COMPANY WIDE DIGITAL ADVENT CALENDARS

Interactive digital advent calendars are an absolute client favourite of ours. They get the whole company involved in something during the festive season and it incorporates a bit of fun into employees’ day-to-day routine too. Not only this, but it’s perfect for companies that are virtual or hybrid working because the digital aspect means anyone can get involved no matter where they are.

Some advent calendars can be themed (e.g. Christmas-related chocolates) with clues behind each door to get your team’s brains thinking so they can identify what’s behind the door, or others could be more generous and have daily prizes (as big or small as you want) behind them. If you wanted to create some suspense around the advent calendars, you could distribute 24 prizes between all of the advent calendars so that everyone opens theirs to see who got the prize for that day!

At Reflect we love a bit of psychology and human behaviour, and there are loads of psychological principles involved with advent calendars too which is why they link in so nicely with employee engagement. What’s not to love?!

#1 POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

First and foremost advent calendars create positive reinforcement for whoever is opening them because they get a reward for an action (i.e. they get whatever is behind the little door in return for opening the door). This feeling of being rewarded encourages them to repeat the action to receive the same reward again.

In terms of employee engagement, this encouragement to repeat the action means that the likelihood of employees continuing to open their calendars each day is high. This also means that your investment is likely to be taken up and enjoyed by employees so your budget will be well spent.

#2 ACHIEVEMENT & ACCOMPLISHMENT

Advent calendars also create a sense of achievement and accomplishment because the person opening them is completing a stage each day, kind of like ticking something off of your to-do list - you feel good after doing it.

Linking in with this, digital advent calendars also act as a tangible countdown up to Christmas which can act as a motivator in itself to keep employees going up until the final working day before Christmas. On that note, did you know that advent calendars stem from 19th-century Germany? Protestants would draw chalk lines on their wooden doors to countdown the days until Christmas! Luckily for us, this tradition has evolved over time to turn into what we know today as modern-day advent calendars.

#3 NOSTALGIA

Most of us remember that feeling of opening up our advent calendar’s doors each day, eager to know what design or decoration was on the chocolate behind it. Whether we were opening them by the Christmas tree in the morning before school, or at the dinner table as a treat after dinner, we can relate that these are fond memories.

Well, when your employees open up an advent calendar those fond memories are likely to subconsciously come flooding back and make them feel a sense of nostalgia about their childhoods.

Nostalgia marketing is big business, and given the current climate, we can’t think of a more perfect time to put it to good use. Have you ever noticed how brands start to bring out and recreate old campaigns from around 30/40 years ago in times of widespread difficulty? That’s because they’re playing on the power of nostalgia marketing. They want to subconsciously transport their customers back to a time when they felt safe, secure, and comfy (i.e. their childhoods).

Advent calendars work on the same premise, just on a smaller scale! So this year, with all that’s happening in the world, why not engage your employees and make them feel safe and secure at work by bringing in advent calendars for the festive season?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

So we’ve provided you with some inspiration on how you can get your employees engaged in the run-up to Christmas this year. Whether your team works remotely, in the office, or a mix of both, digital advent calendars are a great way to bring some festive fun into the workplace. After all, happy staff leads to increased productivity going into 2023 so that you can strengthen your bottom line!

At Reflect, we’re obsessed with anything like this which is why we’ve created digital advent calendar services and a pre-made advent calendar for you to use of our own to help spread the joy even further! This way, clients can have an advent calendar bespoke to their brand, or they can use ours to bring the festive spirit to their employees.

If you’re interested, get in touch with our festive team to find out more! You can also take a look at our demo advent calendar here.