A complete event operation design!

The theme of today's article is related to operational activities. I personally summarize a complete operational activity design, which can be divided into 4 major steps: planning-execution-follow-up-review; please see the following mind map for details:

1. Event planning stage

1.1 Activity purpose/goal: First of all, what is the purpose of this activity? It is to attract new users/promote activation/retention/conversion, divert traffic to sub-products or a certain module, cultivate user stickiness, or connect and activate various modules in the product, or even realize advertising, etc. Only after it is clear can the goal be broken down;

1.2 Target users: Who are the target users participating in the activity? What are their characteristics, needs, psychology (curiosity, vanity, conformity, competitiveness, etc.)? In most cases, the activities designed may target all users within the product.

1.3 Activity rhythm: mainly refers to the specific time cutoff planning of the activity, which can generally be roughly divided into: warm-up-formal-end (before-during-after), etc. If there are offline activities linked together, they also need to be considered simultaneously in order to coordinate various internal and external resources of the company, cross-departmental collaboration, etc.;

1.4 Gameplay packaging: What kind of gameplay and mechanism should be designed around the theme of the event , and how to mobilize users' enthusiasm to make them interact is a relatively difficult part. It should be combined with product attributes, user psychology, or current hot topics.

Attributes that a good operation activity should have: fun, unknown, randomness, excitement, surprise, competitive winning psychology (rankings, difficulty levels, PK ranking challenges) , goal achievement psychology (level medals, level privileges) , loss aversion psychology, sunk cost psychology, interest satisfaction, emotional satisfaction, social attributes, cultural attributes, storytelling...

At the same time, different types of operational activities need to consider setting different levels of interaction:

1.5 Driving users: that is, activity rewards, what users can get from participating, whether it is driven by benefits or emotions;

1.6 Methodology Use: Gamification design related (such as octagonal model, addiction model, peak-end rule, emotional design, etc.). Methodology is an indispensable guiding theory in event planning, so I won’t explain it in detail here.

2. Design & Development Phase

2.1 Draft/interaction draft stage: This stage is mainly to run through the entire process of the activity, find problems, check for deficiencies and fill in the gaps. It will involve more detailed pages, and UED students are required to produce all line draft pages. As for those default pages, network anomalies and other too detailed pages, they can be carried out simultaneously in the UI visual stage. In addition, this stage is also a good time to focus on checking the experience, whether the benefit points are conveyed clearly enough, whether the user's emotions can be mobilized, etc. In this stage, more discussions can be carried out and appropriate research can be done; at the same time, alternative plans should also be envisioned to deal with emergencies;

2.2 UI visual design stage: The design plan should ensure that the visual design of the activity is consistent with the theme of the activity and has an atmosphere. Different time points and different scenes may require a series of atmosphere designs. At the same time, it should also be related to the brand, because such activities generally have a relatively large exposure and attention, and are also an important opportunity to cultivate users' minds and form brand memory points;

2.3 Development stage: Generally, the development manager will participate in the project at the early stage. When it comes to the interactive draft stage, developers need to be invited to review the draft together. If there are technical implementation difficulties, they need to be synchronized together to facilitate timely adjustment of the plan. Before going online, design members also need to check and test together to find out the problems;

3. Post-launch follow-up phase

You can select a part of users for AB testing, and monitor the data of each link of the activity according to the tracking points to check the activity activity, PV, UV, click-through rate, retention, conversion and other data of users, whether it has met expectations, find out the problems and optimize them in time, such as: novice guidance, gameplay optimization, retention pop-up windows, etc.; finally, gradually open the activity to all users; this is a process of continuous attention and optimization, the purpose of which is to extend the life cycle of the activity as much as possible (except for short-term activities);

4. Activity review phase

This stage is easy to understand. It is to summarize the design and data of the activity from beginning to end, learn from experience and lessons, and find out where we have not done enough, so as to avoid pitfalls in future work.

OK, let’s talk about interactive design in conjunction with Alipay’s “Collect Five Blessings” campaign:

Alipay Five Blessings Event

The huge amount of traffic during the Spring Festival is something that big companies will definitely compete for. A common activity is the red envelope war, which is understandable because it is the end of the year and users are generally more relaxed and more motivated to participate in activities, which is a godsend opportunity for product acquisition.

In recent years, there are more and more activities that "pay tribute" to the five blessings during the Spring Festival. This is mainly due to the continuous innovation of Alipay's five blessings collection activities in the past five years, as well as the huge base of 700 million users participating. Users have been educated on the gameplay of such activities, so there is no need to pay a lot of learning costs. It is relatively easy to get started, so it can be said that the design of such activities generally does not "turn over";

Some time ago, I reprinted an article officially released by AlibabaDesign titled "Collecting Five Blessings: Official Reveal of the Brand + Creative Visual Design Process". The event atmosphere design is remarkable, very unified and textured, and the motion effects are elegant and delicate, which brings users a relatively consistent visual experience and stimulates users' desire to participate. Let's talk about its interactive design:

Activity purpose: To guide traffic and promote activation for product modules/brands, cultivate user mindset for each product module, and circulate traffic within Alibaba product ecosystem, etc.

Target users: All users in the product

Activity rhythm: warm-up - formal - heating up - climax - end

How to play: Write the word "Fu" - Collect the five blessings - Fight the Nian beast - Win the prize - Get a commemorative card at the end

How to drive users: mainly driven by emotions (New Year customs, no New Year atmosphere without gathering blessings), supplemented by profit-driven (500 million points)

How to play the activity

1. Warm-up phase - new gameplay: writing the word "Fu"

The Wufu team moved the offline interactive scene online, and combined with the current hot social situation of the "epidemic", medical staff wrote the word "Fu" to create momentum. As the most respectable people in 2020, it was natural for them to kick off the Wufu event.

Users imitated medical staff and participated in the "Fu" character writing activity. The first 500,000 "Fu" characters each day can be printed for free and delivered to their homes. This has fully mobilized the enthusiasm of many people who cannot go back home for the Spring Festival due to the epidemic this year to participate, deepened users' memory of the event, and achieved the effect of users' independent dissemination and promotion.

I also tried writing the character "Fu", which reminded me of the scene of writing Chinese characters with a brush in calligraphy class when I was a child. The gameplay is simple enough, allowing someone like me who usually has ugly handwriting to write a beautiful "Fu" character. There are also a variety of fonts to choose from, and you can also add signatures and small embellishment elements. For a while, many people in the circle of friends were posting the character "Fu", which made the official event of collecting the five blessings gain higher attention before it even started. I have to say that the Five Blessings team really put a lot of thought into it.

2. Official event - Collecting Five Blessings

I believe everyone is already familiar with this part. It is divided into 4 stages and will be gradually opened over time. I won’t go into details here, you can take a look at the mind map:

As can be seen from the above picture, there are more ways for users to obtain blessing cards this year, and it is no longer difficult to collect all five blessings. This is mainly because users have participated in this activity in the past few years and have added almost all the friends they can in their social circles, so they no longer overemphasize that users can obtain lucky cards through social channels;

In addition, as the core of the activity, this stage will have new gameplay every year. This year, the game of fertilizing Baba Farm to obtain lucky cards has been added:

Baba Farm, which was launched in Alipay in 2020 (also available in Taobao Mobile), has opened up the entrances to Ant Forest and Ant Farm. As we all know, Ant Forest and Ant Farm have high daily activity. This year, Baba Farm joined the Five Blessings event for the first time. On the one hand, it is also intended to drive this part of traffic to fertilize and plant fruit trees, and on the other hand, it is also to provide users with an additional touchpoint to obtain blessing cards.

In general, the chance of collecting all five blessings has greatly increased this year, so many people can collect them quickly, so much so that in the end I still have extra Dedication Blessings and Universal Blessings that no one wants even if I give them away for free. If they have collected all the information so early and there is still a long time before the prize is drawn, users will not be active. What can they do during this period of time? Then let's play the mini game every day - fight the Nian beast~

3. Heating up stage: New gameplay - beating the Nian beast game

When all five blessings are collected, the game starts automatically. Because this is a new activity, it is necessary to guide users to play first. Otherwise, they will be confused when they enter the game page. This is also a necessary means to educate users on how to participate in the game.

According to traditional New Year customs, the Nian monster is afraid of the sound of firecrackers. Users can gain blessing points by hitting the Nian monster with firecrackers. The higher the blessing points, the more powerful the firecrackers that can be unlocked will be, and the greater the sense of satisfaction will be. The game is highly interactive and has a low entry cost. There are three chances a day, and users can also redeem extra lucky cards. Users can receive a total of four red envelope rewards (all credited after the prize draw on New Year’s Eve). Users gain something, their extra lucky cards are consumed, and their game satisfaction is improved;

Interactive scene of beating the Nian monster with the most powerful firecrackers:

In addition, combined with the voice encouragement of many stars, it can also bring unexpected surprises to users, and the game will appear richer and fuller;

Popularity of this game:

4. Climax stage - prize drawing

The lottery draw time is auspicious: 22:18 on the evening of New Year's Eve, which is the fixed lottery draw time every year. At this time, users' expectations are the highest, but the prize money will not be very high, generally not more than 10 yuan. It is certain that users will be disappointed when they see the prize money number. Many friends said that they will not participate next year.

According to the Peak-End Principle, if users have such a big emotional fluctuation, measures must be taken to save them, otherwise the participation rate of the Five Blessings event next year will definitely be affected. However, there are no relevant measures to make up for it after the prize draw;

I think users have already expected the bonuses they received from participating in the Five Blessings activities in the past. Moreover, on New Year's Eve, users send each other blessings and red envelopes, and the disappointment will soon fade away. Therefore, the time of the prize draw is very clever.

I believe that the Wufu team is well aware that profit-driven users are unsustainable, and bonuses cannot make all users feel satisfied. Therefore, in today's activities, it has become easier and easier to collect the five blessings. Instead, they tend to let users enjoy the process of participating in the collection of the five blessings. After all, no one really lacks these few dollars. Instead, they use emotions to drive users, making the Wufu activities a new year custom for all people to participate in.

5. End of the event

How to follow up after the event? The Wufu team thought of letting users receive the 2021 Wufu commemorative card and get their own annual blessing words, which is equivalent to leaving a summary of your participation in this event, just like walking barefoot on the beach and leaving footprints, proving that you have participated in this annual project worth over 500 million yuan.

SWOT Summary

The five-blessings-gathering activity has become a Chinese New Year tradition for all people. Since the launch of this activity, the daily activity of users in the product has been greatly improved;

S: Alipay has advantages in internal and external resources and product user volume; this type of Spring Festival activities have been running for many years, and users have basically formed the mentality of "collecting five blessings" during the Spring Festival, so that the New Year will have a festive atmosphere;

W: Relatively speaking, the rewards for collecting the five blessings are fixed at 500 million yuan per year. Users know that the final reward is only a few yuan, which will affect their enthusiasm for participation. In addition, the activity basically ends after the prize is drawn, while the Spring Festival has just begun. Without a good follow-up, the life cycle of the activity is declining year by year.

O: Online New Year red envelope activities have become one of the new year customs, and collecting the five blessings is the most representative one. From the perspective of tradition and creativity, future activities can better integrate Spring Festival elements, cultural attributes, new ways of interaction, new technologies, etc. More thinking and ideas are needed, and storytelling packaging can bring users a new experience to better stimulate their desire to participate.

T: Douyin's "Collect Lanterns", Kuaishou's "Collect Fortune", Xiaohongshu's "Collect Blind Boxes" and other similar activities were also launched during the Spring Festival. They have higher bonuses (profit-driven), diverse gameplay, and high user activity. They are bound to pose a considerable challenge to Alipay's Five Fortunes event. The number of users who continue to participate in the Five Fortunes event next year will definitely decrease.

The above article is a personal opinion. If you have any objections, please leave a message for discussion.

Author: Eason Zhang UED

Source: Eason Zhang UED