Black Friday is as integral to most retailers' marketing strategy, as Santa Claus is to Christmas. It continues to be the most popular shopping event of the year, and, unsurprisingly, most of us prefer shopping online to visiting a store. Well, who wouldn’t want to avoid the crowds, when you can do all the shopping from the sofa, cuppa ☕️ in hand?

You know the competition around Black Friday is fierce. And it’s hard to stand out in an overcrowded market.

So what does that mean for you?

In short: your hook had better be good, and playable marketing can be the answer.

This year, focus on improving the user experience by engaging your audience through different actions, such as answering questions, taking tests, interacting with images and playing games.

This approach helps you:

All this adds up to happy customers - which makes for a happy you, too :-)

You might be wondering:

Can you really get people's attention and get them to play games during Black month??

Our data wizard Leopold ran the numbers and turns out, that people can't resist the notion of a good play even in November:

​Unique reg. rate: 44 % (a little above normal level)
​Game started rate: 69 % (normally 71%) - no significant change
​Time spent: 58,6 seconds (normally 67 %) - an extremely high number in a very busy period - and could be influenced by many luck games, where time spent naturally is shorter.

Okay, let’s find some real life examples to inspire you.

These playable Black Friday Marketing ideas will give you a little head start to beat the competition.

It’s no secret that email marketing is super effective, with an impressive ROI of $36 for every $1 spent.Smartphone users prefer to receive brand communications via email, and 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months.

Truth is - email marketing influences how and when people purchase.

So start by building your email list!

Danish publisher Gyldendal is a great example of how you can use a pop-up on your website to get more newsletter subscribers. They use a green pop-up bar as a teaser:

When you click on it, it opens a pop-up window with a newsletter sign-up form, which you fill out for the chance to win a free book. By giving users something for nothing, you’re more likely to persuade them to part with their email permissions.

With (hopefully) a lot of traffic coming to your website on Black Friday, try to catch as many subscribers as possible. In 2021, our customer Finnish retailer Tokmanni, used a pop-up teaser where people could enter a draw to win a €1,000 voucher. The anticipation of getting something for nothing, and the thrill of trying your luck, is a simple but effective hook for would-be subscribers.

Even though Black Friday has emerged as a powerhouse day for both in-store and online shopping, we strongly recommend you warm up your audience with a pre-campaign. Tease special (hourly) deals, or reward your new (or all) email subscribers with early access, and maybe a mystic gift with their Black Friday orders.

Vitamasques’ early access game:

UK-based beauty brand Vitamasques, created brand awareness with a drop game giving participants early access to their Black Friday sale. It got great engagement because who wouldn't want to jump the queue?

They included a bit of visual storytelling about what to avoid, before the game:

Visitors used a shopping bag to catch or avoid items falling from above. If you got enough points, you won a place on the early-access list. Better still, if you lost, you could always play again - a great way to make your customers feel good.

Apoteket-Onlines: Win a gift card for Black Friday

Another clever way to warm up your audience is a quiz, with the chance to win a gift card (which they can use on Black Friday). The online pharmacy Apoteket-Online did just that:

It was a great way of informing about the deals they have - well in advance.

Early access and a free gift? It’s the best of two worlds

Danish men’s fashion store, Kaufmann, combined the competitive element with early access by using a scratch card. Here, visitors could scratch 3 alike for a chance to win a gift card for Black Friday, and they got VIP-access to exclusive Black Friday offers before everyone else.

Showing one-size fits all deals doesn't give the best customer experience. So create a personalized experience instead. Look how the Danish watch retailer Ditur personalizes their offerings with a swipe game, where customers choose what they want!

(Swipe to what you want)

Players swiped to pick what they liked:

And then ended up with their favorites:

What a great (and simple!) way to make engaging and personalized content.

Pro tip: Urge people to buy by doing a contest for customers only. In this case, the price could be “win your order value”, or “win a watch from your order”.

Now here's a Black Friday marketing idea for your business that I really love 💖.

People (my self included) looooooove Christmas Calendars, so why not start early and create a Black Friday calendar instead of the standard single Black Friday campaign? Martinex from Finland created this Black Friday calendar and could ride on the hype for a whole month.

Most people like to play games and win something. And actually, the feeling of winning something is usually more important than the prize itself.

But wait - there’s more

When people win a voucher, they are more likely to redeem it, than when they just get a voucher for free. So let your customers earn their discount codes by playing a game.

Beauty brand Beauté Pacifique put this into practice with a Black Friday Spin The Wheel game, with a sign-up form at the beginning. They rewarded winners with an additional discount, and the playable experience encouraged website visitors to place an order.

Bonus tip: Encourage visitors to place an order by letting them win a “mysterious prize” with their next order. Surprise rewards can make us work harder, spend more money, and enjoy the process more. You can boost their curiosity by telling them what the gift is worth (eg. "Participate to win a Mystery Gift worth $499"). Credit: Katelyn Bourgoin.

In 2021, almost 43% of Black Friday sales happened through mobile phones. Ensure that your Black Friday playable marketing campaign is mobile-friendly to avoid customer frustration.

Bonus tip: Use SMS marketing to remind your customers of your game, and get them to play directly on their mobile phone.

Rexel, a Finnish wholesaler within the construction industry, created a contest, where people could win one big prize and 50 smaller prizes.

(You have 45 seconds to capture as many lights as you can, but be careful: nothing else can end up in the box! We will raffle one Black Box lighting package (value €1,500, VAT 0%) among all those who have collected more than 350 points in the game, and 50 other top players will receive a Black Box cap.)

Bonus tip: People are more likely to sign up if there’s a large chance of winning - as opposed to just having one big prize.

Rexel were savvy in their choice of visuals, too - choosing all black for their Black Friday drop game. An effective visual reminder that Black Friday is just around the corner.

Würth, a supplier of assembly and fastening materials, did a Roll the Dice Black Friday game, where people could win their products. Würth kept time with the brand high, as people could play 5 times a day!

Here are two reasons to use video in your marketing:

So why not use an interactive video to engage your audience? In a video, you can show your deals of the day, week, month and add a playable element at the end. For instance, you could use a video quiz, where people have to watch the video to find out the answers.

In this case, FOMO (and not it’s not Fear Of Missing Out), used a video quiz, where people should watch the video and answer 3 out of 5 questions correctly.

Even a simple Spin the Wheel can make you stand out, like this one from Homechoice.

Or a Slot Machine, like the one Finnish shopping centre, Sello used. (Like Rexel, they went all in on the black for their visuals, too.)

No matter which seasonal (or non-seasonal) campaign you're planning, make sure your brand attracts the audience and engages them with playable experience.

Let’s play!