Using Gamification to Drive Lung Cancer Awareness: Daiichi Sankyo’s Digital Claw Machine
In November 2024, to coincide with lung cancer awareness month, ZUNO partnered with one of the global leaders in pharmaceuticals, Daiichi Sankyo, to launch the Digital Claw Machine - a fun, competitive, and Daiichi Sankyo-branded trivia game which educates its users on lung cancer and the company’s efforts in the research and development of treatments.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, and accounts for about one-fifth of all cancer deaths globally. Daiichi Sankyo is on a mission to change that.
Ahead of lung cancer awareness month, Daiichi Sankyo came to us with a clear goal. They wanted an internal, gamified learning experience for their employees which would complement an ongoing external campaign on lung cancer awareness and its treatments.
When we designed the Digital Claw Machine, we had the global employee base of Daiichi Sankyo in mind. The game not only had to be fun and accessible, it had to embrace the international nature of the company and reflect its branding and ethos.
Daiichi Sankyo had already worked hard to establish a strong visual identity to its external campaign, and by customising the game to incorporate the company’s theme and ideas, it allowed us to fully integrate and reflect their branding. This also allowed employees from across the world to feel an immediate sense of familiarity when they opened the app. The results were immediate. In three weeks, the home screen of the Digital Claw Machine was opened over 120 times by new and returning employees.
At ZUNO, our mission is to make learning fun and accessible. That is why we made the Digital Claw Machine available on both mobile and web and designed it from the ground up to make learning effortless and engaging—whether users were taking a short break or on the go. Its intuitive, bite-sized format turned everyday downtime into a chance to better understand lung cancer, one of the world’s most widespread diseases.
By combining accessibility, interactivity and competition (more on that below!), the game made it easy for players to absorb key information while contributing to a broader company-wide effort to raise awareness. The result? A learning experience that was not only convenient, but genuinely impactful.
From the outset, Daiichi Sankyo had competition in mind. They wanted a leaderboard system that would anonymise players, so as to protect their data and privacy, while showcasing those who had done well in the game and incentivising engagement and competition between employees across the globe.
To achieve this, we created an anonymous user profile system which allowed users to select their base country, without requiring their personal employee information. In real time, players could see how well they were scoring against other Daiichi Sankyo employees anywhere in the world. The competitive element of Digital Claw Machine, which was core to the game, drove employee engagement and kept players coming back.
We were proud to create a friendly and competitive atmosphere in the Digital Claw Machine, allowing employees from 9 different countries to play, compete and learn!
The results were even better than we expected. In less than one month, 41 different users from 9 different countries played the game. We were proud to gamify information on such an important topic like lung cancer awareness; presenting a fun, addictive, and competitive game to the employees of Daiichi Sankyo, all while keeping it in line with the company’s branding and mission.
