Description
Launch an Advent Calendar competition from 01 to 25 of the month, where players can play a mini instant win game every day to find out immediately whether they've won a prize or not.
Try out the mechanics and download the documentation (assets, psd templates, renderings).
Advent Calendar preview
It is not possible to preview the day you want in the Advent Calendar. Only day 10 can be tested.
✍️ Please note: if you test your game live on the 27th of the month, for example, you won't be able to test any of the boxes. To see what it looks like, try out the preview version of square 10.
If you want to test all 3 mini-games, simply change the settings for the mini-game on day 10. Then preview test 10.
Configuring the mechanics
To find out more about the very first steps in creating a campaign, we recommend that you start with the following article: General guide to a marketing campaign.
The Advent Calendar is made up of the following sections:
Configuration: to determine the general parameters of your campaign.
Home page: to import the legal documentation for your game (rules, privacy policy, etc.) and set the parameters for the home page.
Form: to choose the fields for your form and set its design parameters.
Mechanics: to define the parameters of the game and its design. This article will focus on this section in particular.
Installation: to activate and distribute your campaign to your audience.
To see the different options available for each section, we recommend that you read the articles associated with them.
Creating an Advent Calendar design
Before getting started, we recommend that you read this article, which explains the basics of graphic design on Socialshaker: Creating the design of your campaign.
If you choose this last option, you will need to create the following elements for this mechanism:
Campaign background (1920x1080px recommended).
Desktop home page background (810x700px recommended) and Mobile home page background (480×710px recommended).
Desktop (810x700px recommended) and Mobile (480×710px recommended) form page background.
Game page background (810x700px recommended) - no Mobile image for this background, it will be resized automatically.
Image for sharing on social networks (810x700px recommended).
Background for the ‘Thank you’ page (810x700px recommended) and Mobile (480×710px recommended).
Note that you can use the campaign background as the default background for all pages on Mobile by checking the appropriate box:
💡 We provide the Advent Calendar PSD templates to help you create the visuals for your game. The ‘Cotations’ and ‘Zonings’ represent the text elements and buttons generated on the game interface.
Setting the mechanics
Instants Prizes
The Advent Calendar works with the Instant Win system. To win prizes instantly during your campaign, you need to set the parameters beforehand. To find out more about how to set up Instant Win prizes, we recommend that you read this article: Instant Win prizes
Calendar
The Calendar is made up of 25 game slots. For each box, you need to configure the mini-game that will be played when you click on it: Jackpot, Lucky One or Wheel of Fortune, as well as the basic visual of the box (=closed box).
⚠️ Please note that the calendar displays the days in the wrong order and is based on the first 25 days of the current month. The box numbers must be included in your visuals, they are not displayed by default.
The box of the day, based on the date on which the participant plays, will be highlighted using a ‘pulse’ effect. Note: the ‘box of the day’ hover visual is set in the ‘Mechanics’ > ‘Calendar Theme’ section.
Example: if the participant plays on 18 December, box 18 will be animated to encourage clicks:
💡 Please note: It is possible to stop your game on the 24th instead of the 25th by setting the game dates in ‘Configuration’. The game will stop on the 24th. For the box on the 25th, you can replace the visual with 25 by a visual without numbers, which will be transparent for the players.
Calendar theme
Choose the background colour and image for the page where the Calendar will be displayed.
Then select the rendering type for the arrangement of your boxes: structured, unstructured, tree. Finally, import the visual that will appear when the day's box is opened (by hovering over the day's open box).
Animation theme
First, set the visual skin (810x700px) of the page that will display the mini-game, the title of the page (e.g. Try your luck) and the rendering of the buttons. These settings are identical for the 3 mini-games, so you only need to set them once.
Next, set the visuals for each element of the different mini-games in this Calendar:
Lucky One :
Scratch image: 620x620px (.png, .jpeg or .gif)
Image ‘Won’ : 620x620px (.png, .jpeg or .gif)
3 different or the same ‘Lost’ images (they will be used randomly in the event of a ‘Lost’ scenario) : 620x620px (.png, .jpeg or .gif)
Wheel of Fortune: Wheel image: 600x600px (.png). Please respect the default wheel model (location of the winning crescent). To help you, you can download the Wheel PSD template, or view thesample image here.
Jackpot: 6 images of the reel: 140x140px (.png, .jpeg or .gif)
⚠️ Important: one of the 6 images you have set up will be randomly selected by the platform to be displayed 3 times identically in the event of a Win scenario. You cannot choose which of the 6 images will be displayed 3 times in the event of a Win scenario.
Sharing
To find out how to organise the sharing of a Quiz on social networks, we recommend that you read this article: Sharing your game on social networks.
Limitations
To find out how to set one or more limitations on your game, we recommend you read this article: How can I limit access to my campaign?
Exports
You can export 2 types of file containing participation data:
The participants export: includes the data of all participants in your campaign. To find out more, we recommend you read this article: Exporting data.
Winners export: includes information about the participant, the date and time they won the prize, and the corresponding prizes won. This list can be found in the ‘Mechanics’ > ‘Instant’ > ‘Winners export’ section. You can carry out this export whenever you like, at any time during the game.
Results (won and lost page)
You need to set the text and visuals of the Desktop and Mobile backgrounds for the two pages Won and Lost. You can also create one or more action buttons, with redirections to a merchant site for example.
Won page
This page displays a title set in ‘Results’ > ‘Won page’, then the image of the prize (set for each prize in the ‘Instant’ section) and the name of the prize (also set for each prize in the ‘Instant’ section) won by the player.
IMPORTANT: as stated above, it is not possible to preview the day you want in the Advent Calendar. Only day 10 can be tested. To test an instant win and see how the ‘won’ page looks, we invite you to create a Socialshaker ‘Instant Win’ mechanism. Then, simply set up your winning page (graphic rendering) + a test instant (at the time and on the day of the test), then test in preview. You'll get a preview of a won page that's the same as the Advent Calendar :)
Lost page
This page is the destination page for all players who have not won a prize. You can set the message you want (it will be the same for everyone). It can be a ‘you lost’ message, with or without a consolation prize (e.g. a discount code).
Frequently asked questions
Is it possible to create a 24-day Advent Calendar instead of the 25 days initially planned by the platform?
You can stop your game on the 24th instead of the 25th by setting the game dates in ‘Configuration’. The game will stop on the 24th. For the box on the 25th, you can replace the visual with 25 by a visual without numbers, which will be transparent for the players.
What's the difference between an Instant Win Calendar game and an Advent Calendar game?
The Instant Win Calendar lets you launch a calendar on the dates you want. There is a single mini-game for each day (scratch card game).
The Advent Calendar has a different rendering, several different rendering options and a choice of 3 mini-games for each day. However, it can only be set from the 1st to the 25th of the month. However, both work in the same way, based on the principle of data collection and instant winners.
How can I modify my campaign once it has been activated?
You can, of course, modify your campaign at any time - just make the changes you want and confirm them using the ‘Confirm’ button at the bottom of the page.
Why do I see a series of numbers above the one-armed bandit or the Wheel of Fortune?
This code is a security code required in the event of fraud. It fixes a player's participation, in the event of a screen copy of the game moment. It is not possible to delete these numbers.
How do I create a 100% winning Advent Calendar?
The platform does not allow you to set up a 100% winner, as the mechanics are not adapted for this. A winning instant corresponds to an interval of time, and the first person to connect within this interval wins the instant.
But here's an alternative for your project:
If you wish, you can start by setting up prizes (larger prizes, for example) via the ‘Winning moments’ module.
Secondly, for the consolation prize (e.g. a discount voucher), you can set up the ‘Lost’ page. In fact, all the people who don't win the large prize will go to the ‘you lost’ page, where you can set up a message like ‘you won a discount voucher’. NB: all ‘losers’ will have the same message and therefore the same consolation prize.