As marketers prepare for another holiday season, it can be hard to brainstorm ways for your brand to stand out amongst the crowd when everyone is throwing their best marketing at consumers during the holidays.
It’s no wonder, too. The holiday shopping season is, by far, the biggest retail season of the entire year. Now, it begins earlier and earlier (did you see some of those awesome sales back in October?), and is more and more competitive. This year, economists expect overall spending to increase over last year, with gains across in-person shopping and e-commerce. For more on what to expect out of this holiday shopping season, check out our 2022 retail trends guide here.
This is where promotional marketing shines. What better way to get your consumers engaged than an instant win game. Instant win games are fantastic marketing tools for increasing brand awareness, engagement, sales, and data tracking.
Have specific needs or goals in mind already? Our experts have over 25 years of experience working in promotional marketing and can help you with any step of your promotion, from strategy to execution.
Advent Calendar Instant Win Game
For our first creative holiday instant win game idea, we have an instant win advent calendar. advent calendars have been a holiday classic since the early 20th century. Recently, advent calendars have been reinvented to appeal to older consumers (vs children) with things like wine or beer advent calendars. This opens an opportunity for more than just children’s brands to create an Advent calendar promotion. Think of different ways your brand can creatively leverage the popularity of advent calendars.
An advent calendar instant win game might look like this: each day consumers can “open” their digital advent calendar on your promotional microsite and win something from a variety of instant win prizes.
Since advent calendars give a reward each day until Christmas, we recommend having a variety of low, medium, and high-value prizes (with the former being more common). This way, your brand keeps consumers engaged over a longer period of time. The chance to win a high-value prize at any time entices consumers to come back and engage with your brand again and again, fostering greater brand loyalty.
“Secret Santa” / Charity Instant Win Game
Another common holiday tradition your brand can play with is secret santa gifting! There are multiple creative ways brands can run a secret santa-inspired instant win game for the holidays.
One way to creatively run a secret santa instant win game is to involve a charity. Holidays are the time for giving after all! Picture this: with each purchase during the promotional period, consumers have a chance to instantly win money (ranging from low to high value) to go to a charity of their choice from a list of partnered charities for the promotion, so they can become a secret santa for someone in need. With 70% of consumers considering it “important” for brands to take a “public stance on social and political issues,” this type of promotional campaign is an excellent way to connect with your consumers on a more personal level.
Your consumers expect you to represent similar social values as them. Brands that successfully integrate their values into everything they do have greater success and impact their bottom lines, while also doing real social good.
12 Days of Christmas Instant Win Game
For our last creative instant win game idea, we offer a 12 Days of Christmas Instant Win Game. Similar to the advent calendar instant win game idea above, this program includes 12 days of instant win chances for your consumers. Remember, a benefit of this type of campaign is its longevity. By offering a new gift or prize each day, your brand effectively motivates consumers to engage with your brand repeatedly.
The only thing better than a customer? A loyal one.
However, shake things up with this idea and get creative with the prizes by keeping them related to the theme of “12 Days of Christmas”. For example, on day three, a toy company may give customers a chance to win plush french hens. Or a fashion brand may create a limited-edition shirt or hat with an artistic rendering of the three french hens.
Alternatively, instead of having the prizes themed around the gifts featured in the song, you could increase the number of prizes with each day of the instant win game. For example, a brand may give away different numbers of prizes each day like this:
- On the first day of Christmas 1000 instant win prizes
- On the second day of Christmas 2000 instant win prizes
- On the third day of Christmas 3000 instant win prizes
- And so on…
This means as the days get closer to Christmas day, customers have higher chances of receiving a prize. This helps build excitement and also keeps consumers engaged throughout the entire program.
Engage Your Consumers This Holiday Season
With so much commotion surrounding the holidays, an instant win game can be the perfect solution to help keep consumers engaged with your brand vs other brands. These three ideas are just a start! There are many other ways to get creative with your instant win game, including different variations on the themes above. Instant win games are a great tool to engage and excite consumers. The instant gratification of receiving a prize can help strengthen your customers’ positive perception of your brand. As experts in the promotions business for over 25 years, Marketing Resources Inc. has created many instant win games over the years. View our case stories to learn more. If you want expert help with any aspect of your holiday instant win game, from strategy to execution, contact our experts today.
