Banking and gamification in a digital world

It seems to me that the banking sector is missing a trick in the digital space. One which would allow it to look more responsible for its younger customers whilst riding the wave of social media and gamification to engage them in spending and saving.

Using social apps like Foursquare, users can check in to locations and gain points - becoming the mayor of places they frequent and unlocking badges. This economy is universally understood.

The economy? Not so much.

So it makes sense to do what banks do best and capitalise on this wave of enthusiasm and understanding. Especially as banks already reward you with interest for saving money.

Help younger users understand the budgeting process by allowing them to manage their account through Facebook and mobile apps - most banks now have the former anyway.

Let us unlock badges for saving. Let us build up interest and accrue points. Let users model their future financial decisions and see possible outcomes before they make them - how much money will I have at the end of January if I save £100 a month but can’t afford to in July?

Make banking fun, educational and useful to people. It might just work.

Digital things for local media

Local newspapers probably aren’t going to do very well in the coming years if they keep thinking of themselves as local newspapers and not local media.

And that should be a little bit liberating, because what you can do digitally is far less limited than what you can in print - but this isn’t a web vs print idea.

In fact, as local media start to think of themselves as such, the services they can provide to locals are fare more varied.

When I leave London for home up north, I know I can’t use public transport. I don’t know which buses go where - apart from maybe two routes.

I can look on Google, but that’s huge. It covers the whole earth, how can they stay on top of the changes? How can I trust they’ve got the most up-to-date information on data on my little northern town?

Enter local media. If I know there’s an organisation that can help me navigate a local area - whether that be its news, its traffic, the routes its public transport takes, good places to eat, dentists to avoid, etc - trust in the information it provides will come more easily than it does in an app that crowdsources information and opinion from Twitter or Wikipedia.

Local newspapers, or other local news outlets, should offer the full package. Team up, merge, collaborate and tell me how to get in to town from where I’m currently standing.

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