The second half of the marketing calendar is a strategic period for brands… Back-to-school, sales, Black Friday and the end-of-year festivities… A succession of high points provide opportunities to engage and convert audiences.

If you don’t want to miss out on an event that will help you achieve your sales objectives, it’s essential to be well prepared. In this article, we take a look at the key events not to be missed in the second half of the year. We also share tips on how to put in place an effective strategy and make campaign execution easier.

SUMMARY

• Second-half marketing calendar: highlights not to be missed
  
• 4 tips to boost your second-half marketing
  

The second half of the year is full of events that punctuate consumers’ lives and offer brands opportunities to engage them. From the summer holidays to the end-of-year festivities, not forgetting commercial festivities such as Black Friday and sales, each high point presents its own challenges and requires meticulous preparation.

Here are the highlights of the second half of the marketing calendar and how to position yourself to maximise these sales opportunities.

Holidays and summer sales (July-August)

The months of July and August are marked by two major events: the summer holidays and the summer sales. The summer holidays represent a challenge for brands. They need to adapt their communications to maintain the link and prepare for the new season. As for the summer sales, this is an opportunity to sell off stocks and boost sales. At this point in the marketing calendar, it is crucial to :

• Leverage an omnichannel strategy (physical and e-commerce) to engage a volatile audience and communicate its offers during the sales period.
  
• Implement a lead recruitment strategy to reach prospects who don’t know the company and boost the impact of sales.
  
• Once the sales are over, focus on customer knowledge and loyalty. August is the time to gather preferences and refine your positioning and offers for the autumn and the final quarter.
  

Back to school (September)

The back-to-school period is a key time for all sectors of activity, from fashion to high-tech, retail and culture. At this time of year in the marketing calendar, consumers are looking for suitable offers, but also attractive prices. Brands can :

• Capitalise on the data they have collected to propose personalised offers. They will meet the expectations of a demanding audience, who are looking for practicality and good deals;
  
• Take advantage of the back-to-school rush to boost their drive-to-store strategy and generate more traffic. It’s an opportunity to forge a bond with customers by encouraging them to visit the shop to discover products and take advantage of benefits (targeted advice, attractive promotions, etc.).
  

Halloween (31 October)

Popular in France, Halloween is a must for the leisure, food and ready-to-wear sectors. Brands can capitalize on the festive atmosphere with creative campaigns, limited collections or immersive experiences to capture attention. It’s a time to build brand awareness and engage your community, via social networks.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (end of November)

These two commercial holidays mark a major peak in consumption, both in-store and online. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are opportunities to clear stock before the holidays, and to capture customers through flash offers and sales.

The challenge for brands is to attract consumers with attractive discounts. But also a smooth shopping experience (optimized logistics, secure payment, etc.).

Christmas and New Year’s Eve (December)

The marketing calendar comes to an end with the festive season. Brands need to attract consumers looking for original gifts. To stand out from the crowd, they need to optimize their offer (gift sets, special editions, personalization services), pricing and logistics. It’s also crucial to reach buyers with engaging storytelling and emotional communication.

Every highlight of the second half of the year represents an opportunity to increase brand visibility, boost sales and build customer loyalty. By anticipating these events and adopting the right approach, companies can maximize their impact and capitalize on consumer trends.

Careful planning and a good understanding of your audience are essential to turn these appointments into successes. Here are 4 ways to stand out in the second half of the marketing calendar!

1. Anticipate your campaigns

In marketing, anticipation is key. It’s essential to plan sales actions several months in advance to ensure smooth, efficient execution.
Planning your marketing calendar allows you to :

• Positioning of highlights according to strategic objectives, audience expectations and marketing budget;
  
• Define a coherent strategy for each highlight,
  
• Optimize advertising budgets (to avoid a tricky situation before the Christmas holidays).
  
• Ensure smooth logistics management (stock optimisation, etc.)
  

A structured marketing calendar facilitates the implementation of campaigns and avoids hasty actions that could impact on the brand’s performance and image.

2. A high point, a marketing objective

Each event in the marketing calendar must be linked to specific objectives:

• Acquiring new customers and increasing sales for Black Friday
  
• Conversion and loyalty during the festive season,
  
• Branding and animating the community for Halloween,
  
• Customer knowledge and preference gathering during August.
  

3. Capitalise on relevant gamification mechanisms

To position themselves at the best times, brands need to identify the interactive mechanisms that are relevant to their objectives. Their choice must take account of each event and the related strategic objective.

Instant Win games (a Wheel of Fortune or a scratch-off game) are suited to conversion objectives and to a commercial holiday such as Black Friday. More creative mechanics such as competitions and challenges are ideal for promotion and branding objectives and for high points such as the summer holidays or Halloween.

4. Measure and improve your marketing strategy on an ongoing basis

Conclusion

Every event in the marketing calendar represents an opportunity for your brand to increase its visibility, boost sales and build audience loyalty. By anticipating these highlights and deploying a strategy tailored to your audience, you can maximise the impact of your speaking engagements and achieve your sales objectives. Plan your second half of the year using our dedicated guide and turn these meetings into sales successes by distributing our marketing games.

You’re probably familiar with Candy Crush Saga. Launched in 2012, it is the world’s most popular digital game, attracting more than 240 million monthly active players and accumulating more than 3 billion downloads.

Candy Crush is based on a simple Match 3 principle: line up identical items (in this case 3), swapping their positions to make them disappear and score points. Easy to learn and addictive, this mechanic is an asset for brands looking to energise their campaigns and captivate their audiences.

In this article, we explain how to create an online Match 3 game and customise it so that it fits into your world. We share examples of how to use this format as a recruitment and loyalty tool.

SUMMARY

• Why integrate the match 3 game into your marketing campaigns?
  
• Our tips for creating an engaging online match-3 game
  

Le jeu de Match 3 est un format ludique, intuitif et captivant que les marques peuvent intégrer à leur stratégie marketing. Cette mécanique est utilisée pour engager, convertir et fidéliser son audience. Voici les raisons de l’adopter pour optimiser sa communication et faire évoluer les utilisateurs au sein du funnel de vente.

1. To boost your profile

The Match 3 game is ideal for attracting an audience because it is well-known and appreciated. Simple and addictive, it captures attention and increases brand visibility.

It’s easy to customise the design to reflect the brand’s visual identity and immerse customers and prospects. By adding functionalities (a ranking and the ability to share your score), Match 3 can go viral and amplify the reach of a campaign (on social networks).

Example: As part of the Men’s World Handball Championship, Lidl proposed a campaign aimed at increasing brand awareness through this partnership. The game was positioned as a strategic lever for capturing data and recruiting qualified leads in affinity with the brand.

2. To engage your audience

Le jeu de Match 3 plonge les utilisateurs dans un univers fun et interactif. Les marques suscitent des émotions positives liées au divertissement, mais aussi à la possibilité de progresser dans le jeu et de remporter des récompenses. 

De par son caractère addictif, le Match 3 permet de prolonger l’interaction entre la marque et son audience et de multiplier les points de contact (via le suivi des scores ou l’ajout de nouveaux niveaux). 

Exemple : La campagne de jeu Fêtes de Mères de SFR Caraïbes avait pour objectif d’accroître la notoriété de la marque tout en engageant son audience. Portée par la médiatisation Adictiz Ads, elle a rencontré un succès avec un engagement remarquable : chaque participant a passé en moyenne 11min sur le jeu.

3. To generate leads

Les marques peuvent utiliser le Match 3 pour enrichir leur base données et collecter de nouveaux leads. Pour accèder au jeu ou aux récompenses, les participants doivent remplir un formulaire d’inscription. Les informations collectées pourront être utilisées pour segmenter les leads (selon leur profil et leurs comportements ou interactions avec le jeu). 

Ce format peut être un outil de conversion, via les récompenses distribuées. Ces dernières sont des incitations à l’achat (comme des promos ou coupons de réduction à utiliser sur la prochaine commande).

Exemple : La campagne Floa Sweets était une opération dédiée à la visibilité et la notoriété autour de l’app mobile Floa Bank, afin de favoriser son utilisation. La mécanique Match 3 a permis à Floa de recruter de nouveaux utilisateurs et de les fidéliser tout en boostant les téléchargements d’app. 

4. To enhance your database

Pour finir, le jeu de Match 3 permettant aux marques d’enrichir leur base client, en collectant des données : 

• démographiques (via le formulaire de participation),
• comportementales (via le suivi des interactions des joueurs), 
• des feedbacks directs (en incluant des micro-sondages en début ou en fin de partie). 

Les données obtenues permettront de créer des campagnes marketing (de retargeting) ultra ciblées. Par exemple, un utilisateur ayant débloqué tous les niveaux pourrait recevoir une offre ou un message personnalisé. 

Exemple : La campagne Ecoline d’Electrolux a été lancée dans le but d’engager les consommateurs sur la réduction de leur consommation d’énergie. En parallèle, la marque avait pour objectif de recruter de nouveaux leads opt-ins. La campagne de médiatisation a dépassé les objectifs avec plus de 70% des inscrits apportés par la source Adictiz Ads.

Before launching a gamified marketing campaign, here are a few practices to follow to ensure it is as effective as possible.

1. What software should I use to create a match 3 game?

Advertisers can use platforms specialising in playable marketing to create their match 3 game. These tools offer an intuitive interface and functionality tailored to their needs. They can be used to personalise their marketing game, optimise its distribution or track campaign performance.

2. How do I customise my match 3 game?

Avec Adictiz Box, il est possible de personnaliser entièrement son jeu pour qu’il reflète l’identité de sa marque. Elle pourra adapter les éléments graphiques (fonds, couleurs, icônes) aux valeurs et à l’univers visuel. Il est possible de configurer la difficulté du jeu et d’introduire des niveaux pour prolonger l’engagement. 

3. How do you manage endowments?

Les dotations sont essentielles pour motiver les participants. Les outils de gamification permettent de gérer facilement les récompenses. Qu’il s’agisse de bons de réduction, d’échantillons gratuits ou de cadeaux physiques. Les annonceurs peuvent configurer des mécaniques de gains aléatoires ou conditionnelles (à partir d’un score minimum), et automatiser l’attribution des lots pour simplifier la gestion.

4. Can someone take charge of my campaign?

For companies lacking the time or resources to manage their campaign, Adictiz offers turnkey support via Adictiz Studio. The agency’s teams take charge of the creation, design and optimisation of the campaign.

5. How can I make my campaign more visible?

Pour maximiser l’impact d’un jeu de match 3, les marques peuvent faire appel à une Agence Média. Cette dernière se chargera de la promouvoir via des campagnes publicitaires ciblées sur les réseaux sociaux. Mais aussi des partenariats avec des influenceurs ou encore des actions multicanales pour booster la visibilité du jeu et la notoriété.

6. How can I track the performance of my campaign?

Thanks to a gamified marketing tool, companies can easily track their KPIs using detailed dashboards. These allow you to monitor your metrics in real time. For example, the number of players, average time spent or data collected (leads). These insights will help advertisers adjust their strategy and achieve better results.

Conclusion

Creating an online match 3 game is an effective strategy for animating your community and boosting engagement. With Adictiz, the design and delivery of your campaign is seamless and easy to adapt to your objectives and your audience!

With budgets back in hand, new purchasing intentions and the sprint towards the end of the year, the strategic stakes are enormous… as long as you know where to place your efforts. So how do you get the fourth term off to a good start and maximise the impact of your back-to-school communications? In this article, we share some tips, inspired by examples of successful campaigns.

SUMMARY

• The major marketing challenges of the autumn
  
• 3 tips for a successful back-to-school sales operation
  

Here are the marketing issues that brands need to anticipate in order to maximise the impact of their back-to-school sales operation.

1. Boost brand awareness and generate new leads

After the summer, brands need to reconnect with their audience and capture new leads. This is a good time to launch brand awareness campaigns, via social networks, displays and influencer partnerships.

The statistic to remember: Nearly 4 out of 5 French people (79%) are planning to change their habits for the start of the new school year.

The marketing action to launch: a marketing campaign on social networks with an engaging format to maximise the brand’s visibility.

An example to follow: For its ‘Back to School’ campaign, SFR has used the Match 3 mechanic to promote the start of the new school year. This addictive game
recruited over 4,200 leads and generated 38 games played per participant. The Adictiz Ads media campaign generated 98% participation, a vital factor in the game’s visibility.

2. Refine customer knowledge to improve future marketing campaigns

September is a good time to collect customer data (via surveys or interactive quizzes). This enables brands to understand their audience’s expectations. They can target their future campaigns and maximise their return on investment (ROI).

The statistic to remember: 83% of consumers are willing to share their preferences with a brand in exchange for a personalised experience. And brands that exploit first-party data generate 2.9 times more revenue.

Marketing action to launch: Brands can share an interactive Personality Test to understand their customers’ needs. Customers will be redirected to product pages or retargeted by email with targeted offers.

Example to follow: The interactive quiz shared by Ma Gare+ as part of its back-to-school game enabled the company to collect data. It was able to identify station services likely to be of interest to its customers.

3. Capitalize on purchase intentions to improve conversion

With school and work starting up again, consumers are on a buying spree. Whether it’s for school supplies, clothing, electronics or services. Brands have a window of opportunity to convert these intentions into sales or account creation.

The statistic to remember: At the start of the school year, families spend an average of 304 euros per person.

The marketing action to launch: Consumers are likely to make a purchase or create an account in exchange for a discount or reward. Brands can boost their conversion rate by proposing a welcome offer (a discount on the first order) or by distributing discount coupons via a 100% winning instant.

An example to follow: For the back-to-school season, Kiabi launched a campaign focusing on lead generation and conversion, with attractive prizes including vouchers. Thanks to media coverage via Adictiz Ads, the operation achieved an opt-in rate of 68%, testifying to the brand’s commitment and the effectiveness of the campaign.

4. Build loyalty and prepare for the last three months of the year

The last quarter of the year (Q4) is crucial, with events such as Black Friday, the autumn sales and the festive season. Building customer loyalty from September onwards maximises sales over this period and reduces the budget for future campaigns.

The statistic to remember: A loyal customer spends on average 67% more than a new customer (Source: Harvard Business Review). Not to mention that attracting a new customer costs five times more than bringing one back.

The marketing campaign to launch: to boost your retention rate, there’s nothing better than an innovative loyalty programme. This will encourage consumers to buy again by giving them access to attractive discounts or previews of Black Friday offers.

A good example: In 2021, Decathlon has decided to transform its loyalty programme into an inclusive offer, enabling customers to collect points through various actions (their interactions with the brand) and no longer just when they make purchases. The catalogue of rewards has been expanded, giving programme members the opportunity to spend their points with partners.

To maximise the impact of their back-to-school communications, brands need to put the right strategy in place. Here are three tips for optimising your operation and achieving concrete results.

1. Identify your objectives and your target’s needs

A back-to-school marketing campaign therefore needs to be tailored to the audience’s expectations. To do this, brands need to collect data. Marketing games will enable them to analyse behaviour and qualify leads.

2. Stand out from other advertising campaigns

The back-to-school period is a time when consumers are in high demand. Brands need to rely on engaging formats and <a href="https://staging.adictiz.com/guide-dotation/
“>attractive prizes to capture their attention. Playing on emotion and storytelling is a way of resonating with the aspirations of their community.

3. Use omnichannel marketing to maximize the impact of your back-to-school sales campaign

Consumers are constantly moving from one channel to another: they consult a product on their mobile, read a review on social networks and then complete their purchase in-store. A coherent omnichannel strategy can support this journey and multiply the points of contact. To do this, brands can communicate online and in their physical outlets, offer drive-to-store operations and explore co-branding.

Conclusion

The key to a successful back-to-school campaign is a strategic approach that combines personalization, engagement and channel diversification. By properly targeting your objectives, you can create a much more effective campaign and maximize your chances of capturing and converting your audience. All you have to do is choose from our various marketing game mechanics!