Content marketing and gamification are both in the limelight. But do their similarities run further – could marketers harness the power of gamification as part of an innovative, effective content strategy? What is gamification? Gartner predicted that gamified strategies would become the mainstay for cultivating brand engagement and customer loyalty by 2016. Now estimated to be worth over $10 billion by 2020 (ten times its market value in 2015), gamification shows no signs of slowing down. Gamification is defined as ‘the application of typical elements of game playing (such as point scoring, competition, rules of play) to other areas of activity – typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.’ What’s really in it for marketers? By appealing to our inherently competitive and playful nature through things like leader boards, missions, points and badges, marketers can foster deeper, longer relationships with custo