Challenge:

Johnson and Johnson developed a workout program that people could do in a matter of minutes wherever they were. They were ready to enter one of the most crowded markets for mobile apps: Personal Health and Fitness. To compete, they would need to have an app that stood out from the pack and gave customers something engaging and useful.

What Immersyve Did:

Johnson and Johnson gave us a call to help with the design of what became one of the year’s most successful personal fitness apps: The 7 Minute Workout™. Immersyve and J&J collaborated on wireframes and experiential flows. Our partnership ensured optimization for motivation and engagement. The result was Johnson and Johnson’s “flagship” workout app, which was a breakout success when it hit the market.

Proof of Impact:

Hundreds of thousands of people downloaded the app in the first month alone. Apple chose it as one of their “Featured” Health related apps. Better still, Apple chose to feature it in a national television ad campaign touting the power of mobile apps for health. These results outperformed all expectations. Immersyve continues to work with Johnson and Johnson on design and development that maximizes motivation and sustains engagement.

If improving employee motivation, patient engagement, or corporate wellness matters to you, let’s talk.

Challenge:

When Warner Brothers wanted to build a breakout game based on the Lord of the Rings franchise, they had a challenge on their hands. The stark reality is that the vast majority of video games will fail. As a further challenge, in today’s market titles that are based on beloved narratives have strong expectations – and thus are at even greater risk.

So WB Games turned to Immersyve to help them understand the complex psychology of player engagement. The goal was to assist in creating an innovative design that excited players (and critics) in order to beat the odds and deliver Warner Brothers a breakthrough success.

What Immersyve Did:

Immersyve worked side by side with the full design team, coaching them in our “Player Experience of Need Satisfaction” (PENS) framework and working with them to ensure the game sustained engagement and excitement in players. We reviewed early plans and prototypes, helping the creative teams iterate designs to optimize motivation. Out of this collaboration, WB created the “Nemesis” system: A truly unique and engaging system that creates dynamic and highly compelling gameplay.

But that was just the start. By also providing Warner Brothers with clear metrics to gauge player engagement and motivation, Immersyve playtesting was able to show that the system excelled at satisfying the core motivational needs in our PENS model. Simply put, Immersyve provided not only a clear engagement framework, but also the data systems that objectively validated that the creative team’s ingenuity was right on target.

Impact:

The game was a hit. Market performance put it squarely in the winner’s circle. Critics immediately credited the systems WB and Immersyve worked so hard to refine as the reason. The game received some of the highest reviews of any console game released that year. It won over 40 industry awards, including “Game of the Year.” And most importantly, the game outperformed its financial projections.

As a result, an exciting and lucrative new franchise has been born for Warner Brothers. Immersyve continues to work with this team and others at WB on multiple projects, as it has for over eight years.

If this is the kind of story you’d like to see for your project, let’s talk.

Challenge:

Prudential – a Fortune 100 financial services company – wanted to solve a critical problem: Thousands of people retire daily, and the majority don’t have enough saved. To help people save more (and save sooner), Prudential created a program that assessed finances and recommended strategies to increase contributions to retirement savings plans. Current customers could even make changes to their savings plan right from their phones.

The tool was a success, but Prudential realized it could be better. It could reach more people, including younger workers who most often don’t think about retirement. Despite savings being important for us all, motivation and engagement for retirement is a particular challenge for those in their 20s and 30s.

So Prudential issued Immersyve a challenge: Assist in redesigning the tool using our motivational framework so that we double the success rate within one year. The net result would be thousands of people on a better track to retirement, and millions of dollars of extra funds under management.

Immersyve deployed its Motivational Design Framework ™ to guide the development team in the redesign. We worked alongside the creative team and software engineers throughout the development process to deepen intrinsic motivational and engagement on the part of the customers. The results were remarkable.

What Immersyve Did:

A preliminary research project employed Immersyve’s “Personal Experience of Need Satisfaction” (PENS) metrics to gauge the motivational profile of the tool. Immersyve was able to objectively identify where customers were feeling controlled versus supported, and focused on specific redesign features that were laser-focused on improving outcomes. As just one example, the original tool asked:

• When will you retire?
• How long will you be retired?

Think about that. In essence, at its core this is asking people to know the unknowable:

• When are you going to die?
• How much money will you need to survive until then?

As silly as this may seem, it is pretty standard in the industry. Immersyve’s framework then inverted the tool’s focus from extrinsic, controlling (even scary) tactics and instead emphasized intrinsic values, like personal growth, health, community affiliation, etc.  For example, a national ad campaign inspired by Immersyve’s work asked:

If you could get paid do to what you love, what would you do?

The company was able to tie financial goals to what mattered most to people – doing what they love. Those type of intrinsic goals are what Immersyve’s research has shown to be motivating and engaging. In other words, they were no longer asking customers how they were going to survive, instead they were offering users the opportunity to thrive.

Proof of Impact:

Findings showed that using Immersyve’s model was a home run. The new tool had customers “leaning forward,” excited about retirement, and ready to take action.

For this project, Immersyve consulted with key stakeholders and trained the design team in Immersyve’s model. We tested ideas through our metrics and framework to be sure we were on track. Analysis of those tests surfaced several actionable insights. Design implications ranged from language, to UI, to marketing.

But the real proof is in the results.  After rolling out the tool, the results met or exceeded the high bar set by senior management. For example:

• There was more than 100% increase in retirement savings contributions, doubling the success of the tool, and resulting in millions in extra savings.
• There was a sharp rise in participation among millennials
• As a result, Fortune magazine singled out the retirement business unit as having a banner year.

The results led to new ways of thinking about retirement for thousands of professionals within the company. We continue to partner in deep engagements on marketing, training and design.

If this is a story you’d like to see for your organization, let’s talk.