Online event operation: new way to play lottery activities!

Raffles are now a standard feature of many online activities and even store activities, but many event operators look down on them. Because the gameplay of the lottery is simple and the interface and interaction of the entire lottery are limited, for the current activities where growth is the top priority, the growth effect that the lottery can bring is limited.

But if you think about it the other way around, raffles, promotions, and discounts are all very old-fashioned ways of playing, but to this day, promotions and discounts are still the core actions of all kinds of sales activities.

Even though there are many creative new ways to play, such as group buying, bargaining, one-dollar shopping, and flash sales, the core of these ways of playing is still promotion and discount, but the form of expression is more refined and creative.

So when it comes to lotteries, how can you really make the most of this special gameplay and use it to achieve your corporate marketing goals? This article will mainly discuss these contents.

1. Conventional steps for lottery

The essence of a lottery is to motivate users to participate in activities through interactive behaviors with a certain probability, and then take advantage of the public's luck and desire for prizes, ultimately converting orders or deepening brand impressions.

Currently common lottery modes include: big turntable, smashing golden eggs, lottery boxes, gashapon machines, nine-square grids and many other modes. The advantages of these lottery formats are that prizes can be awarded in real time, the participation threshold is low, and the experience is strong.

Now that you have the user psychology and hardware tools, what is the purpose of your lottery event? The cost of online lotteries is not high for businesses, it’s just a matter of how to use these prizes to achieve the purpose of the event.

Whether it is to increase brand awareness, attract fans to official accounts, or drive traffic to stores, the overall purpose of the activity can be summarized as: attract new customers - retain customers - promote activation - convert customers.

So let’s take the LOL game as an example to see how the gaming industry works.

The first step is to rush for gems. This time there are three different levels, namely:

In fact, the more you charge, the more you get.

Then, these gems can be used to exchange for two magic engines, blue and purple, blue is 120/piece, purple is 200/piece.

Both the Blue Magic Engine and the Purple Magic Engine can be turned on to obtain skins. It should be noted that there are some minor changes in this skin lottery. Ordinary skins already obtained on the current page will not be obtained repeatedly (until all 8 ordinary skins are obtained and rotated).

That is to say, you will definitely get the skins in these eight slots (taking the purple magic engine as an example, a rough calculation means that you buy 8 for 160, and you will definitely get 8 skins), and there is no setting of opening 10 in a row this time. At the same time, the purple engine does not have 7-day limited-time skins (the blue engine does), and you also have a chance to get the video game limited skins on the right!

Finally, after turning on the engine, the lucky engine will be charged. After reaching a certain value, it can be directly exchanged for colorful skin or arcade skin!

Of course, after accumulating a certain amount of engine rewards, you can open the box on the reward interface. As for what activities you can get? It depends on your luck.

From the LOL lucky draw event, we can see that if you want to do an excellent lucky draw event, you still need a certain gameplay design. If you want to properly improve the ROI of the company, there are usually several ways:

1. Select products and plan probability

For a lottery event, how to stimulate users' desire to participate is the core of the entire event.

For users, what they desire is definitely high-value items, and the higher the value, the better.

But for sellers, the essence of a lottery is to attract customers. The lottery is not to satisfy users' preferences, but can become a two-way interactive marketing. On the one hand, it satisfies users' needs, and on the other hand, it enhances their own brand exposure and relationship maintenance.

Therefore, the most common problem with lottery activities is that merchants choose low-end or even counterfeit products in order to save activity costs, which may lead to ambiguous external publicity. After users pay a certain cost, the final expected result is far from what they actually get, and their favorability towards the brand suddenly plummets.

For example: the prize is announced as a brand name hair dryer worth three hundred yuan, but in reality it may be a knockoff hair dryer worth only a few dozen yuan. As a result, the prize breaks down after the user receives it for a short period of time. This behavior causes loss of trust in the brand among users and is the most undesirable behavior.

Alipay's Five Blessings is another positive example. Although there is not much money after collecting all the five blessings, on the one hand, it is a good start for the Spring Festival, and on the other hand, the five blessings can be collected through active tasks of multiple Alipay platform products, such as watering, participating in quizzes, paying red envelopes, and other behavioral traces that encourage users to use the product.

This is a classic example of both word-of-mouth and exposure. Therefore, we must follow two principles when selecting items for the lucky draw:

1. Let more people participate in the event and increase brand exposure.
2. Allow users to increase their favorability/trust in the brand during the event.

The first principle is to consider the user's acceptance of the lottery and to provide a good user experience throughout the entire activity process so that users will have more enthusiasm to participate in the activity.

The second principle is more about considering users’ acceptance of the prizes and whether the event will cause negative impact on the brand in the future. At the same time, it also induces users to continue to have more experience with the product while participating in the event.

2. Reduce user participation costs

No matter how many plans and participation processes the merchant has set up for this event, users actually have only one question: "How can I participate in this event?"

The gameplay is simple, that is, users only need to participate directly and click the lottery button, and then look at the winning rate. If the winning rate is high, the merchant will most likely lose money. If the winning probability is not high, then the user’s participation is over.

If the gameplay is more complicated, users can accumulate more chances to win prizes by forwarding, downloading apps, and adding new friends. Then the cost of participation will be a challenge for users.

For example: in a red envelope lottery, option A is that the red envelopes are available in three tiers: 5 yuan, 20 yuan, and 50 yuan, while option B is available in tiers ranging from 5 yuan to 50 yuan. So, for users, which one will hinder the spread of the activity?

The answer is B. Although many people believe that option B provides users with more choices, the premise of more choices is an increase in merchant costs. If merchants do not continue to increase the value of their activities, then users' psychological expectations of this activity will become lower and lower, until they think that this activity is a scam and there is only a 5 yuan red envelope.

This is the issue of user participation cost. For option A, the user knows that there are only three possibilities for red envelopes, either 5 yuan, 20 yuan, or 50 yuan, and will not have expectations for other levels of red envelopes. However, option B gives users this expectation. If this expectation is not met, the user's expectations will become lower and lower.

Expectation value is also the user's participation cost. It does not mean that the user has to go through many steps or paths to participate. The psychological expectation value of people is the biggest participation cost.

Therefore, users are more willing to believe the 5 yuan red envelope written in black and white, because the cost of user decision-making is almost zero.

3. Enhance the communication effect of activities

For lottery activities, how to ensure the effectiveness of participation and communication is a long-standing problem. The most common methods we use include:

1. Participate in the lucky draw and get the results on the spot

Many of the gameplays are similar to this, where users get a lottery spot and then choose to participate. If a user wins a prize, he or she may invite relatives and friends to participate, which will lead to increased dissemination.

But if the user does not win the prize, the most likely thing is that the user will just walk away, and it is impossible to expect the user to bring much dissemination effect.

2. Results are released at fixed intervals

The way to play this game is that the user participates in a lottery event on a certain day, and the lottery results are announced within a fixed time.

This type of gameplay is particularly common offline. In order to attract popularity, many stores will choose a fixed time point, such as 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening, to announce the winning results after users participate in the lottery with lottery tickets.

In order to win prizes, users will choose to stay in the store, or because it is still early before the draw is announced, they will call their friends to participate in the event, which indirectly promotes the spread of the event.

In addition to offline stores, online users can also be attracted by holding regular lucky draws.

For example, the book giveaway we did at the beginning of the year was done by developing a timed lottery plug-in. Users participated in the event by filling in their name, mobile phone number and other personal information, and clicked on the lottery to enter the lottery list, and the prizes would be drawn within the specified time.

At this time, users can send the event to their relatives and friends and invite them to participate in the event. You can also increase your chances of winning by forwarding the invitation.

2. Alternative Thinking Dimensions of Lucky Draw Activities

1. Purpose of the activity

Each activity has its own purpose. Some activities are for promotion, some are for brand communication, and different activities have different strategies.

For example: in activities for the purpose of promotion, the prizes are usually coupons, discount coupons, etc. as a way to attract product traffic, or the product is the special prize, and one or two are released in limited quantities as customer feedback benefits.

This type of activity requires follow-up and adjustment of the face value or number of coupons issued at any time to ensure the drainage effect of such coupons and maximize it. However, if the purpose is brand exposure, marketing costs need to be controlled. The value of the prize is fixed, so the marketing communication effect needs to be expanded.

2. Prize drawing method

For any lottery event, the prizes are determined before the launch and cannot be changed or added at will during the event.

Therefore, for the rhythm of the event, it is necessary to grasp the progress of the event to prevent the problem of crowds participating in the event in the early stage, resulting in no prizes being given out in the later stage. You also need to be wary of a bunch of freeloaders rushing in to grab the prizes, leaving your own user group without receiving the corresponding prizes.

Therefore, for some high-value prizes, especially for events that focus on brand exposure, it is necessary to consider the option of announcing the winners after the event.

On the one hand, this can increase the duration of the event and facilitate the forwarding and dissemination of the event. On the other hand, it can also control the overall risk of the event. The value and quantity of the event prizes can be adjusted according to the effect of the event and the user's participation.

The biggest advantage of delaying the lottery is that it creates a sense of anticipation for users. People are willing to pay a certain amount of time cost for a special surprise. However, the event prizes must be of outstanding quality and effectiveness, otherwise it will damage the brand image.

3. Brand reach of the event

First of all, we must understand that the purpose of sales promotion is to promote transactions, and sales promotion is to achieve the purpose of communication by promoting consumer purchases. So no matter what kind of sweepstakes you run, the focus should be on delivering your message by promoting purchases.

Therefore, when designing a sweepstakes, you must first think clearly about what kind of information you want to convey. The next step is to attach your information to purchasing behavior and event participation.

When activities are carried out and consumers participate in promotions and make purchases, information is spread. When consumers start using the promotional benefits, the target brand is fully received. Finally, the actual experience of the product is compared with the original impression in the mind and responds, which affects the next purchase decision.

Here is a simple example to illustrate:

Case 1: Pantene 750ml shampoo comes with 200ml conditioner

Many offline activities like to organize this kind of free gift activities, because they can instill in users an idea: that is, using conditioner and shampoo together can make hair healthier and more beautiful.

When this consumer returns home and starts washing his hair with conditioner and shampoo, it strengthens the user's perception of the brand. The consumer will then purchase Pantene shampoo and conditioner together next time, even without the promotion.

However, this kind of gameplay needs to be treated with caution. It is possible that users have no idea about the product and just think that 200 ml of conditioner is free. If she goes home and doesn’t use conditioner at all, the message has not been conveyed and the communication has not been completed. There are many examples in shopping malls where people only ask to buy without receiving any information.

Case 2: Blue Moon 500ml toilet cleaner comes with 500ml hand sanitizer

This is also a common way of playing lottery activities, but there is a problem here. Buying toilet cleaner and getting hand sanitizer for free is a very good promotion in itself, and both parties’ products have advantages. But for many users, hand sanitizer is a useless product because it cannot be used without the original bottle nozzle.

In this way, the brand image and product experience that this activity hopes to bring are intangible information to users, and therefore are useless for brand awareness.

3. Presentation of the actual scene of the lottery

Purpose of the activity: To drive the download and registration volume of App products through lucky draw activities.

Event prizes: WeChat cash red envelopes and physical prizes (oven, hair dryer).

How to play the activity: Design and plan the probability of winning each prize in advance. After drawing a prize, there will be a redemption code. You will definitely win the prize for the first time. The redemption code must be redeemed within the App. You can get another chance by sharing. There will be two lottery opportunities every day in the future.

Event tool: Renrenxiu lucky draw plug-in.

Activity cost: Renrenxiu version membership (3,999 yuan), brand electric oven (300 yuan), brand hair dryer (100 yuan), cash red envelope (1,000 yuan).

Activity decomposition and practical steps:

1. First, users enter the platform to participate in the lottery. The probability of winning the first lottery is 100%. Subsequently, there is a high probability of winning the "Thank you for participating" prize, and it is shown that asking friends for help can increase the probability of winning.
2. Then, the probability of winning the red envelope will be appropriately increased based on the number of shares, and reminders and incentives will be provided during the user redemption process to increase the user's forwarding rate.
3. In order to ensure the user activation rate and number of times, the number of people who can redeem prizes each time will be limited. Only the first 200 people can redeem their prizes each day, and other users who fail to redeem their prizes at the end of the event will be deemed to have given up.
4. When a user successfully redeems a prize through the App, the other party will be given a new user gift package through the App, which stimulates the user to develop the habit of using the App and gradually improve the usage habit during the life cycle.

Post-activity thoughts:

Generally speaking, 80% of the users in an event are ordinary users. They may be interested in the event, but their enthusiasm is limited and will not drive the overall communication effect of the event.

At this time, you need to make good use of the only 20% core users. They are the main force to help you implement your activities and operation strategies quickly and even constitute large-scale dissemination.

Once these 20% of core users are attracted to participate through a series of strategies and gameplay, they will drive other users to participate in activities, topics, use products, etc., thereby improving product data.

4. Final

The core of the lottery activity must be to achieve the maximum traffic coverage at the lowest cost. Whether it is branding or promotion, the bottom line is to attract enough users so that they have a real impression of the product or have a certain understanding of the brand.

Therefore, lottery is the most basic and effective way to play at present. Although the activity is simple, it is still very difficult to run a successful lottery. It requires coordination and cooperation in many aspects such as products, operations, and marketing, and a deep understanding of users' psychological needs and desires.

Lottery is a method that will make users addicted and most willing to try. This method itself has a very low learning cost, is easy to develop, and can be controlled by probability. The winning rate can be well controlled in the background and various gameplays can be added.

Therefore, before starting the draw, the gimmicks and copywriting should be well prepared, the probability, number of times, and process of the draw should be well prepared, and after the draw, corresponding prompts and reminders to increase the number of draws should be prepared.

Related reading:

1. Elements and channels of online product promotion plan!

2. A complete online event promotion planning plan!

3. How to acquire customers through online event operations?

4. Activity Operation丨How to Play APP Online Activities and Offline Promotion

5. Will the more online promotion channels there are, the better the campaign effect will be?

6. For online operation and promotion, can the hit H5 that goes viral be replicated?

Author: Renrenxiu

Source: Renrenxiu