How to Launch a Scratch Card Online Campaign [with Ideas]

Picture of Kalev Kärpuk
Kalev Kärpuk

The mini-thrill we get when scratching a card and hoping for a big win, followed by instant mini-disappointment when we see the “better luck next time message,” is – priceless.

Even if there’s no chance to scratch our way out of poverty, there’s something special just in the possibility that you can win something by doing nothing! All that makes scratch cards an immortal promotional tactic.

Here, we’ll explore how to get your potential customers hooked on playing scratch cards online, drawing them to your brand through your creative and fun campaigns. We’ll also explain how online scratch cards work and give you some ideas on launching your campaign easily using a gamification platform such as Adact, so stay tuned.

What is gamification marketing

Gamification in Marketing is often something people can refer to as a buzzword or a concept they are vaguely familiar with but it is rarely something marketers actually know what or how to do or where to begin.

Overall think about gamification in marketing as you would think about “How can I create a dialogue with my audience?”. How would it be possible to create an experience where your audience can interact with your message.

While standard marketing is just one way – company sends out a message, pays to distribute it and then hoping it will stick to someone. Like throwing a spaghetti to a wall and see what sticks.

Gamification marketing is inviting those people over for dinner and including them in your message.

You can achieve that with different types of gamification marketing. Here are some examples of gamification marketing types:

  • Trivia games – You ask questions from your audience and invite people to answer those questions. It can be to test the knowledge or to prove a point. 
  • Prediction games – As a marketer you can invite people to give their opinion about the future and listen to their input.
  • Branded minigames – The most fun and engaging way to include your potential customers is to invite them over to play a game that reflects your brand. 
  • Wheel of Fortune and other lotteries – Instead of just giving out a discount or a prize to people you invite users to interact to get the prize.
Here we explained some ideas to use for the upcoming Easter Holiday Campaigns

Take a look at some case studies on successful gamification marketing campaigns below

Gamification Marketing Case Studies

In Gamification Marketing we use game mechanics and simple interactions in order to create a two-way dialogue with our audience instead of a 1 way monologue.

Thanks to the power of games we know that out of all the players who participate – a whopping 97% of them will finish the entire experience!

Furthermore if someone wins a prize via a Gamified marketing campaign, they are 80% more likely to redeem that prize because of loss aversion – people do not want to lose something that they have already won and by not using the prize they are essentially losing their winnings.

It can even help you make sales, as you can offer discount codes and coupons as game prizes. That is where online scratch card games come into play as an ideal option.

Scratch card online: Why to use digital scratchcards?

Interactive scratchcards tap into the familiar and exciting experience of revealing hidden prizes, seamlessly transitioning this thrill into the digital realm.

The use of digital scratchcards in marketing initiatives offers several benefits.

4 reasons of using digital scractchcards

  1. Firstly, they enhance user engagement through an interactive and fun activity, significantly boosting customer interaction with the brand.
  2. Secondly, these scratchcards can be easily customized and branded, providing a unique opportunity for businesses to creatively showcase their products or services.
  3. Moreover, digital scratchcards facilitate valuable data collection, such as user preferences and behaviors, which can be instrumental in tailoring future marketing strategies.
  4. Perhaps most importantly, they are environmentally friendly and cost-effective compared to physical scratchcards, eliminating printing and distribution costs.

Implementing online digital scratchcards in your marketing strategy not only captivates the audience with an instant-win allure but also fosters brand loyalty and increases the likelihood of repeated customer interaction, making them an innovative and smart choice for any digital marketing campaign.

Besides being much simpler to launch than physical scratch cards, as you don’t have to design or print anything nor distribute them to players, online scratch card campaigns also offer some clear benefits:

Attracting new customers

Who doesn’t like an opportunity to win a prize? Especially when playing a free online scratch cards game which is simple and fun. Because of this, people who are not your current customers will get drawn to play scratch cards only because they want to participate and potentially win some of the prizes – whether some of your products, other gifts, discounts, vouchers or something similar.

Encouraging repeat purchases

If you offer existing customers to play online scratch cards during the checkout phase, they will get a chance to earn discounts on their next purchase. If you make the code last for a limited time, you can even trigger urgency. Because of this, online scratch cards are an excellent way to keep customers coming back.

Building customer loyalty

Giving customers a chance to win prizes, especially on special occasions such as Christmas, July the 4th or similar, will show them that you care. That will help build customer loyalty and maintain long-term relationships, which are exceptionally important for any healthy business.

How to create a digital online scratchcard

Creating a Digital Scratchcard is one of the easiest yet one of the most technically complicated things you can do if you were to build it yourself.

Luckily with Adact only the easy part remains and Adact gamification marketing software enables you to build your entire next online digital scratchcard campaign within 10 minutes.

First we will show you how to exactly create a campaign and then we will explain the red flags and what makes it complicated to build if you want to build the digital scratchcard campaigns on your own.

Step 1: Decide on your designs

You need 3 designs:

  1. Firstly the campaign background
  2. Then the cover image what will be scratched
  3. Lastly an image for each prize that can be revealed.

Here I will use the following images to fully create  a digital scratchcard campaign

Background image for my campaign

Cover image to scratch

Prize to be revealed (One image for each possible prize)

Step 2: Drag all the designs to Adact

Online scratchers replace scratching lottery tickets with clicking. Depending on the app you use to create it, you either need to click on a scratch card to uncover what is behind the “film” or click and hold while moving your mouse to simulate scratching with a coin.

With Adact you can literally just drag all the designs into one place and the interaction layer is done.

By using Adact gamification marketing software, you can 100% customize and edit all possible views, forms and the look and feel of the campaign.

Step 3: Set the prize winning probabilities on the digital scratchcard

In Adact this is made ridicoulously easy. Let me show you how to set up all your prizes

 

On the right you can see the settings for each prize you can edit. Let me cover the most crucial options

  • Amount of prizes – You can either specify the number you have or set to unlimited
  • Prize Winning Probability – set the winning probability. You can also have it as the Default prize – if the player does not win anything else then they win this.
  • # of times 1 player can win this prize – Do you want to make sure one person does not get more than 1? Toggle this on
  • Prize Code – Do you have your own discount codes? Add them into the software!
  • Limits – How many of this prize in total are you willing to give out each day? Great to spread the prizes across your campaign duration!

So once you have added your prizes in to the software you will get a clean overview of all the prizes you currently have set out and also how many of them have been already awarded. 

Adact is one of the only software that allows you to modify the prizes and their probabilities during a campaign. This is extremely helpful as some of the rare prizes may need a little nudge in the right direction towards the end of the campaign if you have still not given them out!

What happens if someone wins? Adact provides you with several options

For example you can: 

  1. automatically e-mail them the prize code and other information
  2. show the player different information based on which prize was won
  3. redirect them to a different page depending on which prize they won
Of course you are also free to choose how do you want to distribute the scratchcard. Here are the main 4 options usually used to distribute gamification marketing campaigns

Ideas for your next scratch card online campaign

Here are some of the situations in which online scratch cards fit perfectly:

Upselling

If you offer a digital scratch card at the point of sale, the prize can trigger an upsell if the customer wins a discount for a bigger package or an accessory. And we have described how digital scratch cards can trigger repeat purchases, which is another thing that will boost your revenue.

Special events

Special events such as holidays, Black Friday, company anniversaries or even customers’ birthdays are excellent opportunities and a good reason to send scratch card games to customers.

Conferences and exhibitions

Scratch cards are a perfect companion for conferences and exhibitions. While you can go old-school and print them, you can also send them to any potential customer you exchange contact information with or those buying from you and use them to trigger future purchases.

Loyalty rewards

While customers will collect loyalty points to get future discounts, early-bird promotions or similar, you can also send free scratch cards before they reach a milestone or unlock the next points level. That way, you will keep them engaged, and they will want to keep coming back.

Scratch card online campaign with Adact

There are many reasons Adact should be your go-to choice for creating your next scratch card games online campaign, but let’s name a few:

  • Easy configuration: You can easily set the prize win probability, making the game as easy or difficult as you like.
  • Detailed analytics: Adact will show you statistics about your campaign, providing insights into what works and what needs fixing, allowing you to improve your future campaigns and other marketing activities.
  • A plethora of other games: While scratch cards are fantastic, having options is always good. Adact offers dozens of games to ensure all your future marketing and sales activities remain fun and fresh.
  • Simple to use and flexible: Adact has a database of pre-configured templates that will help you get going. With them, you don’t even have to build your scratch card games from scratch!
  • Easy incorporation of your brand elements: Adact lets you create a fully branded game, which will help you with brand recognition, as players will see brand elements everywhere.

Conclusion

Scratch cards are an excellent way to do something nice for your existing customer base and build loyalty, but also for raising brand awareness, drawing new customers in, upselling and running promotions. Because of this flexibility, they deserve their place in different sales funnel stages.

Adact lets you quickly create and configure your gamification marketing activities and run digital campaigns. With many games and customizable templates, you will never run out of ideas. Try Adact now and start working on your custom gamification marketing campaign today.

Scratch card online campaign: FAQs

What is an online scratch card?

An online scratch card is a digital version of classic physical scratch-off games. Instead of scratching a paper card with a coin or nail, players use mouse movements to uncover the prize beneath a custom picture.

Can you play scratch online?

Yes, with apps such as Adact, creating and playing online scratch games is simple. Adact offers pre-configured templates that will get you started, so you don’t need to design everything yourself – just edit the template.

How to make a scratch card online?

The best way to do this is with gamification software such as Adact. Upon signing up, you will be able to select a campaign type, after which you can easily configure the prizes, win probability and include brand elements into your online scratch card game.

Is there a scratch card app?

Adact is an excellent choice for building your online scratch card game. You can fully customize it and later use it in your sales and marketing activities. But, Adact also lets you pick from dozens of other online games, so you never run out of marketing and promotional ideas.

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What to expect from the 30 minute demo call:

  • You will learn how to easily launch gamification marketing campaings
  • Find solutions for your specific use cases
  • We will cover case studies and success stories similar to your brand
  • Discuss flexible pricing options
  • If possible, we will create your own designed campaign during the call together
  • Make sure you leave with a new found knowledge of gamification marketing innovations
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