The competition for consumer attention is only intensifying, leaving marketers with some critical questions. How do you infuse fun into your promotion? How do you differentiate your campaign? How do you deliver against core objectives? The key to winning this marketing contest might just be... a contest.

At some point in your career, your brain probably experienced death by PowerPoint. I'm sure you know what I mean, but here is the official definition: a state of boredom and fatigue induced by information overload. It's a tragedy that strikes workforces every day, and this is its most common cause: an hour-plus monologue or presentation, often delivered by a poor speaker with little excitement and no opportunities for interactivity. Luckily, gamification has been eating away at the dullness of PowerPoint presentations.

If you're paying attention to digital marketing, by now you've heard that gamification can improve engagement in marketing, training, social causes and even personal health. An entire industry of designers and developers is emerging focused on creating gamified solutions for companies. When I talk about "gamification," I'm basically talking about applying game principles to non-gaming experience. In other words, taking the things that make Angry Birds, FarmVille and Minecraft so engaging -- earning points, leveling up, discovering, unlocking features, getting rewards -- and using them to focus people's time and attention on real-world issues.

With the global game industry expected to grow from $52 billion in 2011 to $70 billion in 2017, according to DFC Intelligence, and social and mobile games making up a larger and larger portion of that business, there are more opportunities than ever to develop games that not only entertain, but tap into this extraordinary cross-platform revenue potential.

Whether or not you "like" marketing your business on Facebook, your users want to do much more than "like" your business in return. They want to be engaged. Though marketing on the world's largest social network is no game, infusing your campaign with gamified elements is one of the best ways to get ahead. Installing gamification at the center of your strategy drives usage and bridges the gap between clicks and meaningful activity, building both community and a healthy content stream.

Whether from aliens, traitors, mutants or disease, it can be argued the classic video game narrative requires its player to do one thing above all else: Save the world. Today's developers are evolving that classic narrative with renewed purpose, building games that no longer simply pretend to save the world, but actually go about doing it.

Every day, social games are enabling players to express themselves in subtle but powerful ways. By sharing the achievements we earn and challenging our friends to beat our scores, we are broadcasting elements of our personalities and hoping our friends take notice. Brands are taking notice, too, and are starting to deliver the types of experiences in social games that players will relate to and want to share. We all love to feel special -- and  we love when others feel we’re special. Being smart, funny, and attractive isn’t much fun when nobody notices, but society frowns upon brazen status …

Timeless as they may be, classic toys aren't immune to today's digital trends. A new age of "Toymaking 2.0" ensures the concept of "play" will never be the same.

Today's business leaders grew up with games in their living rooms. As teens, they enjoyed the first portable gaming devices, playing anywhere and everywhere. As adults, however, these Generation Xers have taken things a step further, importing their gaming affections from free time to work time by using games as a tool to improve business operations. In short: Work is now accepted as play, and vice versa.

What will exceed $1 billion in 2015? If you said mobile advertising revenue, you would be right. And of this cool $1 billion earned, mobile games will account for 17.4%, or $269 million. To put the number into perspective, that's about how much the 2011 award-winning "Batman: Arkham Asylum" earned at launch -- at $60 a pop. But unlike traditional video games, mobile games appeal to both men and women, young and old. Therefore, they pique interest from brands that normally wouldn't advertise in-game, let alone near them.