Custom Game Show: A Fistful of Dollars

Company: Toyota (Financial Division)

Event: Sales Team Reward Breakfast

Custom Audience-Response Game: A Fistful of Dollars – Three different game plays

Graphics, Programming, Scripting and Game-play: Designed by LearningWare

Situation: Toyota wanted a way to engage and entertain their top sales reps while at the same time testing their company knowledge and giving them the opportunity to earn some big rewards with that knowledge.  This was a great teambuilding event in the morning; it gave the audience a chance to compete on teams and individually and allowed them important, low-stress face-time with top executives.

Toyota had already used a game show the previous two years—both times utilizing either LearningWare software (Gameshow Pro) or custom software programmed for their event by LearningWare. They wanted something to fit their Clint Eastwood “Western” theme and that would add variety from previous years’ play.

Solution: A custom Fistful of Dollars game show with three completely unique varieties of game play. The audience still played along using audience-response keypads, but there were a few variations:

Target Practice: In this game play variation, we asked extremely difficult multiple choice questions. The audience members, consequently, had three opportunities to get a question right.

The question was be asked the first time, and the audience saw what percentage of their team responded correctly. They did not know whether they—individually—answered correctly. They then got a chance to answer again—and they could either change their answer or stick with it. Again, the percentage of correct answers was be shown. They got one final chance to answer the question, and only their third response counted as correct or incorrect.

Do You Feel Lucky Punk?: (Wager Round) In this game variation, we utilized a team leader—someone with guts, daring, and willingness to take the glory or the fall.

Everyone on the team was shown a question. Before the audience votes, the team leader decided whether he/she thinks that 75% of the team will know the answer or not. If he/she is confident, then they’ll bet high. If not, they’ll bet low.

No guts, no glory. The team leader wrote down or verbally submitted their wager. The question then played out as a typical audience-response question.

Six-Shooter: (Speed Round/Final Round) Teams were asked a group of 6 questions—rapid-fire-style. They were NOT  shown the team results of their answers until after the questions are done, at which point the team scores rose (and failed to rise as much as they should) dramatically, determining the final winner.

Results: The game show was entertaining, challenging, tough, competitive and held a level of novelty—being different than the year before. The audience was engaged with each other and management for the entire morning.

Custom! Custom! Custom!

Wow! Whoever coined the term "lazy summer" sure wasn't talking about us over here at LearningWare.

You may have noticed that our blog and Facebook page has been updated a little sporadically over August so far, and there's a reason for that: We've been on the road--creating and producing custom audience-response game shows!

If you're following this blog, you're (probably) already familiar with our Gameshow Pro classroom game show solution, as well as our webinar solution (AllPlay Web), assessment solution (AllPlay) and our online solution (QuizPoint). What makes the custom game shows different from our off-the-shelf software listed is that they're completely redesigned from the ground-up with custom graphics, programming, game play, etc.

Here are just a few of our summer highlights:

"The Fairway 2 Heaven"
Toyota
[Image seen above]

We traveled to Pebble Beach, CA to produce the "Fairway 2 Heaven"--a themed game show event that took place during their Circle of Excellence. The game had custom golf-themed graphics (appropriate for Pebble Beach) and included audience response pads. However, the audience didn't just play along on teams. At different points, we "highlighted" audience member keypads for high-stakes play. The game was also programmed so that audience members could "wager" on whether they thought their colleagues would answer a question correctly--or not.

"The PulteGroup Smackdown!"
PulteGroup

To reinforce information over a 3-day event, we programmed "The PulteGroup Smackdown". Audience members were divided into six teams that stayed together throughout the three days, and competed in progressively building challenges. The Smackdown highlighted and reviewed key content; from one day to the next it became the "Planning Smackdown" or the "Coaching Smackdown" or the "Sales Process Smackdown"

The picture shown was taken by an audience member--illustrating their keypad (coded by team color) and the opening game screen in the background.

"The Deep Dive"
EBMS
[Not shown]

A mixture of polling and competition, all in the same game! The "Deep Dive" for EBMS featured graphics that matched their oceanic deep-dive theme, and focused on gathering information and reinforcing knowledge. Since the audience was made up of clients, EBMS wanted to more deeply investigate the needs and behaviors of the audience as well as engage them and energize them with a game show. With custom programming, we were able to securely assign keypads and track data, seamlessly ask polling questions, and also switch to team competition that brought down the house.

Game Shows at the Trade Show: Drawing a Crowd

Most of our clients and customers use game shows in their training programs. They're ideal for this; increasing content retention and enabling trainers to review, preview and present information in an incredibly engaging format.

However, as we've collected many, many stories and anecdotes from customers, we've discovered some alternate uses outside of the training department. As it turns out, some sales departments use game shows to promote their products to interested parties. Also, marketing teams are deploying game shows on the floor of trade shows.

Having used game shows at trade shows before (the screen cap in this post is from a custom game we designed for Mystic Tan), we can attest to the power of the medium. Game shows:

Attract a crowd: Whether a few people out of a crowd are playing along or everyone in your booth audience is playing along using keypads, game shows naturally attract an audience. Not only do people want to see whether others succeed or not, but they want to test their own knowledge (to see if they're "smarter than the player"--so to speak).

Engage people with your content: Game shows are a great way to uncover "ah-ha!" moments with your product or company by showcasing unique features/benefits in the form of a question. You can use specific content, (i.e. Which of the following is a new product feature, etc.) or general content to drive interest around a topic (i.e. As you see in the screen capture above--the question is tangentially related to tanning, but doesn't cover Mystic Tan's specific product line), or a mixture of both.

Can direct conversations: Game shows can direct meaningful trade show conversations in several ways:

• Booth personnel can listen to a game show round and then follow up with more information while attendees' attention is piqued (i.e. Yes, the new product has this feature...and did you know it allows you to do x, y and z as well?).
• Using audience response pads, you can measure what parts of the audience have knowledge gaps and incorporate survey questions to gauge the level of interest in particular topics or products.

Get people to spend more time at a booth: Game shows not only draw a crowd, but we've seen people who won't stop for a free tchotchke or engage with booth personnel spend large chunks of time at a booth when a game show is involved. And that's more opportunity to get qualified leads!

Training Design with the Game Show in Mind: P&G Case Study

LearningWare's 16-plus years of experience being directly involved with training design and the training industry has enabled us to provide solutions above and beyond simple game show software.

Proctor&Gamble (P&G) came to us with interest in Gameshow Pro, initially. They held a week-long training course for interns transitioning to full time positions in the marketing department (called ABM College), and were looking to review and reinforce (dry) content in a way that would appeal to a younger generation.

They knew they had to engage the troops with interaction, and that game shows were the right direction to go. However, they needed guidance to incorporate games into the 5-day training program. We consulted with the head trainers at P&G to develop a program that fully engaged their trainees throughout the ABM College.

We:

• Designed a team competition that utilized Gameshow Pro and other activities to keep everyone engaged—with a stake in learning the information.
• Streamlined the content and organized it into learner-friendly chunks.
• Worked with presenters on making each individual portion interactive and engaging.
• Developed a comprehensive production guide.
• Consulted on all aspects of the training including presentation graphics, signage, course materials, and pre- and post- communication.
• Were on site at the first rollout to make sure that all the activities went off smoothly and the team competition was organized.

Gameshow Pro was utilized heavily throughout; we had "Branding Feud", a Categories-style "FMOT/SMOT Challenge" and many other game rounds either before or after a presentation to preview and review content.

Result: P&G elicits feedback after every ABM College. The change in format and interaction brought on a dramatic increase in the feedback scores for the event. Participants loved the games and team activities, and felt they got a lot out of their week.

Game Show Makeovers

A lot of people resolve to make changes in the new year; to try a new hobby, to get more active, to put more effort into their appearance, etc. It's a time for renewal and reevaluation, reflecting on what works and what doesn't and then adjusting accordingly for the future.

Game shows shouldn't escape the resolution revolution--here are ways that you can refresh your existing game shows:

New Game Skins: Sometimes we all need a bit of a makeover. You can put a fresh "skin" on your game board, revamping the look. This can either be an arbitrary design (maybe you'd like a game show with a more retro or more modern feel, for instance) or you can use your game show to further your company's brand--incorporating your logo and company colors into the game board. (To see more about customizing game boards, go here.)


Try a Different Game Show: Most trainers I speak with use the Categories or Jeopardy-style game in their training most often. This is excellent if they have a lot of information that they want to review quickly with a straightforward question-and-answer format. However, different game show formats suit different purposes. Try Tic-Tac-Toe for brainstorming, Classroom Feud for processes and procedures, or Final answer to utilize different resources (i.e. subject matter experts can be "lifelines").

Transform Your Game Show: You don't have to play a game show the existing way or in the existing format. For instance, we've found that using the Tic-Tac-Toe board as a Hollywood Squares-style game show is incredibly effective for teaching information. Because the "expert" is on the spot--and trainees only have to agree or disagree with *their* answer, it gives attendees with little idea of the content a good introduction and base of knowledge.

Add Variety in Existing Game Play: Game shows are ultimately a flexible tool. Change the rules to suit how you want to play. For instance, one of the best examples of modified game play we've seen deals with the training materials themselves. Contestants in the game show were allowed to look up answers in their training manuals and resource books, because in that case knowing *where* to find the answers when they needed them was as important as knowing them right off the top of their head. Playing the game show this way allowed for participants to develop a deep familiarity with the materials that they carried back on the job.

These aren't the only examples, of course, of how to give your game show a makeover--both visually and through the rules and game play. Game show templates offer enough flexibility for you to play them exactly how you NEED to play them to achieve your training goals.

Custom Game Boards: FireApps

Gameshow Pro already comes with 4 or 5 eye-popping game board skins, but every now and then we get a request for a customized design. We are more than happy to customize a customer's Gameshow Pro software to reflect a theme, their company design, a special event, or even their personal style.

The following screen snaps are examples of a custom skin that we made for FireApps including the game board, team display screen and question display screen:

You can find out more about game skin customization under LearningWare Creative Services, or by contacting info@learningware.com.

Custom Game Shows: The Seagate Case Study

LearningWare is pleased to be not just the provider of game show software, but also of solutions. LearningWare can create interactive solutions (with game shows or not) for your training session, curriculum or event through our LearningWare Services division (in partnership with its sister company, Live Spark). What follows is one example of LearningWare creating a custom game show to suit the needs of the trainer.
Summary: Seagate needed a way to engage their audience in traditionally dry breakout sessions. Live Spark created three different custom audience-response game shows that were played in each of the three breakout sessions throughout the session. The games were not only well received, but the audiences’ attention and retention of the material soared; as did the energy of both the presenters AND the attendees.

Overview: Seagate was getting all their local and international sales reps together for a large annual event. Part of this event included 90-minute workshops training on everything from product roadmaps, to new product introductions and sales strategies. Audience members cycled through the four major workshops in regional groups; from the Americas, to Europe, to Asia to Canada.

Issues: The extended workshop sessions were trying on the attention span of the attendees. A large amount of very important information needed to be presented, so presenters were scheduled back-to-back, giving attendees very little time to process and absorb the information. This was not conducive to learning.

Pile on top of that the fact that a lot of the material was very technical and could be dry. It was a recipe for attendees to check out of the breakout and check their Blackberries instead.

Solution: Live Spark designed three unique audience-response game shows that took place throughout three of the breakout sessions. They were a baseball-themed game, a quick-quiz game, and a “Get Smart” game.

Each audience member had a keypad waiting for them when they walked in the door. Depending on the game type, audience members were either playing individually (with the score of the highest keypads winning the game) or on teams. The games were introduced first thing, and a sample question was played.

After every presenter, a game show session took place. The content for the game show was based on the presentation the attendees had just heard—with the exception of the final round at the end of the workshop; which was a compendium of questions.

Why it worked: When the first question of the first round was played, and the audience found out how they scored in a dramatic, building fashion, the room erupted into cheers—led by the team with the highest score on that question. The energy, instead of draining with each progressive speaker, was refreshed and renewed in between every presentation. Not only that, but speakers highlighted the content that was going to be in the game show later—bringing out key points that were reinforced through the highly emotional game show experience.

Everyone in the audience was engaged. They were engaged during the game show--each playing along with their own keypad—but, perhaps more importantly, they were engaged DURING the speaker presentations. No one, after all, wanted to miss a question in the game show because they failed to hear a fact or key point during the presentation.

Because game shows are a somewhat-universal medium, there was no difficulty getting even international groups to play along.

Reactions: Seagate--the speakers, audience members, and organizers—were extremely happy with the game show.

”I didn’t believe you when you said they’d start cheering with the first score,” an event organizer remarked, “But this is simply amazing. Everyone is engaged.”

Audience members, knowing the next workshop was going to contain a game of some sort, were a-buzz in the hallways, talking with their peers about which session they had just come from; what game they played, who won, and which questions stumped them.

It was the most widely successful breakout session event that Seagate had ever had, and we’re happy to report that there was a distinct lack of Blackberry-checking.