Investorville

Background

While every home-owning Australian is a property investor, most of them don’t see it that way. Many have paid down their mortgage and could use this capital to invest in property (property in Australia remains one of the safest long-term investments). But it’s a big leap. It is a complex market and there are many fears relating to managing an investment property. Therefore, for many, investing in property was struck off as too hard even before it was considered. Commonwealth Bank knew they were going to have to let people experience investing for themselves in a way that gave them the confidence to give it a go in the real world.

Idea

The approach was nothing if not ambitious. To show people what it’s actually like to be an investor, what was created was a world first: a property investment simulator, based on real market data, which Australians could use to move from ‘homeowner’ to ‘property investor’.

The ‘game’ was developed by working with RP Data to get a fix on the Australian housing market, with economists to create sophisticated financial models and with investors to understand the nuances of decision-making,

Learning, fun, and comprehension were central to design. Conscious also of the future life of the idea, the application was built sitting on .net web api services. So one-day it can be adapted for the iPad.

Results

After just six weeks, Investorville had received 56,600 visitors and 13,660 people have registered and played (that’s 120% of weekly target). What’s more, over 2,400 people have clicked from Investorville to the home loans page, (200% of the original target). And 37% of registrations have returned to Investorville more than once.

4% of players have shared on Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. And site traffic grew with registrations increasing by an average of 15% week on week, without advertising support.

Finally, 34 home loan applications resulted directly from Investorville in those six short weeks. That’s a 0.2% conversion, a massive 622% of the 0.04% target. Proof that playing a gameplay can really change people’s behaviour.

Our Thoughts

At first I wasn’t overly impressed with this idea. Then I played the game. It’s a smooth blend between gamification and serious investor education. And while my investments didn’t yield a great result and send me running to the bank to sign up, I can see how many consumers would be lured in by the Monopoly-esque dream of making squillions while sitting on their asses. And the data engine behind Investorville is a testament to the direct marketing geek in all of us.