In December, every brand fights for the same attention. Ads cost more, inboxes are full, and people expect brands to surprise them.
And like always, most of that attention is gone by January 1. The social post fades, the ad ends, and the contacts stay with the social platform you paid to engage your audience.
That's why we suggest putting part of this year's December budget into something that runs on your own domain and leaves stronger impact and much better data than just remarketing.
In this brainylab Playbook issue, we've collected five formats we build for Lidl, Argeta and other brands, plus the one we built for ourselves, and what each of them is good for.
1. Advent calendar: 24 reasons to come back
The advent calendar is the strongest holiday format because returning is built in. Every day a new door opens, and behind it waits a game, a quiz, a video or a prize.
Lidl Slovenia used our online calendar to promote their Favorina holiday sweets. The calendar ran six different game mechanics, from memory games to puzzles. All on their own domain and with first-party data engine as a cornerstone of the solution.
Tens of thousands of players, most daily games played to the end, nearly half of the players who finished a game joined Lidl's newsletter, and a loyal core came back day after day.
For Argeta Junior, we built a calendar that ran across several European markets. Every day, people played games or entered prize draws, with the draws running automatically. Design by Luna/TBWA.
Christmas (or Advent) calendar comes in many shapes, forms and sizes. But there are two main categories from where we start to work with clients:
Classic calendar. A click on the door reveals the prize. To claim it, the user leaves a name and email.
Interactive calendar. Behind the door waits one more challenge: a quiz, memory game, spin wheel or scratch card. People stay longer, and you learn more about what interests them.
2. Holiday game: a perfect format to engage your audience a bit different then your competiotion
If you don't have the time or budget for 24 days of content, one well-thought-out game can do magic for your brand.
We take a mechanic from our library and adapt it to your brand and holiday story. From approval to launch, we need 3–5 working days.
For Lidl, a holiday raccoon caught falling products in a bag. The game is simple, the products are at the centre, and the score gives people a reason to try again.
Pick the mechanic by goal: a fast tap game for instant prizes, memory or snake for longer play, and a quiz when you also want to learn something about the player.
See all game formats: Brand games
3. Gift quiz: find out what people want
In December, everyone is looking for gifts. A short "What should I give?" quiz asks a few questions: who the gift is for, what that person likes and how much you want to spend. Then it recommends a product from your range.
We built the Naj darilo gift recommender for Telekom Slovenije (in collaboration with Renderspace) on this principle.
The user gets a useful recommendation. You get data a form never collects: what people are looking for and in which price range. In January, you use it for segmentation.
More about quizzes: Lead-gen quizzes
4. A greeting people play
In Lidl's Magic of the Holidays campaign, users create their own greeting card, send it to their loved ones and enter a prize draw. Every card sent can bring new visitors the brand didn't pay an ad for.
We did the same with our own holiday greeting last December.
Instead of a card, we built a game called Who's your dream Santa?
You choose who you would share a hot chocolate with, pick what you look for in a dream Santa and then swipe through a cast of Santas, dating-app style. Every Santa has a tongue-in-cheek profile, and your match ends with a chocolate moment and a greeting from our team.
It takes a minute to play, and it says more about how we work than any card could.
5. Internal calendar for employees
December is also the month of internal communication. The same mechanics work for employees: the year in review, company values, team challenges and rewards.
Employees do play. Most employees at Sava Insurance joined Azimut, the internal platform we built for them, and spent real time on it, well beyond a quick click.
Which format should you choose?
- Advent calendar if you want people to come back for 24 days and leave their contact.
- Holiday game if you need a fast campaign with a prize and a coupon.
- Gift quiz if you want to learn what people want and offer it to them.
- Greeting card if you want users to spread your brand for you.
- Internal calendar if you want to bring employees together at the end of the year.
Dont be late to the (Christmas) party
If you want to be live on December 1, we suggest choosing the format and prizes by November 7.
We then use November for design, door content and prize draw rules. A holiday game on our template can be ready in 3–5 working days, so it also works for anyone who decides later.
Three questions before you decide
- What does the user get before leaving an email? They need something of value first: fun, advice, a discount or a chance to win.
- How often do you want them to come back? Once, every day or every week. The format depends on it.
- What will you do with the data in January? Plan your first January message now.
All our solutions are GDPR compliant, hosted on EU servers, come with built-in analytics, work in multiple languages and connect to your email tool or CRM (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign and others). We adapt them to your brand, and they are built mobile-first.
Want a holiday campaign that leaves contacts behind?
Leave a comment or write to https://brainylab.io/contact to setup a Christmas campaign call.
On a 15 minutes call, we'll show you even more December gamification examples and choose the format that fits your goal together.
