The Advent Calendar
Open the game- Brand
- Heschung
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Studio Meta
Objective
Heschung needed to hold shoppers' attention through the most crowded weeks of the retail calendar and give them a reason to keep coming back to the brand rather than a competitor. An online advent calendar turned the run-up to Christmas into a daily ritual, pulling visitors back to the site — and to Heschung's Instagram — every day in December when gift-buying decisions were being made.
Solution
Visitors land on a grid of 24 numbered doors, one for each day of December. Opening a door isn't a simple click — players have to click and hold, watching it ease open to reveal that day's surprise: a small resolution-themed message or gift idea from Heschung. To actually win something, players then head over to Instagram, follow @heschungofficial, and tag two friends in the comments of that day's post for a shot at the daily prize draw. Each door can only be opened on its date, so the session ends there and the ritual resets at midnight with a new door, a new message, and a new contest, running the full 24 days through Christmas Eve.
- 1
The player lands on Heschung's holiday microsite (noel2018.heschung.com), where a title screen reads "A day, a resolution, a gift" and introduces a 24-day advent calendar tied to New Year's resolutions. The only action is a "Discover" button.
- 2
Discover leads into an intro scene, then onto the calendar itself: a 24-day interactive grid of surprises framed as "Heschung has 24 surprises for you."
- 3
Each day's door opens with a press-and-hold gesture rather than a simple click, and the site uses custom transitions and filter effects between scenes.
- 4
Opening a day reveals a brand surprise paired with a prize meant to help the player keep a New Year's resolution; the prize itself stays hidden until the day it goes live.
- 5
Winning that day's prize moves the player off-site to Instagram, where they must follow @heschungofficial and comment on the day's post tagging two friends.
- 6
One winner per day is drawn at random and contacted by Instagram DM within two days, with a week to respond before the prize is forfeited; 24 prizes are given out in total, one per day.
- 7
The loop resets daily from December 1 to 24, 2018, each visit unlocking a new door, new surprise, and new prize chance, with the campaign also running across Instagram, Facebook, email, and Heschung's main site.
