Investigation of the Effectiveness of Gamification Elements in Social Media Advertising in Hong Kong

The effectiveness of applying game elements in video games has been thoroughly examined and proven in Western countries over the past decade. However, few studies have sought to analyse the effectiveness of game elements in social media advertising. This study seeks to investigate whether game elements can be effectively applied in social media advertising. It aims to (1) determine the most common gamification elements in social media advertising; (2) investigate which gamification elements motivate people to engage with social media advertising in terms of having a positive game experience; and (3) examine whether those gamification elements can be effectively integrated into social media advertising. The findings should help designers, advertisers and marketers make sense of their long-term digital advertising design strategies. Hong Kong netizens generally use Facebook more than other social media platforms. Samples of 1,200 social media advertisements were collected to investigate which gamification elements were most common on this platform. The results show no significance of the gamified advertisements that were expected to yield a higher score of game experience for participants. However, a significant correlation was found between the attractiveness of some gamification elements and social media advertising effectiveness. Further studies should investigate a combination of certain gamification elements in the design of advertisements.