Game On: How Airship + The Game Boys Are Powering Hospitality Growth Through Play

If you work in hospitality, you’ve probably heard the phrase “engagement drives revenue.” But what if engagement could be more than a newsletter or a nudge? What if it could be a game, one that guests genuinely want to play?

Enter The Game Boys, the hospitality gamification specialists turning fun into footfall, bookings, spend, and seriously powerful data.

We’ve been working closely with their team to formalise an exciting partnership that brings together The Game Boys’ multi-platform interactive games and Airship’s industry-leading CRM automation. And the results? Well… they’re a bit extraordinary.

Who Are The Game Boys?

The Game Boys build interactive digital games designed to deliver superpowered data capture and real-world revenue. Their games slot seamlessly into hospitality brands’ marketing stacks — websites, socials, in-venue, email journeys, QR codes, you name it.

And because everything is built with CRM in mind, the engagement doesn’t stop when the game ends. For Airship customers, data and opt-ins pass directly into CRM, ready for instant automation, bounce back offers, and lifecycle journeys.

We even sat down with Alan from The Game Boys this week to dig into all things gamification — especially how it fuels January bouncebacks. If you missed that conversation, you can catch up here.

The impact is immediate:

• Massive spikes in Airship live dashboard activity after each email or game launch
• Footfall-driving reward journeys
• High-engagement campaigns that deliver brand affinity and ongoing visits
• Proven uplift in January responses and redemptions

If you’ve ever run a Christmas cracker campaign or a spin-the-wheel mechanic, you’ll know that nothing captures attention quite like the chance to win something right now.

Gamification That Actually Drives Revenue

This isn’t about “nice to have” brand engagement. The Game Boys specialise in mechanics that convert attention into action.

Airship Forms + The Game Boys = Instant Automation

Every potential win or prize outcome can be linked directly to:

• Automated emails
• Bounceback offers
• Reward journeys
• Personalised follow-ups

Think:

• Instant free round of mini-golf
• 20% off your next visit
• Free pigs in blankets at Christmas
• 25% off in January for every entrant

This makes gamification a revenue-driving machine, not an extra task for your marketing team. Campaigns essentially run themselves.

Case Studies: Real Campaigns, Real Results

📱 STACK – 10,000 new data records in 4 weeks

A prize-draw campaign that gathered 10k records in just under a month. Followed by a January bounceback that delivered exceptional re-engagement.

🍾 Victors – ‘Shake the Champagne’

Scan a QR code, shake your phone, win a reward.
Across 2,500+ plays, guests received discounts and were automatically entered for the chance to win their entire bill.

💥 Ninja Warrior – The Bespoke Personality Test

“What Ninja Are You?”
A six-round quiz powered by AI personality matching, rolled out across five parks over four months:

• 15,000 plays
• An average of 25 new records per venue per day
• Massively increased repeat-visit potential

This is the beauty of gamification done properly: engagement with purpose.

Read moreon their case studies here.

Driving Venue Launches, Footfall & Lead Gen

The Game Boys don’t just support existing customers, they help launch new venues too.

Ahead of the Flight Club Edinburgh opening, their team deployed a digital game into the streets to generate early data, interest, and booking intent. The result? A launch powered by a pre-warmed audience rather than starting from zero.

It also makes an impact at trade shows, capturing micro moments of engagement and turning them into actionable CRM data.

Scratch Cards, Spin-the-Wheel & More — Ready to Deploy

Game Boys have a full suite of plug-and-play games including, but not limited to:

• Spin the Wheel
• Personality Tests
• Cocktail-shakers
• Christmas Crackers
• And fully bespoke builds

Find out more about the options that are avaliale here.

Integration Touchpoints with Airship

We’ve mapped out exactly how data flows into Airship so operators can maximise the value:

Airship captures:

• Email address
• Consent flags
• Preferences
• Game engagement data
• Link clicks
• Bounceback redemptions

This allows operators to fuel:

• Automated reward journeys
• Triggered follow-ups
• Audience enrichment
• Segmentation for future campaigns

Exclusive Launch Offer for Airship Customers

To celebrate the partnership, The Game Boys are offering an exclusive deal to Airshippers:

Get a 4-month gamification campaign for the price of 3

This Is Just the Start

Gamification + CRM is a natural pairing.
Play → Data → Automation → Revenue.

Whether you want to drive data, boost booking intent, build your January bounceback strategy, or simply make your marketing more fun — The Game Boys slot straight into your existing Airship setup.

It’s game on.