Peek & Poke’s Mince Pie Mayhem | Case Study

“This year we wanted to do more than just say thank you; we wanted to show, in practice, what a festive game campaign can really do. This gave us a live example we could point to while also being a genuinely fun way to spend time with our wider client base. It felt generous, playful, and very ‘us.’”

Christina Horton, Digital Marketing Manager, Peek & Poke

Mince Pie Mayhem, Peek & Poke's Christmas Client Thankyou Campaign Calendar Doors

Gameplay of Mince Pie Mayhem, a branded maze game from Peek & Poke

What happened when clients pressed play

In just seven days, the campaign quietly delivered big engagement.

~1,000 visits to the game
169 unique players
4,321 total gameplays

That’s an average of 26 plays per person. Not clicks, not views, but active, repeat gameplay.

Players didn’t dip in once and disappear. They came back day after day to unlock new prizes, climb the leaderboard, and outscore colleagues.

Across the week, the average player spent 26 minutes actively playing, a level of attention most festive emails can only dream of.

By the end of the campaign:

Almost everyone who started the game qualified to enter
Over 75% submitted a competition entry
40% opted in to hear more from Peek & Poke

Behind the scenes, our marketing team tracked performance using both the game dashboard and Google Analytics, giving us a clear view of how players were engaging, where they were coming from, and how the advent calendar and game were being discovered and revisited.

Why it worked: built for “just one more go”

This wasn’t just a game; it was a system designed to reward return visits.

Daily prizes created momentum
The leaderboard fuelled friendly competition
The digital advent calendar turned one game into a week‑long experience

All wrapped up in a generous, festive thank-you, not a sales message. It felt fun. It felt personal. And it felt worth coming back for.

The big takeaway: play beats presents 🎁

Branded games aren’t just about grabbing attention in a noisy moment.

When you pair smart mechanics, daily rewards, competition, and time-limited access with genuinely enjoyable gameplay, you can hold attention for days. Even with an audience that already knows your brand.

For Peek & Poke, this campaign didn’t just say thank you.

It became a living, playable example of how interactive games can outperform traditional festive comms and why play beats presents every time.

“The results speak for themselves, but the highlight for us was seeing the competition unfold in real time. Watching the leaderboard shift day by day, and hearing directly from the daily prize winners, really brought the campaign to life.”

Christina Horton, Digital Marketing Manager, Peek & Poke

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