Dive Brief:

• “The Bachelor” is getting a gamification treatment in the form of a fantasy league according to Variety.
• The ABC reality TV show is being assisted by ESPN, another Disney-owned media property, to create the fantasy league.
• The contest has a number of elements such as predicting the fop four women who reach the hometown dates portion of the show, and there will be weekly contests where players predict different events for each episode. Players earn points for correct predictions with each point giving them an entry into a grand prize drawing for a trip to Los Angeles, two tickets to Disneyland and two tickets to the  after-show for the season filming in the summer of 2017.

Dive Insight:

The campaign is an interesting use of gamification, taking a cue from the popularity of fantasy sports and offering fans of the show a way to become more engaged with each episode. Players can find the game on ABC’s website as well as ESPN’s Fantasy app. 

The Bachelor fantasy league is a great example of how consumers are often driving digital trends, forcing marketers to try to keep up. Fans had created their own version of fantasy leagues around the show, per Variety, so it was a logical step for ABC to take control of the process and tap into that already existing audience of highly engaged fans. if ABC hadn't taken a consumer-first approach, it might have missed an opportunity to engage with consumers, as fantasy leagues have mostly been relegated to sports-related brands to date. 

Incorporating elements of digital gaming into brand marketing has been popular for several years, reflecting the popularity of games with a wide range of consumers. The trend got a big boost earlier this year when Pokemon Go became a phenomenon.