Winter Wins
Read the story- Brand
- SPAR
- Year
- 2026
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Retail
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Playable
Objective
January and February are the leanest months for convenience retail, as shoppers tighten their belts after the holidays. SPAR North of England wholesaler James Hall & Co., together with retail arm G&E Murgatroyd and independent SPAR retailers, built Winter Wins to pull customers back into stores during that slump and lift visit frequency and voucher redemption. The campaign also gave 15 supplier brands, including platinum sponsors Carlsberg Britvic, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and KIND, visibility in the prize pool while collecting customer contact details at sign-up.
Solution
Shoppers in the SPAR North of England catchment sign up on winterwins.co.uk with their name, email, mobile number, postcode and year of birth, then go straight into Ice Breaker: a block of ice fills the screen, and tapping it again and again cracks it open to reveal instantly whether they've won. There's one crack at Ice Breaker per day; playing three days running unlocks a bonus spin-to-win wheel where a prize is always guaranteed, and that bonus resets on the same three-day cycle. Any win triggers an SMS with a link to a digital voucher, redeemable in participating SPAR stores within seven days. Every first daily play and every bonus spin also earns an entry into the separate £10,000 grand-prize draw.
Results
Across its 42 days (2 January – 18 February 2026), Winter Wins drew 60,000 participants across the north of England — 20% more than the previous Jet Set Jackpot campaign in summer 2025 — who racked up 750,000 Ice Breaker plays and 210,000 bonus-wheel spins. Of the 275,000+ instant rewards issued, 32% were redeemed in stores, a record rate for the retailer's campaigns; £3-off SPAR vouchers reached 67% redemption, and all 26 voucher types cleared at least 11%.
- 1
Shoppers encounter the Winter Wins promotion at participating SPAR stores in the north of England and follow it to a standalone website, winterwins.co.uk, where entry is free and requires no purchase. A short sign-up form collects name, email, UK mobile number, postcode and year of birth, with the postcode restricting entry to the SPAR North of England catchment area.
- 2
The core loop is a daily mini-game called Ice Breaker: a block of ice appears on screen and the player taps it repeatedly until it cracks open, instantly revealing whether they've won a prize. Each registered player gets one attempt per day.
- 3
A win delivers an SMS with a link to a digital voucher for a branded product or a SPAR discount. Vouchers must be redeemed in a participating north of England SPAR store within 7 days and cannot be combined with other offers.
- 4
Playing Ice Breaker on three separate days unlocks a bonus game, so the bonus round becomes available roughly once every three days for a returning player.
- 5
In the bonus round, the player clicks a wheel to spin it; every spin pays out a guaranteed reward with no losing outcome.
- 6
Each player's first counted daily attempt and every bonus-round attempt are automatically entered into a draw for a £10,000 grand prize, so playing the bonus more often increases the player's odds.
- 7
The promotion ran through 18 February 2026, after which the grand-prize winner was announced: Aisha Bo, a 26-year-old employment consultant from Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust, won the £10,000.
