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Edmunds.com, which supplies consumers with information on new and used cars, provides an example. IT workers at the firm originally began using Splunk to better understand patterns of visits to the website—for example, to determine whether a sudden spike in traffic was a cyberattack or the result of an article that went viral—and to help track system logs. Today Edmunds uses Splunk for much more. "We now provide data dashboards to business groups in the company to show them up-to-date information that helps them make decisions," says John Martin, senior director of application operations at Edmunds. "The information that business groups need is in our IT logs, but it wasn't being looked for." One such dashboard allows the editorial and marketing staff to track in real time which auto brands and models are attracting the most views. This allows the business to experiment with ways to be more responsive to what users are doing hour by hour. For example, ads could be shuffled to match what people are most interested in at any moment.

The game, called Shoubu-Foku, simulated league soccer. Users accumulated goals, which initially produced virtual prizes — like a bag or blazer for the in-game player, but those who gathered large numbers were given an exclusive chance to buy the official Japanese team tie. “That tie outsold every other style we have ever sold online,” said Jason Beckley, Dunhill’s marketing director.

What they understood is that top-tier luxury consumers are not after free stuff,” Mr. Zichermann said. “They want exclusive status and privileged access to the brand.”