Global media company PHD has released a new book called Game Change, which explores how gamification can be used practically as a business model for the future.

Co-authored by the agency’s worldwide planning and strategy director, Mark Holden, and game designer Jane McGonigal, the book aims to educate marketers and others in the industry about the ways to engage staff using gaming mechanics, Fred Forster, CEO, PHD Canada, tells MiC.

Last year, PHD Canada replaced its previous global planning system with Source, an enterprise gaming system that includes 1,750 staff from the company playing and collaborating across more than 70 countries. Forster says Canada finished 2013 in third globally on the system, with Tammy Gardner, group account director, Touché! (formerly of PHD) taking the top spot overall for staff.

“It was important to have a global planning system people could use, were comfortable with and we wanted to have platforms where you could engage the entire organization and get input from the entire network,” says Forster. “The answer was gamification to encourage connectivity across the network. We wanted to make it fun for people to contribute to campaigns from other people around the world and get rewarded for being active around the network. It is not uncommon on Source for someone from Canada to get feedback from someone in Singapore. It has been a cool exercise to see this evolve and flourish. ”