users to go out and take more Grab rides in a fun and engaging way?
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With the upcoming school holidays and easing of COVID restrictions in Dec 2020, Grab wanted to seize the opportunity to engage their existing Grab users. Since people were taking fewer Grab rides with the previous circuit breaker, Grab wanted to encourage more people to take Grab rides when visiting nearby shopping malls and iconic attractions in Singapore.
#GrabRewardsville
Alongside the gradual reopening of Singapore in Phase 3, #GrabRewardsville was held from 28 December 2020 to 31 January 2021. Leveraging on Grab’s existing user base, the campaign drove players to explore less-known parts of the country while experiencing the convenience of Grab rides.
Like popular farming games, #GrabRewardsville hooked players into the simple, addictive cycle of planting virtual seeds around Singapore, evolving them into trees, and receiving GrabRewards points.
Solution: Taking More Rides for Virtual Seeds
Players quickly understood that growing more trees meant the chance to get more GrabRewards points. Growing an Excellent tree or a Diamond tree would gain them up to 2000 points and 100,000 points respectively, worth approximately S$5 and S$200. Therefore, players were highly motivated to obtain more seeds beyond the free pack of 3 seeds given at the start of the game.
One way of getting more seeds was through completing in-game missions designed to encourage greater engagement. These allowed players to increase their rewards earned, but were limited to one seed per mission completed.
To obtain even greater rewards, players were prompted to get more seeds by taking qualifying Grab rides. Those who took non-cash transacted rides, excluding GrabHitch and GrabResponse rides, were given a code that could be redeemed for 2 additional seeds.
By tying in Grab’s brand action into the gamification solution, players were naturally incentivised towards hailing more Grab rides.
An In-Depth Look: Unique Game mechanics & Psychology
The game was designed to create an addictive loop which engaged existing Grab users. #GrabRewardsville presented strong incentives to induce players to start playing, while guiding players to develop a habit of returning to the app, and eventually enticing players to spend on Grab rides. This was achieved with the following game mechanics:
Enticing players to leave their homes
Depending on the soil type of different locations, participants could plant their seeds and grow different types of trees. These trees were then redeemable for varying amounts of GrabRewards points. The more players ventured from their homes, the greater their chances of being well-rewarded.
While players were able to plant trees from the comfort of their homes, the poor soil quality at the residential area was likely to yield Frail trees with no rewards.
On the other hand, the game was designed with more fertile soil around shopping malls and popular landmarks such as Gardens By The Bay or Haw Par Villa, with higher chances of growing Healthy or Excellent trees with higher rewards.
By understanding the superior rewards yielded by fertile soil compared to infertile soil, players were motivated to travel and seek out other fertile soil areas.
For instance, a player who had already completed the relatively easy, beginner action of travelling to a nearby shopping mall, could then be encouraged to make greater efforts to travel towards a popular landmark like Gardens by the Bay.
Lastly, deluxe soil which had a higher chance of yielding Diamond trees and the most rewards was located near isolated areas. The convenience of Grab rides and promise of more seeds, coupled with the incentive to travel further out, created a greater inclination for players to take Grab rides, driving the objective of this campaign.
Maintaining longevity and excitement of the campaign
After seeds were planted, they needed to be evolved in 4 different stages of evolution from sprout to seedling to sapling, and finally tree.
Growing a “Healthy Seedling” was not a guarantee to evolving a “Healthy Sapling” or later stages. While a “Healthy Seedling” had good chance of growing into a “Healthy Sapling”, it also had a small chance of growing into a “Frail Sapling” or an “Excellent Sapling”. This ensured longevity of the game, where only a minority of players could grow a Diamond tree and redeem tons of GrabRewards points.
At the “results” of every final evolution, the curated animation sequence served to build anticipation for the player. When players tapped to evolve their plants, instead of an immediate or standard reveal, players were treated to a gacha sequence that contained potential clues of the tree they were about to see — seeing diamonds emerging from the ground created excitement for the “Diamond Tree” they had evolved, making for a more immersive and captivating user experience.
Excellent Sprout to Excellent Seedling.mp4
Diamond Sapling to Diamond Tree.mp4
Creating a habit of returning to the game
With a mandatory waiting period, players were required to come back to the game multiple times in a day to evolve their seeds to the next stage of growth. Otherwise, plants would automatically wither without players checking in.
This drove increased player engagement, as players frequently returned to the site so as to not let their precious seeds and efforts go to waste. This was especially true for players who had managed to plant Excellent or Diamond saplings, prompted by loss aversion to check in on their potentially highly rewarding evolutions. Like popular farming games, this feature resulted in some players even setting reminders to check on their trees, as well as creating user-generated content about this shared experience amongst them.
What went well for Grab
All in all, #GrabRewardsville demonstrated how a simple farming game can successfully drive people to take Grab rides, while creating a fun and engaging experience with positive associations for the brand.
By incentivising players to take Grab rides, #GrabRewardsville contributed to a total of 370,000 Grab rides being taken. Additionally, 75% of the total seeds planted were redeemed through taking qualifying Grab rides, illustrating the effectiveness of the game mechanics at driving brand actions.
Lessons Learnt
- Basic farming game mechanics such as different evolution stages, wait times, and withering are effective at making players return to the game frequently
- Differentiated rewards can drive players to take higher-order actions such as travelling outdoors and spending on rides
- Gacha animation sequences build excitement around the potential reward received
<aside> ✍️ This can be a graphic included under the “Solutions” section
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Why play?
The majority of people are enticed by the prize of 100 million GrabRewards points, and offered an easy way to start playing with free seeds.
Why stay?
The game loop comprising of planting seeds, evolving trees, and earning points eases players into the habit of returning to the game frequently, and venturing out to plant. Moreover, missions help to guide players along the journey as well.
Why spend?
Once players are sufficiently familiar with the gameplay, taking Grab rides as a way to receive more seeds becomes an attractive option for them to gain even more rewards.
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