How Mobio uses gamification to help artists and fans make beautiful music together

It started with placing a QR code in the background of a video of Australian pop singer Cody Simpson, and now Vancouver-based Mobio launched an updated platform that allows teens to connect directly with some of their favourite pop stars.

The fans can earn a closer connection and gain more personal details into their favourite pop star by completing tasks on the Mobio INsider website.

“Mobio’s flagship product, Mobio INsider, came to life as the byproduct of a very experimental culture. We started off with a hunch that teens had significant emotional engagement with their favourite music stars, and that they would climb over significant hurdles if needed, to interact with the celebrity.” says Mark Binns, who heads up the Mobio team.

“What we ended up learning was even more valuable than what we expected. We discovered an incredibly high, yet untapped, level of engagement between teens and music stars. More than 5% of teens were actually pausing the video to scan the QR code,” says Binns.

In a May 2013 poll on US teen internet usage, Mary Madden, senior researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project writes, “The nature of teens’ internet use has transformed [...] from stationary connections tied to shared desktops in the home to always-on connections that move with them throughout the day.” The study found that 93% of teens, compared to 85% of adults, are actively on the Internet daily. It’s also generally understood that teens lead the way in online trends.

Mobio used teen focus groups to develop the look and feel of their initial offerings and then developed the product in “weekly sprints,” says Binns. They also spent a time speaking to other key players – brands and artists – to flesh out desirable characteristics that would power their monetization efforts.

“It’s still an evolution where we are in a constant mode of data collection and improvement. We’re always on the lookout for new ways to further enhance the artist-fan experience,” mentions Binns.

One of those enhancements was a recently platform upgrade that resulted in 35%+ ad unit engagement – the industry standard for display ads is about 0.5%. Binns adds, “Seeing these levels of ad unit consumption helps to reinforce our confidence that Mobio is changing the AdTech game.”

“We have fans that are willing to go through over 20 locked rewards on our platform just to learn more about their favourite artist.” Binns adds, “Another interesting thing we’ve noticed is how proud and dedicated a fanbase is of their interactions with an artist. An integral component of our product is fan directed content – and when an artist responds to one of these requests and mentions a user, the fan response and pride is extraordinary.”

The ability to harness and convert desire for content into meaningful ad engagement is what defines Mobio’s offerings.

Another interesting point that Binns adds is how they’ve modified their offerings and rewards. The team realized that points weren’t needed, everything could be boiled down to a 1 for 1 model. So in the latest version of the product, all new content is free and all back content is gated by a single task. Binns has noticed that the simple formula garners the highest ratio of brand partner interactions with reward redemptions.

Moving beyond the teen demographic, the head of Mobio adds that they see a strong future for similar product deployments in industry sectors with similarly strong social media influencers.