Pre-launch campaigns are becoming a popular way to gain attention and build anticipation with target audiences - and for a good reason! Think about it: You’re about to drop something awesome; so why keep it under the wraps? In this article, we will explore the advantages of pre-launch campaigns, and guide you on how to set up:

A pre-launch campaign can be shared with your target audience before the official launch of a different campaign activity or event, like for example a Calendar or a Black Friday campaign. The primary goal of a pre-launch campaign is to generate anticipation, buzz, and interest among your target audience to maximize the impact of the launch when it eventually occurs.

The pre-launch campaign can be shared on your website or on social media to raise awareness about your brand and upcoming campaign. By having a pre-launch campaign, you can build an email list of prospects who are interested in your company, and notify them once your campaign goes live.

Having touched upon the ‘why’ of using pre-launch campaigns, we will now move on to the more practical learnings and how to set it up in the platform. Although pre-launch campaigns are often used in relation to calendars, the setup can be used for all types of campaigns.

There are several ways to design a pre-launch campaign. You can:

In the following sections, we will go over the different options in more detail. To exemplify this article, we will show how to set up a pre-launch campaign for a calendar game. But, as we mentioned earlier, you can use it for other games too!

You can set up a separate pre-launch campaign either by:

The most simple way to build a pre-launch campaign is as a standalone landing page.

With a landing page, you don’t have any game flow (per default), so you only need to insert a registration form and a confirmation message. You can also add a countdown clock.

When setting up a landing page as a pre-launch campaign, you will most likely want to set up a redirect on the campaign. The redirect can be date-controlled, so that the redirect becomes effective at a certain time. This way, the redirect function will make sure that participants are redirected to the main campaign, in this case calendar, once it goes live. By setting up a redirect on the pre-launch campaign, you can promote the same URL to your customers both before and during December.

The redirect should be set up in the backend of the platform. On the pre-launch campaign, go to Advanced > Settings > Activate redirect > insert live URL from the new campaign > select date. The setup is exemplified below:

As an alternative to the landing page, you can set up a pop-up as a pre-launch campaign.

A pop-up can be inserted into your website via a pop-up script. Through the pre-launch pop-up, you can collect email addresses and notify your customers once you go live with your calendar. You can read more about pop-ups in this collection.

If you don't have the option to collect pre-launch registrations on a separate URL, you can build your pre-launch campaign within your calendar.

Note that this option can make testing your calendar very difficult. If your pre-launch campaign is live on November 15 but your calendar is not finished by then, you run the risk of impacting your pre-launch as you continue to edit your calendar. You also limit your ability to make changes to your calendar by publishing the URL in advance. So only choose this option if you absolutely must.

To set up an integrated pre-launch, follow these steps:

You will want to hide the game flow section until the calendar should go live and show a separate pre-registration until then. For example, if the calendar goes live on December 1st, then

Below you can see an example of how the pre-sign-up section should be set up with date range visibility condition:

The settings for the actual calendar section should look like this:

In the video below you can see how the content in the calendar changes depending on the date:

As this article demonstrates, there isn't a specific formula for a pre-launch campaign. Reach out to our chat support if you have questions or need further assistance with your campaign.