Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most important times in your marketing calendar. But it’s also a time when consumers are bombarded with advertising messages. Why not take advantage of this by offering Christmas competitions to your audience?

Gamified marketing is a highly effective way of setting yourself apart from the competition and achieving your objectives.

Find out how gamification can maximise your brand’s visibility and your audience’s engagement during the festive season. We also share some original ideas for competitions to set up, depending on your audience and your objectives.

SUMMARY

• What do we mean by gamification?
• Ideas for Christmas games to engages your audiences
• Our tips for maximising the impact your Christmas games

Let’s start with a quick reminder

Gamification is a marketing strategy that involves incorporating animations and/or games into traditional marketing campaigns (email, display, website, etc.). The aim is to boost the engagement of your audience your business objectives (such as increasing your sales, for example).

Let’s take an example. At Christmas, gamification generally takes the form of an interactive advent calendar. Every day, from.1 to 25 December, participants discover a new box behind wihich a mini-game is hidden, giving them the chance to win a gift.

It’s an excellent way of captivating your audience throughout December. But it’s also a great way to vary the fun activities by inviting your prospects to spin a Wheel of Fortune, take part in a Christmas Quiz or win an instant prize.

Why create a Christmas competition?

Because of the various formats and contexts in which you can set up a marketing game, gamification offers many advantages to your brand. But the main benefits you can reap are:

• Capture the attention of your prospects and boost your visibility. La gamification est en effet un excellent moyen de se démarquer de la concurrence. D’autant plus lors de temps forts comme Noël, le Black Friday, etc.
• Engage your audience. The fun aspect and the possibility to win a reward encourage users to interact with your brand.
• Incease your conversion rate. Providing free prizes or toher benefits can encourage your prospects o buy more from your brand. As well as bringing them to your site, you can offer them a promotion to trigger a purchase.
• Collect and activate customer data. The marketing game is also an excellent way of collecting first-party data. You can then use it to refine your marketing strategy, adapt your offer to your customer’s expectations, etc.

Gamification is a simple and effective way of achieving your sales objectives in the run-up to Christmas. But what format should you choose? If you’re short of ideas for Christmas competitions, here are a few examples to inspire you.

1. Create a digital advent calendar for Christmas

The most popular Christmas device is undoubtedly the virtual Advent Calendar. This digital version of the traditional calendar allows you to immerse your audience in the world of your brand by creating a reccuring appointment from the first to the 25th of December.

Every day, participants discover a new game and can win prizzes (material or otherwie). In exchange, all they have to do is fill in a form on your site.

Brands that have opted for this marketing strategy and created an online Advent calendar game are gaining in visibility and boosting their conversion rate.

Click here for more advent calendar ideas.

2. The survey

The Christmas survey is a Christmas competition based on the classic survey. You ask your customers to answer a series of questions or give their opinion. Each participant can win points or advantages on your online shop. The best answer, for example, will be rewarded with an exclusive price.

This format is an excellent way of engaging your audience and gathering feedback about your brand. You can ask thel what they would like you to improve, etc. This data is a real goldmine for refining you marketing strategy and your offering.

3. Christmas competition

Another ultra-interactive feature you can offer your audience at Christmas is a competition. It’s an excellent way of stimulating the creativity of your community and generate UGC (user-generated content).This content is valuable for your brand because 97% of buyers under the age of 30 say that content by other consumers influences their purchasing decisions.

For example, you could launch a Photo Contest and invite your subscribers to post photos with your Christmas-themed products. You can also take advantage of the opportunity to get your teams involved to create an even stronger bond with your audience and share with them what goes on behind the scenes at your company.

4. Instant Win

Instant wins are Christmas competitions that are easy to set up. It’s also highly engaging, as participant know instantly if they’ve won a prize.

You can integrate them directly into your e-commerce site, but also via your marketing emails or social networks. The one-amed bandit, the wheel of fortune or a Flip and Win mechanism are excellent examples of instant prizes to engage your audience.

Now all you have to do is launch your Christmas competition. To maximise its impact, remember to follow these best practices:

• Launch your competition at the beginning of the month : get ahead of the game to grab your audience’s attention as early as possible. But also to ensure that your gifts arrive before Christmas;
• Optimise the distribution of your Advent calendar. Utilisez tous vos canaux de communication pour amplifier l’impact de votre jeu concours. Mobilisez vos réseaux sociaux, mais relayez également votre campagne via votre newsletter, votre site web, en magasin (via un QR code) ou en vous associant à des influenceurs ;
• Choosing the right rewards : be relevant in your choice of prizes. And be generous to encourage your audience to take part (for example, by offering delivery costs to the losers on the final page).
• Think retargeting: increase audience retention by sending instant, personalised emails to participants to build loyalty.

Launching Christmas competitions is therefore a powerful marketing strategy for engaging your audience, generating leads, collecting qualified data and boosting your sales. To create your own interactive Christmas game and gain a significant competitive advantage during this busy period, discover our gamification platform.