Launch an online Advent Calendar to celebrate Christmas with your audience: users will open a window each day and have the opportunity to win prizes, play games, get coupons, enter giveaways, and much more.

In this tutorial, we present all the options to create your Advent Calendar: how to customize games, prepare daily prizes and offer different dynamics that users will discover after opening the daily window, as well as how to completely customize the design to adapt it to your brand and business.

The present tutorial is organized as follows:

1. General Description

2. Create the promotion

3. Customize the Advent Calendar

   1. Step 1. Configure the 24 windows of the Calendar

   2. Step 2. Customize the design of the calendar 

   3. Step 3. Select the Login method to participate

   4. Step 4. Create the prizes of the promotion

   5. Step 5. Contact participants via email

4. Customize the design and complete the configuration

5. Manage the users of the promotion and access its statistics

1. General Description

The Advent Calendar is the ideal application to celebrate Christmas with your audience: users will be able to interact with the application for 24 days (or as many days as you want!) to discover what surprise each Calendar window hides: enter a daily draw, win a direct reward in a Prize Wheel, complete a Puzzle, get a discount coupon, etc.

The main features of the Easypromos "Advent Calendar" application are the following:

• The application comes pre-configured with 24 stages, each corresponding to a Calendar window, one for each of the Advent days. The stages are of the check-in type, that is, the user participates by simply clicking the daily window, but you can decide what dynamics each window hides: a game (Puzzle, Word Search, Timed Quiz, etc), a survey, a prize wheel, etc.
• You will be able to customize the design of the Calendar using the full potential of the promotion's "Design" module, which will allow you to adapt the promotion to your brand's graphics: colors, fonts, logos, texts and images.
• You will be able to create the prize(s) of the promotion and decide on how you want to distribute them among the participating users: daily raffles, Instant Win, direct prizes to all participants, prize Wheel, drawing at the end of the campaign, giving extra participations by number of open windows, among other options. 
• The Advent Calendar includes all the advantages that Easypromos offers you: configuration of the user identification method, fully customizable registration form, advanced user and statistics management, integrated email platform, and much, much more.

2. Create the promotion

Below we explain step by step how to create your Advent Calendar:

1. Access the Easypromos Control Panel and log in with your email and password to manage and create your promotions:

2. Next, click the "Create New Promotion" button to start creating your promotion.

3. In the list of available applications, select the "Advent Calendar", located under the Multistage section:

4. Next, select the template design that interests you the most (Classic, light or Windows style):

Discover and test here the three templates available to create your Advent Calendar. 

3. Customize the Advent Calendar

After following these steps, a draft of the Advent Calendar is generated in your account. This draft comes already configured with the 24 calendar windows. It includes the images and texts of the different promotion screens, which will undoubtedly speed up the configuration of the campaign. Even so, all images and texts are completely customizable, as well as the promotional dynamics that are hidden behind each window, so you can adapt the Advent Calendar to your brand and needs.

Next, we explain all the steps you must follow to personalize your Calendar and finish the configuration.

Step 1. Configure the 24 windows of the Calendar 

By default, the Advent Calendar template always comes with the 24 stages already created, and of the "Check-in" type. The participation mechanic in this type of stages consist of the user only having to click on the window that is open that day, and with this simple action, they are already participating in the stage (hence the name "check-in."). If it is their first time participating, the user must register by filling in the Entry form. The following days, they will not need to share their information again: by simply logging in (with their email address or via Social Login), they will be able to open the following Calendar windows.

In this way, as an administrator you can encourage participation in each of the windows by raffling a prize among all the users who have opened each and every window, keeping their attention throughout the campaign, as they will want to return the next day to try their luck.

To access the configuration of the Calendar windows, first access the Editor of the promotion and go to the "Participation stages" section, where you will find the following configuration elements:

1. Stages: We find the 24 windows that are already created with the draft.

2. Status: Indicates the status of each of the windows (pending, open or completed).

3. Start/end date: As each stage corresponds to one of the Calendar windows, the date on which each stage will open and close is also configured, starting from December 1, the first day of the Calendar.

4. Participations: By default, each stage allows you to participate 1 time in total, this way users can participate 1 time per day in the promotion.

5. Actions that can be applied to each stage:

• Change the type of stage: Allows you to modify the type of stage, for example, changing a "Check-in" type stage to a "Survey", a "Timed Quiz", etc.
• Show/Hide stage: Allows you to show or hide the stage on the public stage distribution page that users will see.
• Copy stage.
• Edit stage: Allows you to access the specific configuration of each stage.
• Delete stage.

The configuration options for each individual stage/window are explained below. To customize the stage, click "Edit" to access the configuration options for each stage.

• Stage Name: This is the name of the window that will be displayed on the Stages layout screen.
• Description of the stage: Optionally, you can add a description to explain what the participation dynamics behind each window consist of.
• Dates: The date of each stage will determine when each window will be open and accessible, as well as the order in which each window will appear on the stage layout screen.
• Stage Image: This is the image that identifies the window on the stages menu.
• Frequency of participation: You can determine the number of times users can participate in each window as well as the frequency of participation. By default, the Calendar is configured with 1 total participation in each window. You can edit the frequency to weekly, daily or by hour. 
• Limit the number of prizes per user: With this restriction, users who already received one or more prizes in the stage will not be allowed to enter again.
• Automatically close the stage when all its direct prizes are exhausted: When distributing prizes upon participating, automate the closing of the stage if there are no more prizes available. 
• Show the total of participations in the stage: Users will see how many times they may participate, as well as the number of participations they already used (if any). 
• Next stage: Redirect users from one stage to another automatically. Only relevant if you allow participation in more than one window daily.

What other participation dynamics can you configure?

The advantage of the Advent Calendar application is that it works with the Easypromos Multi-Stage system, which allows you to add up to 20 different types of participation stages. In this way, you will not only be able to take advantage of the Check-in type stages that are already created by default, but you will also be able to change them for other participation dynamics to fully personalize your campaign. You can add "Spin the Wheel" type stages to distribute prizes instantly and in a fun way to your audience, or game stages such as a "Timed Quiz" or a Memory game to offer your audience a moment of fun. The possibilities are very wide.

Specifically, in the Advent Calendar you can include the following types of stages:

• Games: Puzzle, Word search, Memory, Slide&Match, Word Shuffle, Hidden objects, Match-it and Minesweeper.
• Questions and answers: Timed Quiz, Survey, Knowledge Trivia, Personality Test and Predictions.
• Direct prizes: Scratch&win, Spin the Wheel and Reveal&win.
• Others: Check-in and Descriptive Content.

How can I add other types of stages?

If you need to change the type of any of the stages, you can do so easily by clicking on the following button, which will allow you to select another type of stage:

This will open a pop-up window where you can select the type of stage you want:

Tip! Changing the type of stage, instead of adding a new one, has the advantage that the stage name, image, scheduled dates, frequency of participation, and requirements are preserved if you had them configured.

Under the stage participation tab, you will find the different options to customize and configure your stage. The different configuration options will appear, depending on the type of stage (check-in, Quiz with time, Survey, etc.).

Check out the specific tutorials on the different types of promotional mechanics: Games, Quizzes or Instant Prizes.

Step 2. Customize the design of the calendar 

From the Editor > Participation Stages section, click on the "Layout" tab. Here you will find the options that will allow you to customize the appearance of the stages Layout Screen, which is the page where all the Advent Calendar windows will be presented:

Some of the options that you can configure are:

• Upload media: You can upload an image or video as a header.
• Introduction message: Customize the presentation text that appears above the windows.
• Show Search bar: Enable a search tool for users to manually enter the name of the stage instead of scrolling down.
• Layout: Select how you want to present the windows (in "mosaic" format or in a "list" format).
• Image proportion: Allows you to modify the size of the windows.

Additionally, from the "Design" section of the Editor, you will find all the options that will allow you to fully customize the look&feel of the Calendar to adapt it to your graphics: from changing the background image, changing the color of texts and links, modifying the style of buttons, and much, much more.

Discover in this video more about the customization options that the Design module offers, to personalize your promotion down to the last detail.

Step 3. Select the Login method to participate

To participate in the Advent Calendar, users must identify themselves with the Login method(s) that you as an administrator have enabled in the promotion.

The current available identification options are: Email, Facebook Login, Google Login, Linkedin Login, Twitch Login, Number or Customer ID, Phone Number and Autologin API. To configure which Login system you want to enable in the promotion, go to Editor Pages > Login and Registration > Login, where you can select which methods users can identify themselves with:

See here more information about the different types of Login and all the configuration options.

In addition, if it is the first time that the user enters, the first step will be to complete the registration form, which must be filled out with the data configured by the administrator. To configure the entry form fields, go to Editor Pages > Login and Registration > and under the "Registration" tab, click the "Add element" button to add as many fields as needed to collect the information you need from users. 

See here our tutorial on how to configure the promotion registration form.

Step 4. Create the prizes of the promotion

Easypromos provides a complete Prize and Winner Management system that will allow you to create the prize or prizes that you want to distribute to the users who participate in the Advent Calendar, as well as configure how you want to assign the prizes and select the winners. Specifically, for the Advent Calendar you have several ways to assign the prizes to the winners, depending on your choice:

• Daily draw among all participants who opened the window.
• Final draw among all calendar participants.
• Distribute a daily coupon to all participants.
• Distribute daily prizes based on "Instant Win".

See more about the Prizes and Winners management system.

Step 5. Contact participants via email

You will be able to keep in touch with the promotion participants via email. Below we indicate some examples of emails that you can create using the Email Platform of the Calendar:

• Send an email to all participants to thank them for their participation.
• Send an email to a group of participants using the multiple filter options (for example, participants from the first Calendar window).
• Automate the sending of an email to the winners of a specific prize.
• Schedule sending an email to all participants at a specific date and time. For example: when you open the second window.

Check out the different email sending options that you can automate with the Email Platform.

4. Customize the design and complete the configuration 

Once you have configured the windows of the Advent Calendar, the next step is to complete the configuration of the other pages of the promotion and general options, such as, customizing the design template with your own colors and texts, adding the Legal Content (Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy), viral content settings, etc.

See tutorial to finish setting up and customizing your promotion.

5. Manage the users of the promotion and access its statistics

From the promotion's management page you will have access at all times to the list of participating users, where you can perform the following actions:

• View unique Calendar participants.
• View total Calendar entries.
• Use the participant management tools: delete users, filter participants according to different criteria (registration data, number of participations, assigned prizes, etc.).
• Export the file(s) to download the registered users information.

Consult in detail all the Users management options available to you.

In addition, from the "Statistics" module you can obtain detailed information on the activity of the users who have participated in the promotion (number of registrations per day/hour, device used, etc.), as well as data on the different participations (participations per day/hour, device used, etc.).

See more about the statistics that you can obtain from the promotion to analyze the performance of your Advent Calendar.