Gamified Marketing
The Forklift Faceoff Game

Make it fun, informative and effective. That was the “ask” from Plug Power, one of the world’s leading suppliers of advanced hydrogen fuel cell energy solutions. A major global trade show was coming up and the marketing folks at Plug wanted to promote their unique productivity and value proposition in a new and entertaining way: by playing a game. Sounds like fun!

Our Experience Design Team was thrilled to take on the challenge.

We started by working with the customer to shape key messaging and an overall strategy for the game. Then it was on to design and development where we built flow diagrams of the game’s architecture and wireframes of individual screen layouts.

Then, through a highly-collaborative process of review and refine, the game came to life over a six-week production cycle, getting better and more functional with each iterative step. And as a result of usability testing, navigating the game and operating its functions were greatly simplified so skill level and lack of video game experience didn’t affect the outcome.

The result was “Forklift Faceoff”, a virtual interactive competition that puts show attendees in the driver’s seat of a lift truck, racing against the clock as they move pallets of goods throughout a warehouse. Each “operator”, equipped with a video game controller, has two minutes to see how much product they can deliver, first using a hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklift and then with a traditional battery-powered vehicle.

Throughout their trips, pop-ups appear to reinforce the core message: Fuel Cell Forklifts Move More Pallets. A few examples:

• “Fuel cell at 30%. Full performance.”
• “Battery at 30%. Speed reduced.”
• “1 minute to refuel.”
• “Battery swap takes 20 minutes.”

At the end of their “shift”, drivers get a report on their superior performance using fuel cells in terms of time, productivity and cost savings.

Forklift Faceoff was a huge hit at the show, attracting lots of activity to the Plug Power booth and generating a distinct buzz about the many merits of fuel cell technology. That should go a long way toward lead generation and new business down the road. And that’s just the beginning. FF is being repurposed to help promote the company’s products at trade shows and other events throughout the upcoming year.

Game on.

Game Screens