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Purpose In Australia and many other nations the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing, while physical activity declines. This paper investigates the effect of gamification on consumers’ motivation and behaviour to engage in physical activity over time from a social marketing perspective. Design/methodology/approach An experimental design was used to determine the effect of a popular gamified fitness application (app) on both intrinsic motivation and walking behaviour over four weeks. Findings While the study found that gamification supported behaviour change and maintenance, there was no significant change to intrinsic motivation as a result of using the app. This finding suggests there may be an alternative mechanism underlying how gamification achieves behavioural outcomes. Research limitations/implications Future research is recommended to further explore the manner in which gamification influences behaviours. Originality/value This paper addresses the call for longitudinal studies of gamification and for studies examining both the motivational and behavioural outcomes of gamification.

This chapter presents the findings of the second phase of a study of New Zealand winery visitors (undertaken in 1999) that highlights some of the reasons for post-visit purchase (and non-purchase), as well as links to other wine behaviour and the visitor's intention to make a subsequent purchase at the time of their visit. Phase 1 of the study had 1090 respondents while the follow-up survey had 358 respondents. Results demonstrate that the cellar door does indeed play an important role in the ongoing purchase behaviour of winery visitors. In particular, the experiential elements of the winery visit are important reasons given for making a subsequent purchase.

Summary Chronic health conditions have necessitated the need for behavioral interventions (such as exercise programs) outside of clinical contexts, increasingly managed through technology such as mobile health (mHealth) services. Gamification has emerged as a promising tool to facilitate greater engagement in these services; however, no studies investigate the links between specific game design elements (GDEs) and psychological or behavioral outcomes within a health context. This domain is motivationally complex and has shown resistance to the satisfaction of social (relatedness) needs, presenting a challenge to the design of gamification products for health promotion. Drawing on self-determination theory, this research demonstrates the strengths of a taxonomy based upon structural features of GDEs (such as social, narrative or reward elements) rather than the design intent definitions of these elements used in previous studies. This taxonomy is then used to assess the relationship between GDEs and psychological needs satisfaction in a survey (N = 236) of gamified exercise/fitness application users. Further qualitative interviews (N = 20) were conducted to clarify survey findings. This research demonstrates the positive association between control and presentation elements and autonomy satisfaction, and control and reward elements and competency satisfaction. However, it also suggests that player type and context may limit the ability for GDEs alone to support relatedness satisfaction in mHealth services. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed, particularly the strengths and weaknesses of using structural taxonomies in gamification assessment.

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