Here's a video of a terrific experiment in fun and motivation in Sweden:
At the end of the stairway video you see a link to The Fun Theory, which resolves to a Swedish site and is revealed to be -- ta da -- "an initiative of Volkswagen." There's another video there showing the world's deepest trash bin that is similarly clever and effective. And VW logos seem to appear nowhere except the website, so thank you for that, meine Herren.
This is a great little experiment in using different sorts of motivators beyond rewards and punishment. I know my former employer IDEO has done work with the Department of Energy on getting people to conserve energy using new forms of encouragement. Another project they did for the dashboard of Ford's hybrid vehicles builds on the stories of Prius owners gaming their driving habits to get better mileage.
Which reminds me of the ways that we might game our own behavior in the battle between our two selves -- for instance, the one that knows it would be better to eat only healthy foods and the one that figures a bacon BBQ burger and another pint of Guinness won't be so bad.
This all maps nicely to the lessons in Dan Pink's TED Talk on motivation:
Pink's talk focuses mostly on motivation in the workplace, which of course has a long history of using carrots and sticks, but the lessons for motivating people's behavior intrinsically are much broader. I look forward to his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, which may cover the topic more broadly.