2014/01/15

Pug Pharm Productions Inc., a leader in applying gameplay design & technologies to engage & delight the world, has completed a month-long, jingle-tastic analysis of Christmas shopper engagement at Calgary’s renowned Sunridge Mall.

Pug Pharm’s “Secret Santa” online activity offered mall shoppers a fun, colorful holiday contest that rewarded high-value actions (visiting stores, purchasing gift cards), social media activity (following the mall’s Facebook and Twitter feeds), playful engagement (solving in-mall scavenger hunt clues) and unabashed laziness (using gift wrap services).

Shopper loyalty earned codes that unlocked an engaging online “scratch card” collection activity where they could “decorate” their own virtual Christmas tree with random sets of festive holiday ornaments and gain entries towards a final grand prize draw—with VIP shoppers being rewarded with the greatest chance of winning!

Among the surprising findings was that people who like shopping ALSO like the idea of winning free stuff. “I guess it makes sense,” said Pug Pharm’s CEO Steve Bocska.

Each participating shopper engaged an average of six times with the mall throughout the course of the 3-week campaign – a metric so impressive that it’s worth putting in bold italics. This finding also proves the campaign was six times more engaging than campaigns where you are only permitted to engage once. Campaign participation was an astonishing 10% of Sunridge’s Facebook ‘likes’ – over 2x the typical participation rate of promotional social media activities.

Supporting the campaign was Pug Pharm’s award-winning Picnic™ Customer Engagement Engine, a loyalty activity platform built over the past 5+ years by a team of veteran game designers, web technology experts, software-as-a-service product managers, and a gaggle of very clever elves.