Objective: In recent decades, gamification has emerged as an innovative approach in interactive marketing, employing game elements in non-game environments to enhance consumer engagement and participation. Rooted in motivational theories and behavioral psychology, this approach facilitates the formation of sustainable emotional bonds with brands by creating enjoyable and immersive experiences. Despite its considerable potential, contemporary literature emphasizes the ethical challenges of this approach, as improper design lacking an ethical framework can lead to psychological manipulation of consumers, neglect of privacy, pressure on vulnerable groups, and erosion of public trust. Given the theoretical and empirical gap in developing a comprehensive and ethics oriented framework, this study aims to qualitatively explore the themes of gamification in interactive marketing with an ethical approach, seeking to answer the question of what these themes are and how they can be organized within an integrated conceptual system to enhance interaction effectiveness while ensuring ethical satisfaction and psychological well being for users.

Methodology: Given the exploratory interpretive nature of the research and the need for deep understanding of a complex and meaning oriented phenomenon, a qualitative approach was adopted. The research is grounded in the philosophy of pragmatism, which emphasizes the connection between theory and practice and responsiveness to real world issues in the digital domain. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 28 experts, faculty members, and specialists in business management and digital marketing who had practical experience in implementing gamification. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling, with inclusion criteria including relevant academic qualifications, a minimum of ten years of professional experience, and familiarity with gamification concepts and ethics in marketing. Data analysis was conducted using Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis method with MAXQDA 2020 software. Inter-coder reliability was confirmed through Cohen's Kappa coefficient (0.78), indicating good agreement between coders. To ensure the trustworthiness of findings, the four criteria of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability were employed.

Findings: Through the qualitative data analysis process, five main themes and 33 sub-themes were identified and organized within a five-layered conceptual framework. The first layer, "Ethical Foundations of Interactive Gamification," comprising six components user autonomy and agency, interactive justice and fairness, transparency and intelligibility, non-maleficence and non-manipulation, beneficence and ethical meaningfulness, and ethical data governance forms the value infrastructure of the gamification system. The second layer, "Ethics-Oriented Gamification Design," encompasses three dimensions: design dynamics (sustainable motivational dynamics, balanced social interaction, integrated narrative and meaning-making, gradual progress), design mechanics (choice and control mechanisms, transparent feedback and evaluation, ethics-oriented missions and challenges, non-coercive rewards and return mechanisms, meaningful achievements), and experiential aesthetics (trust-building aesthetics, simple and ethics-oriented visual design, non-intrusive design, cultural and human-centered design), representing the tangible embodiment of ethical principles in the design domain. The third layer, "Users' Ethical-Experiential Perceptions," comprising perceived control and autonomy, perceived justice and fairness, perceived transparency, and brand trust, functions as cognitive filters transforming the objective design experience into psychological and behavioral outcomes. The fourth layer, "Affective-Psychological Outcomes," includes meaningful enjoyment and ethical satisfaction, psychological security and calmness, social belonging and empathy, mutual respect, freedom from induced pressure and guilt, and ethical self-efficacy. The fifth layer, "Behavioral and Relational Outcomes," comprising sustainable participation, responsible engagement, continuity of brand relationship, and ethics-based loyalty, represents the ultimate output of the value-creating chain of ethical gamification. This five-layered model illustrates the flow of ethical values from foundational levels to behavioral outcomes and, unlike purely functionalist approaches, introduces ethics as an intrinsic, dynamic, and value-creating component across all interaction levels.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that ethical gamification in interactive marketing requires the integrated and synergistic design of five layers ethical foundations, ethics-oriented design, ethical-experiential perceptions, affective-psychological outcomes, and behavioral-relational outcomes as an interconnected conceptual system. The effectiveness of this approach lies not in individual elements but in the systematic interaction among value-based, motivational, structural, perceptual, affective, and behavioral mechanisms. This research demonstrates that responsible gamification design necessitates designers' acceptance of "ownership" of ethical decisions and simultaneous attention to user flourishing, trust-building, and brand-consumer relationship sustainability. From both practical and theoretical perspectives, the results indicate that this approach requires a paradigm shift from a sole focus on extrinsic motivation and excessive competition toward strengthening intrinsic motivation, behavioral self-regulation, and meaningful human experiences. User experience designers and organizations can utilize the extracted framework to develop responsible and human-centered design patterns that, while enhancing interactive marketing effectiveness, generate more sustainable social, psychological, and cultural outcomes for users, brands, and society, contributing to the formation of a healthier and more trustworthy ecosystem in the digital space.