A card collection activity aimed at attracting new customers!

I believe everyone is familiar with the card collecting gameplay. As people born in the 80s and 90s, we collected cards from Raccoon instant noodles when we were young, and drew SSRs to get limited edition characters in the Onmyoji mobile game. Now, during the Spring Festival, we collect cards and share cash on major platforms, mainly through Alipay. From offline to online, the card collecting culture has never disappeared.

1. Introduction to card collection gameplay

With the development of modern technology, there are more and more types of cards, including bank cards, transportation cards, shopping cards, ticket cards, etc. After these cards have fulfilled their use value, some of them have appreciation value and collection value due to their rich and exquisite pictures, and card collecting has become a collection cultural activity. I believe everyone is familiar with the card collecting gameplay. As people born in the 80s and 90s, we used to collect Water Margin hero cards from Little Raccoon instant noodles when we were young, draw SSRs to get limited edition characters in the Onmyoji mobile game, and now collect cards and share cash on major platforms, mainly through Alipay during the Spring Festival. From offline to online, the card collecting culture has never disappeared, but has appeared in our lives in various forms.

1.1 What is the card collection game?

What we are discussing this time is the interactive card collection gameplay that is widely used on online platforms. Card collection interaction is to allow users to randomly obtain a card in some form, such as completing tasks, exchanging with friends, etc., and finally receive or share benefits after collecting all the cards. Therefore, a basic card collection interaction must meet the three elements of card appearance, card obtaining method, and benefits.

1.2 Card Collection Game Type

The purpose of our analysis this time is to use card collection interactions to better attract new customers to the brand. Therefore, we will focus on the psychological characteristics of new users and classify them according to the core driving forces of users' participation in interactive games [1]. We have come up with the following three types of card collection gameplay: (1) benefit-oriented; (2) fun-oriented; and (3) efficiency-oriented.

(1) Benefit-based

The profit-based card collection gameplay mainly focuses on meeting the needs of profit-oriented users. This type of user is more concerned about results, focuses on the sense of gain, and hopes to gain something from the interaction. Therefore, when designing the card collection interaction, you can add a variety of benefit types and provide clear benefit guidance to strengthen the user's extrinsic motivation and encourage such users to continue participating through varied rewards.

(2) Fun type

The fun card collection gameplay mainly focuses on meeting the needs of interest-oriented users. This type of user pays more attention to the fun, challenge and exploration of the unknown of the game. Therefore, when considering the design of card face, benefits, card obtaining methods and other elements, it is necessary to combine elements such as fun, interesting, and novel to enhance the user's intrinsic motivation and bring them more fun and surprises.

(3) Efficiency

The efficiency-based card collection gameplay mainly focuses on meeting the needs of efficiency-oriented users. This type of user prefers gameplay that is simple and takes less time. Therefore, when designing card collection interactions, it is necessary to appropriately reduce the difficulty of the tasks and control the efficiency of the gameplay participation so that this type of user can easily get started and complete the tasks simply and efficiently.

1.3 Purpose of Card Collection Game

The card collection game based on interest circles has gradually developed into a phenomenal interaction involving the whole nation. For example, the card collection game during the Spring Festival seizes the characteristics of users' desire for good luck and collecting habits, guides user behavior through incentive marketing, attracts user participation, and converts potential users into active users, or even loyal users, thereby achieving the purpose of marketing.

The essence of marketing is to establish a connection between product value and user needs. Generally speaking, at different stages of brand development, the purpose of card collection interaction includes attracting new customers, brand promotion, launching new products, popular products, sales promotion, daily sales, clearing inventory, etc. This time we mainly discuss the card collection interaction gameplay for the purpose of attracting new customers.

2. The three major components of the card

2.1 Card surface

Compared with other interactive marketing methods, the characteristic of card collection interaction is that the theme content can be effectively conveyed through the card surface. The card itself is not only a carrier of content, but also an inherent path for users to achieve the goal of collecting full cards and obtain the ultimate reward. This dual attribute can effectively enhance users' content perception and deepen their impression of the event theme.

The author has summarized and analyzed more than 30 card collection games that have appeared on the market, and concluded that the main card content currently includes seven aspects: beautiful vision type, brand characteristics type, platform business type, crowd characteristics type, festival related type, physical reward combination type, and story advancement type. The following will introduce them one by one:

(1) Beautiful Vision

The card face conveys a beautiful vision, which resonates with users and inspires emotional identification. For example, Baidu's "Collect Good Luck, Share 100 Million" campaign uses festive and auspicious symbols from traditional Chinese culture, such as "happiness, wealth, longevity, happiness, wealth, good luck, China, country, and year" as card faces to express the outlook for a better life. For example, the activity on Weibo called “Collect cards for good luck, and share 100 million on New Year’s Eve” conveys positive energy by setting beautiful blessings and auspicious words such as “all-powerful, healthy, safe, lucky, promotion, peach blossom, and good luck” on the card faces.

(2) Brand characteristics

The card surface strengthens users' brand perception and increases brand exposure and popularity by showcasing brand characteristics and concepts. For example, in Cainiao’s “Collect Cards to Win Free Double 11 Shopping Bills” campaign, the brand services are packaged as different card faces (loss compensation card, worry-free return card, mailing privilege card, exclusive customer service card) to strengthen the brand service characteristics; in Lima Finance’s “Collect Five Cards and Earn 88 Yuan in Cash” campaign, the brand service characteristics are used as card face content (safe, professional, rich, convenient, and innovative), thereby deepening users’ understanding of the brand characteristics; on JD.com’s 618 event, users can collect 5 Wangwang Cards (Lucky Wang, Powerful Wang, Invisible Wang, Healing Wang, and Fighting Wang) to form a JOY God Card, and share 2 billion Jingdou equally, thereby achieving the purpose of strengthening user perception of the brand.

(3) Platform business type

The card surface strengthens the business attributes and platform characteristics by displaying content related to the platform's business. For example, Fliggy Travel’s “Collect Cards for May Day Travel and Get Red Packets” campaign packages “self-driving, adventure, cruise, customization, enjoyment, and food” into different card faces, strengthening the platform’s service feature of providing one-stop solutions to travel scenarios. For example, keep’s “National Fitness Season, Collect Cards to Share 50 Million” event uses “weight loss, fat burning, muscle gain, yoga, running, walking, cycling, vigorous dance, hot exercises, and health” as different card faces to increase the exposure of different project types and deepen users’ understanding of the platform’s service content.

(4) Population characteristics

Conveying the characteristics of the crowd by using the card face can narrow the distance between the activity and the public. For example, the JD Home Appliances Card Collection and Good Luck Activity conveys simple wishes close to the public such as "getting out of being single without losing hair, getting a raise without having to work overtime, staying up late without becoming ugly, and eating meat without getting fat" through the card face, which resonates with the public. If the business goal is to attract new customers from a certain group of people, the characteristics of this group of people can be conveyed through the card surface, thereby enhancing the target users' sense of identity and participation. For example, in the Programmer's Day "Collect Cards to Win Gifts" event, the card faces are set with the words "Unimpeded online access, no bugs, anti-hair loss and hair growth, fat transfer, get off work on time, and get out of singleness in one second", which are close to the psychological demands of programmers, thereby promoting the participation and dissemination of this target group such as programmers.

(5) Festival-related

During festivals, the card surface can convey festive characteristics, increase fun, and attract new users to the platform. For example, Ctrip’s “May Day Collect Superheroes to Win a Glorious Cellphone” campaign used hand-painted images of “firefighters, drivers, doctors, sanitation workers, and police officers” as different card faces, leveraging the festival to drive traffic to the platform. For example, in ofo’s “Collect National Day Cards to Get Cash” campaign, “high-speed rail cards, Alipay cards, online shopping cards, shared bicycle cards, and “My Great Country Card”” are used as different card faces to increase user participation enthusiasm and enhance brand communication.

(6) Combination of physical rewards

There is a combination relationship between cards, that is, each card is part of the overall physical reward, and they are independent and random, but they are combined with each other. For example, Heytea’s “Collect 5 ingredients and get a free cup of Heytea” campaign uses Heytea’s raw materials such as strawberries, oranges, cheese, and grapefruit as card faces to strengthen users’ perception of rewards. For example, Mafengwo’s “Collect four map cards to win a limited edition desk calendar” event packages each part of the map into a different card face, which increases the fun and sense of finality and stimulates user participation.

(7) Story-driven

There is a progressive relationship between cards. The previous card provides clues for obtaining the next card. Following the order of obtaining the cards, each card provides a part of the story. As the number of collected cards increases, the plot also develops and enriches, ultimately conveying the brand story or combining with the brand for event marketing, increasing interest and deepening users' understanding and recognition of the brand. For example, in Taobao’s Double 11 Super Star Cat event, as the cat’s level increases, the story in the cat’s illustrated book also progresses by chapters, making it more immersive.

2.2 Card Obtaining Methods

Through the review of the interactive gameplay related to card collection, it is concluded that the current ways to obtain cards are mainly: completing tasks, daily login, mutual gifts among friends, assistance from friends, and special interaction methods (such as AR scanning, shaking, etc.). Among them, "doing tasks" has many subdivisions according to different businesses, such as download and registration type, browsing type, usage type (tool type), publishing UGC content type, consumption type, sharing type, etc. There may be multiple ways to obtain cards in the same card collection interaction. Users can choose different card obtaining methods and participate in the card collection interaction.

2.3 Welfare

Welfare is the motivation for users to participate in interactive marketing. The motivation is generally divided into three aspects: material needs, spiritual needs, and social needs. Material needs are manifested in coupons, cash red envelopes, platform virtual assets (such as Jingdou, Vipshop coins, etc.), physical rewards, etc.; spiritual needs are manifested in the satisfaction of owning cards, the anticipation in the process of collecting cards, the sense of accomplishment of collecting a complete set, and the meaning and visual pleasure conveyed by the card face; social needs are manifested in value transfer, circle recognition, interest interaction, etc. Among them, material needs belong to external motivations, while spiritual needs and social needs belong to internal motivations.

3. Card Type

According to different types of card collection, designs can be made from the aspects of card surface, card acquisition method and benefits:

3.1 Benefit-based

Grasping some common characteristics of user psychology can deeply stimulate users' motivation to spread information. Characteristics of interest-oriented users include profit-seeking, reciprocity, sense of accomplishment, scarcity, and loss aversion. For interest-based users, the following methods can be used to strengthen user participation motivation:

3.1.1 Card surface

Set up rare cards. Set up a small number of high-value scarce cards within a certain period of time through limited quantity and time limits to attract users to collect, such as universal cards, anniversary cards, signature cards, etc., and set a countdown to increase the urgency of the task, thereby promoting user card collection behavior.

3.1.2 Card Obtaining Methods

(1) Establish a tiered card-obtaining method. Users can be set up to complete platform tasks to earn hearts and get a chance to draw cards. For each new user shared, they earn 2,000 hearts, sharing 2 users earns 5,000 hearts, sharing 3 users earns 8,000 hearts, and so on. This step-by-step card-earning method gives users different levels of rewards, incentivizing them to continuously complete platform tasks in order to get a chance to draw cards, and guiding them to do more and get more.

(2) Strengthen user support and card replacement guidance, emphasize the benefits to both parties, and strengthen users' reciprocity mentality.

3.1.3 Welfare

1) Strengthen interest guidance. Strengthen the perception of fixed rewards and add additional rewards on the basis of fixed rewards. For example, the 5th, 50th, 150th... 550th person who collects the cards will get other additional rewards.

2) Enrich the types of rewards and increase the diversity of rewards. First, multiple forms of rewards can be set to satisfy the user's external and internal motivations at the same time; second, low, medium and high reward levels can be set according to the progress of card collection; then connection points can be set for different levels of rewards to connect different types of rewards. For example, a number of low-level rewards can be exchanged for a number of medium-level rewards, and a number of medium-level rewards can be exchanged for high-level rewards.

3) Set up leaderboards to motivate users to continue participating by comparing competition and honors.

4) Display the number of participants and the number of people who have gathered, use the herd mentality to stimulate users' motivation to participate.

5) Display friends’ support avatars and user card collection achievement medals. It implies that the user has already spent time, energy, social costs, etc. According to the loss aversion psychology, in order to avoid losing the silent cost, the user will continue to complete the unfinished task.

3.2 Fun type

The characteristics of fun users include likes, collecting habits, interests, content relevance, curiosity, etc. For fun-loving users, the following methods can be used to enhance their motivation to participate:

3.2.1 Card surface

1) Emotion: Touch the user's instinctive emotions by conveying an emotional atmosphere such as nostalgia, childhood, friendship, patriotism, hometown, and family affection.

2) Entertainment: It can combine movies, football games, fashion trends, celebrities, hot topics, holiday packaging, etc. to stimulate users' cultural and entertainment interests. For example, by packaging brand stories on different card surfaces, the brand’s core spirit can be conveyed to resonate with users.

3) Aesthetics: Artistic techniques can be combined to increase visual expression, such as animation, interaction, video, illustration and other forms to meet the aesthetic tastes of users.

3.2.2 Card Obtaining Methods

1) Curiosity: You can satisfy users’ curiosity and interest in exploration by creatively packaging the card-winning methods, such as AR scanning, gestures, card drawing, card flipping, card scratching, shaking, and decryption. For example, by packaging a suspenseful story on the card surface, users can be guided to explore and uncover the secret step by step. As the number of collectible card types increases, the mystery is revealed, which increases fun and deepens the user's impression.

2) Social: Satisfy users’ social interests through various friend interactions such as friend support, card gifts, card requests, and card exchanges.

3.2.3 Welfare

1) Social Rewards: During the card collection process, users can exchange cards with friends by giving or requesting cards, or obtain cards with the help of new users, and obtain interpersonal rewards (such as help from others, fun with similar interests, prestige, etc.) through interaction with others.

2) Self-reward: The essence of self-reward is to gain a sense of control, accomplishment, and finality. The strong desire to collect all the cards is the main reason that motivates people to continue to do the task. The anticipation and uncertainty of obtaining cards puts people into a state of concentration. The process of collecting cards has brought people a sense of pleasure, greatly satisfying the user's desire to collect all the cards.

3.3 Efficiency

Characteristics of efficiency users include laziness, strong sense of time, low tolerance for content and experience, and a strong sense of finality. For efficiency-oriented users, the following methods can be used to lower the threshold for user participation:

3.3.1 Card surface

Displays the progress of task completion. The collected and uncollected cards can be displayed intuitively through the card arrangement. The uncollected cards can be grayed out or shown as silhouettes to attract users to see the full picture. In the interaction of synthetic collection cards, bubble text or silhouettes can be used to preview the combined atlas after the cards are collected, thereby stimulating users' enthusiasm for exploration. Satisfy users' sense of finality, as well as their sense of control, satisfaction, and accomplishment when completing tasks, and reduce user anxiety.

3.3.2 Card Obtaining Methods

1) Set up the sign-in gameplay, log in and sign in to get the card.

For short-term activities, users can be given periodic or milestone rewards based on the sign-in gameplay. While obtaining cards every day, they can also receive benefits such as additional coupons or platform rewards to encourage user return and activate user retention. Periodic rewards refer to receiving additional benefits of the same level every day, and obtaining higher-level additional benefits on the last day; milestone rewards refer to receiving additional benefits of gradually increasing levels every three days.

For dates where you fail to sign in, you can invite new users to sign in and get the card, thus introducing more new users to participate to a certain extent.

2) Simplify the card replacement process. A gift card or card exchange button can be provided on the card acquisition pop-up window to recommend users who may need this card (the upper limit of the number of card exchanges can be set). One-click operation simplifies the user's "receive card-give card-find friends-wait" path and saves user time.

3) Set up an appointment return card. Several fixed time periods can be set every day based on user behavior habits, such as lunch time, dinner time, etc., to remind users to return and get their cards, effectively promoting time activity.

4) Set up “Newbie Guide”. Provide appropriate amount of guidance for new users to reduce the initial difficulty and entry threshold for new users to participate in activities, reduce user resistance, and thus help users develop habits.

5) First, give the user a card or the number of opportunities to draw a card. According to the goal increment effect[2], when people believe they are getting closer to their goal, they will be more motivated to complete the task. Before users enter the activity page or do a task for the first time, let them get one or draw a few cards first, so as to create a feeling of ease and effortlessness and that the task is about to be completed. This way, users will be more motivated to collect the remaining cards to achieve the activity goal.

3.3.3 Welfare

Improve the level of rewards. Rewards need to strike a good balance between user incentives and challenges. In the early stages, you can set some low-threshold tasks and simple operations to increase the number of card drops, allowing users to quickly experience the great charm of rewards. In the middle and late stages, the difficulty of the tasks can be gradually increased, the number of card drops can be reduced, and users can be stimulated to continue participating in order to obtain rewards equivalent to those in the early stages.

IV. Case Description

The following are examples of the three types of card collection gameplay:

4.1 Benefit-based

Toutiao's "Collect Cards and Share 500 Million" activity during the Spring Festival fully reflects the characteristics of the profit-based card collection game:

1) First, the activity homepage is laid out in an inverted pyramid structure, so that users can quickly understand the purpose and benefits of the activity, highlight the amount of benefits to hit the interest-oriented users, and use the user's herd mentality to show the number of people who have been gathered, triggering the user's participation motivation, improving authenticity, and eliminating the wait-and-see attitude of new users;

2) Strengthen interest guidance and set up additional Koi red envelopes to strengthen user participation motivation;

3) Secondly, set up rare cards with the word "fa" to attract users to collect cards, and display the number of remaining Koi red envelopes to increase the urgency of the task;

4) By setting up "diamond cards", the types of rewards are enriched and the diversity of rewards is improved. That is, every time you collect a set of "Prosperous Chinese New Year" literal cards, you can not only share a large red envelope, but also synthesize a literal diamond card of "Family Harmony Brings Good Fortune". When you collect a full set of diamond cards, you can share a new large red envelope, which greatly increases the participation motivation of interest-oriented users;

5) Set up a tiered card-earning method - complete tasks to earn card-drawing opportunities. The more tasks you complete, the more card-drawing opportunities you earn, and the more cards you can draw, thus reinforcing user behavior.

4.2 Fun Type

Ele.me's "Food All-round Satisfaction Battle Question and Answer Card Collection" activity, which is mainly aimed at new users, fully reflects the characteristics of the fun card collection gameplay:

1) First, the card is packaged with cute hand-painted images of the twelve zodiac animals, full of traditional Chinese characteristics. The traditional Chinese culture and rich illustrations stimulate users' novel aesthetic interests and attract user participation;

2) The card copy combines the characteristics of different zodiac signs and user pain points, touches the user's instinctive emotions, is close to the user's psychology, and resonates with the user;

3) By creatively packaging the card-collecting form into a contest question-answering format, players can earn points and cards by answering the questions correctly. Collecting all the 12 zodiac animal cards will allow players to challenge the Nian beast for the ultimate prize. This enriches the gameplay of the card-collecting activity and satisfies the curiosity, challenge and sense of achievement of fun-loving users.

4) Stimulate users’ enthusiasm for exploration through the silhouette combination illustrations of the twelve zodiac animals.

4.3 Efficiency

As a management tool APP for accounting, Suishouji’s “Collect Cards to Get Cash” activity reflects the characteristics of efficient card collection gameplay:

1) First, users can get a card with one click by logging in and signing in every day, which lowers the user participation threshold and reduces the fear of "trouble" among efficiency-oriented users;

2) The first card randomly given to users also strengthens their motivation and confidence to participate;

3) According to the hierarchical principle of rewards, low-threshold tasks and simple operations in the early stage, as well as cards with a high probability of dropping, will give users corresponding red envelope rewards when the cards drop, so that users can experience the charm and sense of gain of rewards from the very beginning.

V. Conclusion

As a common SNS interaction, the card collection activity has the greatest feature of being able to deliver a series of content to users through cards, thereby enhancing users' perception of the topic. According to the classification of people participating in the interaction, card collecting activities are divided into three types of gameplay: benefit-based, fun-based, and efficiency-based to attract different user groups. Benefit-based card collecting interaction mainly focuses on the design of benefits, fun-based card collecting interaction mainly focuses on the design of the card surface, and efficiency-based card collecting interaction mainly focuses on the design of the card obtaining method. In actual use, two types are combined or all three types are integrated to attract and meet the needs of more users.

Author: JD Design Center JDC

Source: JD Design Center