Roma Singhal.
In a world of repetitive AI prompts, white papers on strategy and a new independent agency announced every day, the way to up-skill the industry could be through a strategy game.
Strategy studio Brandself has launched Brand Game, a gamified learning platform designed specifically for brand strategists.
Brandself founder Roma Singhal told AdNews that marketing is having a training problem, where a lot of strategists foundations are not up to standard.
"We’re in an era where a lot of tasks are outsourced to AI,” Singhal said.
“Some strategists foundations are not as strong because AI is doing most of their thinking.
“Strategy is a skill, and that skill must be practiced.
“Brand Game makes practicing fun, but it also makes it effective, simply because gamified learning is proven to be more effective than traditional ways of learning.
“This is not just for strategists in advertising. This is for founders and creative professionals who want to sharpen their brand strategy skills.”
Brand Game consists of many different tasks and activities to practice strategy, testing your IQ on brand positioning, briefs, design thinking and strategy canvas.
The Strategy Accelerator Program was also created for teams of up to 10 people.
All the games provide a score, feedback and experience points.
Gamified learning produced 14% higher success rates, 70-79% higher excellence rates, 17% higher average grades, 30% better knowledge retention and 22% increases in productivity outcomes, according to Singhal.
Organisations that introduce gamified training report 20-25% improvements in knowledge retention, while SAP’s gamified learning initiative increased training completion rates by 70%.
“It’s been made simple on purpose,” Singhal said.
“This is a new category in the market, so we don't want to make it too complex.”
After completing a module, players can download a certificate and book one on one sessions with Singhal.
“We have individual users on Brand Game at the moment, but we're focusing on building all the support systems before we aggressively go out into the market,” she said.
As the requirements for an agency strategist change yearly, Brand Game adapts its content based on what the user submits.
“Brand Game is foundational; it builds strategy for people who are on the platform, and the relevance depends on what their business is," Singhal said.
"Whatever you throw at it, it will give you the output that you need to practice before you get into the market.”
Singhal said that AI is a great tool to support individual creativity, but needs to be accompanied by the human brain to craft good quality work.
“Everyone's going to get similar content from AI, because the starting questions are the same, but what will differentiate is your life experiences, human insights that you've honed as an individual,” she said.
“It is also impacted by the brands and clients you’ve worked with.
“We have to accept that AI is a part of this industry now, but we can complement our ambitions rather than replace it.”
There are 650 independent agencies classified in Trinity P3’s agency register.
With continued consolidations and a changing industry landscape, Singhal sees individuals becoming the brand themselves.
“With new business, it’s about asking how AI helps you achieve that personal idea or vision, and what the value is that you bring into the market,” she said.
“5-10 years down the line, it could be as ambitious as one person organisations with their ideas and the support of AI.
“Teams are getting smaller and smaller, and now have marketing super agents, who are probably being trained to take the load off the marketing team.
“And maybe one day that model is one human, one AI."
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