Google required a festive experiential 'advent calendar' styled promotion based around their 'watch this space' campaign which promotes the value of web media spaces and their invaluable traffic analytics. Moving the idea towards the opening of real doors around central London rather than little cardboard ones and prizes like Galaxy tablets and phones rather than dodgy chocolates, we needed an effective and fun way of 'playing' the game and joining in.

As the delivery mechanism was to be a 'live' door announced at midday on the day with a 'race' to the prize, traditional print collateral simply wouldn't do the job. So, embracing social media and tech by the neck we utilised an android app tied into Google Maps GPS system to provide the gaming element, facebook to encourage participation and downloading of the app and twitter for 'live' door announcements and running commentaries. All 3 also provided valuable eCRM data for the future as the promotion ran.

Just like the childrens' game, the app showed you getting warmer or cooler the nearer you got to the prize. Once within 20 metres the app updated you as to whether the prize had been found and encouraging you to run if not. In all we were able to run the race for 10 doors throughout December. The Advent doors themselves were very different each time - ranging from a standard shop door, a washing machine door in a launderette and even a changing room curtain. Despite very tight deadlines the app functioned perfectly and the promotion very well received. The secret to the success of the app was to really simplify and hone down exactly what was required from the app before beginning the coding. The flow diagram shown below is version 17!