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/ Canadian Government Executive
// June 2016
Nestor
Arellano
Gamification:
Design
T
he Public Health Agency of Can-
ada has long been aware of the
threat inactivity and unhealthy
lifestyle choices present to the
well-being of Canadians. It is now scientif-
ically established that childhood obesity
left unchecked will lead to serious chronic
diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and car-
diovascular ailments. The policy problem
is that prevention programs, as well as
conventional methods of project funding,
have failed to effectively promote healthi-
er and active living across Canada.
Clearly, it was time rethink the custom-
ary ways of developing and funding pro-
grams. So in 2014, the PHAC took a different
tack. Moving away from the tried-and-true
methods, it launched “The Play Exchange”
(TPX), a national competition that applied
strategies such as crowdsourcing and social
media to identify new ideas and approach-
es for promoting physical activity, healthier
eating, and reducing smoking.
In doing so, the PHAC was hoping to tap
into a wellspring of ideas from Canadians
and to generate conversation across the
country about the benefits of a healthier
lifestyle. “We knew that investing in up-
stream prevention like being active and
eating well is what’s needed to stem the
wave of chronic diseases that will have a
profound impact in our healthcare system
and society in the years to come,” says Rod-
ney Ghali, director general of the Centre
for Chronic Disease Prevention at PHAC.
“Government has been slow in adopting
approaches like crowdsourcing and social
media to actively push policy objectives.”
TPX was designed to change all that.
PHAC describes it as a “paradigm shift” in
how it fundamentally conducts business.
PHAC morphed overnight into a major
commercial media broadcaster—a funda-
mentally different approach compared to
how government agencies normally car-
ried out an awareness campaign.
The idea was to create a nation-wide
“Government
has been slow
in adopting
approaches like
crowdsourcing and
social media to
actively push policy
objectives.”
Public Health Agency of Canada’s Winning Strategy
competition. Ghali stresses that the Play
Exchange was conceived from the very
beginning to be “as non-bureaucratic as
possible” because the PHAC wanted “real
innovation.” Project design and operation
was completely outside of traditional gov-
ernment processes.
TPX was launched on a live broadcast on
CBC/SRC during the 2014 Winter Olympics
broadcast, ensuring that it reach an audi-