Advent calendar games are an old-school marketing staple and have been around for ages. But they found their place in the digital world too, and are a great way to promote your business while simultaneously doing something nice for your customers and clients.
With the help of gamification tools, you will be able to create unique campaigns your customers and partners will love and would want to come back to throughout the holiday season. That will help brand awareness and positioning, but if done right, can even lead to more direct sales.
This article will give you some ideas about the best advent calendar games for your business, helping you create an ultimate holiday season experience. But we will also explain what advent calendars are and why you should consider including a digital advent calendar in your gamification marketing campaigns.
What is an advent calendar?
Strictly speaking, an Advent calendar is used to count the days of the Advent season. They start in the last week of November or December 1st and count down to Christmas.
Traditional, physical advent calendars have “doors” that should be opened each day that hide a secret – a small candy for children, a Biblical verse, or a Christian image. Doors should be opened in a specific order each day, revealing a new fantastic surprise behind them on the last day of the calendar – Christmas.
While the concept of advent calendars has its deep roots in Christianity, it also finds its use in the modern business world. Nowadays, even non-Christians who live in the Western world are looking forward to the holiday season, making an advent calendar a great option to promote your business.
What are the benefits of digital advent calendars?
Physical advent calendars cost a lot to design, produce, and deliver. Like with other marketing collaterals, you are likely to have dozens of them hanging around your office after the holiday season ends because you were too busy to hand them to your clients, customers, and partners.
No production costs
With digital advent calendars, you don’t have to worry about materials, printing, and sending or handing out calendars to clients. All it takes is your creativity and a bit of work to set up your gamification campaign, and that’s it – there are no extra costs whatsoever.
Easy sharing
After you create it, your advent calendar is a few clicks away from the recipient. There are no shipping fees nor hassle with handing, and you won’t be left with a bunch of calendars around your office to collect dust. Plus, because digital calendars are so easy to access, people are more likely to use them, which means they are much more likely to achieve the desired effect of strengthening your brand.
More exciting games
While even physical advent calendars are interactive, their digital counterparts put that on an entirely new level. You can include countless games in your digital advent calendar to keep things exciting and fresh and promote your business in new ways.
Endless customization
Customization options are practically limitless and cost you nothing extra. Materials and shipping costs won’t ever stand in the way of your creativity if you opt for digital advent calendars. Nothing will stand in the way of the incoming Christmas sounds!
Because of this, you will be able to create unique experiences with your brand elements, which will leave a longer-lasting impression compared to generic, cookie-cutter solutions you often see in marketing collaterals.
Tailored experiences
Because digital advent calendars allow you to customize everything with no extra costs, you will be able to create tailored experiences for your most important partners or ideal customer personas.
If you design games that revolve around your company and the products and services you offer, you will not only entertain but also educate customers, raising brand awareness and even triggering purchases.
Why do you need an advent calendar for your business?
Advent calendars are an excellent way for your company to stand out from the competition. Plus, because they nurture the festive spirit, they will improve the perception of your company, showing how it is not only about the business but also family values.
Improve brand positioning and awareness
If you design advent calendar games thoughtfully, you will be able to familiarize users with your brand, products, and services while entertaining them at the same time.
Quiz-type games are an excellent place to do this. Intertwine common questions with those within your industry or those directly related to your company.
For example, if you are the first to introduce cryptocurrencies as a payment method in your area, that can be great material for one of the questions. Once potential customers discover that your company is a blockchain trailblazer, they will have even more positive associations with your brand.
Introduce customers to new products and services
Besides mentioning nuances and interesting facts about your brand and industry, your gamification campaign can be a great place to introduce your new products.
Something as simple as changing the game background to include your new products or brief explanations of your expanded services may be what it takes to spark interest. Even if potential customers don’t react immediately, they will be much more familiar with the product when they stumble upon it in one of your future social media posts.
Boost sales
Even though advent calendars are primarily there to nurture relationships, if made the right way, they can even boost sales.
Some games you can include, such as the wheel of fortune, scratch cards, open the box, and even the advent calendar, are excellent places to share coupons and discount codes. Mix those with sporadic information about your new products, and don’t get surprised if customers jump back to your store straight from the advent calendar.
Share company values
Advent calendars will help you establish positive associations with your brand amongst clientele, showing how you care about family holidays and the festive spirit.
But, besides the usual brand elements, use advent calendars to share company values. For example, if you took part in a fundraising basketball tournament or a similar cause, mention that.
Holidays are times of sharing, and showing that your company cares about those in need will show that you are unlike Scrooge but more like Santa!
10 best advent calendar games to include
Image source: Pexels
With Adact games workshop advent calendar creating a true advent feeling digitally has never been easier. Digital advent calendars offer unlimited customization possibilities, which makes them an excellent option for more challenging game modes as well as casual games. Here are some advent calendar ideas you can include:
1. Candy crush game
Candy crush is a super popular and exciting game, loved by kids, and even traditional advent calendars often hide candies behind those secret “windows.” That makes games like Candy crush an excellent choice for endless Christmas fun in the digital world too.
2. Trivia
Trivia games are classic and are perfect for advent calendars. They are an excellent place to ask questions about your company, or even share interesting facts about some of the teammates.
3. Digital scratchcard
Digital scratch-off cards are also a perfect option for advent calendars. You can include prizes such as time-limited discount coupons for your products, or free trials, sparking more sales.
4. Wheel of fortune
Similarly to scratch cards, the wheel of fortune is another way to give rewards to customers, which can lead them back to your store. Discount codes, free trials, vouchers, or even free accessories with limited time will likely trigger FOMO and get you more store visits during the holiday season.
5. Jeopardy game
A simpler digital version of the popular Jeopardy game can also be an excellent way to further build brand awareness among customers, clients, and their families.
6. Wordle game
Wordle game exploded in popularity in 2022, making it a perfect time to include Christmas puzzles in your marketing gamification campaign. If you are creative enough, you can also incorporate your custom wordle game in advent calendars, tying the words to your brand. But don’t make it super difficult, nor too easy, as you don’t want to demotivate customers.
7. Special promo code
While we discussed including promo codes in other games, such as scratchcards or wheels of fortune, the easiest thing you can do is to hide a promo code behind each fantastic surprise in the advent calendar. This is suitable both for digital and physical versions, making it a very straightforward way to promote your products.
8. Gifts tower stacking
Stacking towers (also known as Jenga and Dread) are fun games that have been around for decades. You can use something similar for your calendar – a digital gift stacking game for endless Christmas fun, with more challenging game modes when the speed increases.
9. Swipe poll
Swipe polls are also a good option for your advent calendars, as they are super easy to play and a great place to include brand visuals and promote products.
10. Open the box
Open the box game translates the classic advent calendar Christmas experience to the digital world. Popping open a box is one of the most recognizable Christmas sounds and is guaranteed to create a true advent feeling. This exciting branded game is another great place to share discount codes, boosting sales.
How to use advent calendar games for your business
While you can create a classic countdown to Christmas Advent calendars and incorporate your brand elements (which is still better than nothing), it is much better to be a bit more creative and make the whole Christmas experience more immersive. Here are some ideas:
Make a branded experience
Advent calendars, just like all other marketing collaterals, should all be in the colors of your brand. All hues, fonts, and messaging should mimic those you have in other places – your website, social media, and webinars, to create a uniform brand image no matter the platform.
Therefore, spend some time working on each of the games. Adact does have templates that can help you get started but change as much as possible to make the whole experience more immersive.
Change backgrounds to include your latest products, but also pictures from fundraising and humanitarian events, or even team building and having a fun time at the office. The goal is to create a branded experience but also share values and show how it’s not all about making money but a company mission to improve lives.
Tie questions to your brand
While it is OK to ask general questions such as “What is the capital of Portugal?” try to make everything as brand-specific as possible without being too salesy. This is especially true when making advent calendars for adults, and it will help you build brand awareness.
Although it might seem tricky to create questions, thinking about your company’s market positioning might help. For example, if you are one of the oldest firms in the area, asking when the first local company in your industry opened is a good choice.
Or, if you have worked with some big-name companies before, you can put that as a question. Once prospects learn that you have cooperated with IBM, they are going to appreciate your experience even more.
As you can see, advent calendars are a great way to highlight some important information from your “About us” or “Our partners” pages which often go unnoticed. Once you create those questions, you can also use them for social media polls, boosting your online presence.
Trigger sales, but don't be too pushy
It’s a good idea to offer discount codes and coupons to customers, but don’t make advent calendars solely about sales.
Advent calendars, open-the-box, and scratch cards, are all great places to include discount codes. Besides these, giving free trials that will let people try your premium packages is also excellent, as it will allow them to see how an upgrade to their current plan can help.
Remember, holidays are family-first, and although the season is an excellent time to boost income, the primary goal of your advent campaign should be to spread the festive spirit, raise brand awareness and build long-term relationships. If more sales come, great, but don’t be too pushy.
Conclusion
As you can see, digital advent calendars can be an excellent option for creating an ultimate holiday season experience tied to your brand. Your partners, clients, and customers will have a lot of fun playing the games while simultaneously learning more about your company. Some of them might even immediately head back to your store to use those discount codes you gave out as prizes!
Adact makes it super easy to create different game types, helping you boost brand awareness and even drive sales. Sign up with Adact, and start working on your advent calendar campaign today – holidays are around the corner!
FAQ
What activities go with an advent calendar?
While physical advent calendars usually revolve around “secrets” you are supposed to reveal one day at a time, giving you a small present everyday. An electronic games advent calendar open much more options.
You can include various Christmas puzzles, memory, luck, guessing, and knowledge games discussed in this article, intertwining your brand elements and promotional offers.
Besides games, share information about your company, services, products, company mission, values, or any causes you took part in last year. Including holiday cards from founders or executives is also nice, as well as sharing holiday pictures of your whole team.
How do you play advent calendar?
A classic physical advent calendar is played by opening a “window” each day and revealing a secret underneath.
Digital advent calendars have a similar concept but instead offer a broader spectrum of simple and fun casual games your potential clients and their families will enjoy. All the games are casual but super fun, and people will want to return to them. Plus, they don’t need complex instructions – everyone knows how to play open-the-box, scratch cards, or wordle!
Playing advent calendar guarantees prizes, so make sure you include something that will interest your customer base, as each field should include a new fantastic surprise.
What can I put in an advent calendar for adults?
Advent calendars for adults should contain different game types incorporated with your brand elements and prizes your customer base is interested in.
By offering customers a brand-related present every day, you will build brand awareness while simultaneously giving discounts to customers, leading to more potential sales.
However, be aware that advent calendars aren’t about pushing sales. The central idea should be doing something nice for your customers and partners and raising brand awareness.
It’s a good idea to share any fundraising and humanitarian events your company took part in, as well as pictures from team building events or holiday greetings from team members. It’s holiday time, after all, so do your part in celebrations!
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