Christmas is a brilliant time for brands to get creative. But with every business competing for attention, inboxes overflowing with festive offers and customers being bombarded with promotions, standing out isn’t always easy. If you’re looking for Christmas customer engagement ideas that go beyond another discount code or predictable Christmas giveaway, you’ve come to the right place!
The festive season presents a huge opportunity to connect with customers, reward their loyalty, attract new audiences and give people a reason to choose your brand over the competition. And the good news? You don’t necessarily need an enormous marketing budget or a campaign worthy of a John Lewis Christmas advert to make an impact.
Sometimes, all it takes is a great idea, the right incentive and a little festive creativity.
So, whether you’re planning a Christmas competition, looking to reward loyal customers or hoping to give your next marketing promotion a boost, here are some ideas to help your brand make an impression this Christmas.
1. Run a Christmas competition worth getting excited about
Let’s start with a festive classic: the Christmas competition.
Competitions are a great way to create excitement around your brand, encourage participation and potentially reach new audiences. But the prize you choose can make a big difference. After all, which sounds more exciting? A chance to win a branded notebook and pen, or the opportunity to enjoy a luxury weekend getaway?
Exactly.
Consider offering a prize that people might not usually treat themselves to. Think hot air balloon rides, supercar driving experiences, luxury spa days, fine dining or even a helicopter flight.
At Virgin Incentives, we help businesses source unforgettable experiences that make brilliant competition prizes, whether you’re planning a social media giveaway, an email campaign or simply searching for Christmas customer engagement ideas.
Our top tip: Don’t make entering your competition unnecessarily complicated. Decide what you want to achieve first, whether that’s increasing brand awareness, encouraging purchases or attracting relevant leads, and build your entry mechanic around that objective.
For example, if you’re trying to attract potential customers, a competition promoted through a relevant landing page may be more valuable than simply chasing social media likes. And remember to make the prize relevant to your audience. A family day out might be ideal for a family-focused brand, while a luxury getaway could work brilliantly for a travel or lifestyle campaign.
Before launching your festive giveaway, make sure you’ve got the important details covered. The Advertising Standards Authority has useful guidance on running prize draws fairly, including setting clear entry requirements, communicating your terms and conditions and choosing winners appropriately. A little planning now can save plenty of headaches later!
2. Add some festive excitement with an on-pack promotion
Want to give customers another reason to choose your product from the shelf this Christmas? An on-pack promotion could be just the thing.
Imagine a customer browsing the supermarket for their usual Christmas treats. They spot your product, but this time there’s something extra on the packaging:
“Buy this product for your chance to WIN an unforgettable experience!”
Suddenly, that everyday purchase becomes a little more exciting. On-pack promotions can be particularly effective for brands looking to encourage trial, stand out in a competitive retail environment or give shoppers an extra reason to purchase.
And the prizes don’t have to break the bank. You could offer a handful of headline experiences, such as a luxury hotel stay or hot air balloon flight, alongside smaller prizes or gift cards to give more customers a chance to win something. Our range of experiences and gift cards can be used as promotional prizes, giving businesses plenty of Christmas customer engagement ideas when planning their campaigns.
Our top tip: Keep the entry process simple and make the prize immediately obvious on your packaging. A clear call to action and an easy-to-follow QR code or promotional website can help customers understand how to participate.
When planning your on-pack promotion, remember that the packaging needs to do more than catch someone’s eye. Make sure customers can easily understand the offer, how to enter and any important restrictions. The ASA’s promotional marketing guidance is a useful starting point when putting your campaign together.
3. Give your loyal customers a little Christmas thank you
Christmas isn’t just about attracting new customers. It’s also a great opportunity to show some appreciation to the people who’ve supported your business throughout the year. And sometimes, a thoughtful thank you can mean more than another promotional email.
Customer loyalty isn’t something brands can afford to take for granted. Research from Qualtrics highlights how closely customer trust is linked to repeat purchases and recommendations. That’s why Christmas is a great opportunity to show your existing customers that their loyalty hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Think about your most loyal customers. Perhaps they’ve been shopping with you for years, regularly recommend your business or have reached a significant spending milestone. Why not surprise them with a little festive treat? This could be anything from a small gift card to a memorable experience, depending on your budget and the relationship you have with your customers.
For example, a brand could surprise its VIP customers with a Leisure Choice Gift Card, allowing them to choose something they’ll genuinely enjoy from over 140 popular UK brands spanning shopping, dining, entertainment, experiences and more. Or we have our alternative Leisure Choice Gift Card in the USA with 160+ popular US brands.
Our top tip: Use the customer information you already have to make your rewards more relevant. Rather than sending the same gift to everyone, consider segmenting customers based on loyalty, purchase history or engagement.
And don’t underestimate the power of a personal message. A simple thank you explaining why you value their custom can make a reward feel much more meaningful.
4. Turn your customers into brand advocates with festive referral rewards
Word of mouth is incredibly valuable, particularly when it comes from someone a potential customer already knows and trusts. So why not give your customers an extra reason to spread the word this Christmas?
A festive referral campaign could reward existing customers when they successfully introduce a friend, family member or colleague to your business. For example:
- Refer a friend who makes their first purchase and receive a £20 gift card.
- Introduce a new customer and get entered into a prize draw for a weekend getaway.
- Give your friend a welcome offer and receive a reward when they become a customer.
It’s a simple concept, but one that can work particularly well when customers are already discussing Christmas shopping, gifts and festive plans.
Flexible gift cards are useful here because they appeal to a broad range of people and can be offered at different values to suit your campaign budget.
Our top tip: Make sure both the referral process and reward are easy to understand. Customers should know exactly what they need to do, what they’ll receive and when they’ll receive it. If you’re running a festive refer-a-friend campaign, don’t forget the data protection side of things. Make sure customers understand how their information will be used and check that your referral mechanics comply with the relevant marketing rules. The ICO has some helpful guidance on this, particularly around referral emails and consent.
It’s also worth testing whether rewarding both the referrer and their friend encourages more participation than rewarding the referrer alone.
5. Create a Christmas advent calendar campaign
If you’re looking for Christmas customer engagement ideas that encourage customers to return to your brand throughout December, an advent calendar campaign could be a fantastic option. Rather than running one competition, why not give customers something new to look forward to every day?
A digital advent calendar could feature 24 days of festive surprises, with customers visiting your website or campaign landing page to discover what’s behind each door.
You could include a mixture of prizes, exclusive offers, smaller rewards and a few bigger surprises to keep things interesting. For example, your calendar might include:
- Day 1: A chance to win a £25 gift card.
- Day 5: An exclusive festive discount.
- Day 10: A relaxing spa experience giveaway.
- Day 15: A prize draw for a family day out.
- Day 24: A grand prize of a luxury hotel getaway.
The beauty of this type of campaign is that it gives customers a reason to keep coming back, rather than engaging with your brand once and disappearing. And with thousands of experiences and flexible gift cards available through Virgin Incentives, there are plenty of opportunities to mix up your prizes.
Our top tip: Think carefully about how you’ll encourage customers to return. Email reminders, social media updates and teasers about upcoming prizes can help maintain interest.
Just remember that repeat visits alone aren’t the whole story. Track how many people return, how often they participate and whether that engagement translates into meaningful business results.
6. Reward customers for making a festive purchase
We all know Christmas can be an expensive time of year, and shoppers are often looking for a little extra value when deciding where to spend their money. While discounts are an obvious way to encourage purchases, they’re not your only option.
Instead of reducing your prices, consider offering a reward when customers reach a qualifying spend or purchase a particular product. For example:
“Spend £150 this Christmas and receive a £10 gift card!”
Or:
“Purchase before 15th December for your chance to win an unforgettable experience!”
These types of promotions can give customers an additional reason to complete their purchase without relying entirely on price reductions. The right approach will depend on your objectives. A guaranteed reward might be better suited to encouraging a specific purchase, while a prize draw could work well for creating excitement around a campaign.
Our top tip: Do the maths before launching. Calculate the cost of the incentive, your expected participation and the additional sales needed to make the campaign worthwhile. A reward might encourage more purchases, but it still needs to make commercial sense.
7. Make your Christmas rewards feel personal
One of the biggest challenges with customer gifting is that everyone likes different things. Some customers might love a relaxing spa day, while others would much rather be racing around a track in a supercar. Some might prefer a lovely meal out, while others would appreciate a shopping spree.
That’s why giving customers a choice can be such a useful approach. Rather than trying to predict what every customer would enjoy, you can let them make that decision themselves.
For example, the Virgin Experience Days Gift Card allows recipients to choose from thousands of memorable experiences across the UK.
And if you’re looking for something in the USA, our Virgin Gifts eGift Card gives recipients access to over 6000 experiences all across the nation.
This can be particularly helpful for larger customer reward campaigns where you’re engaging people with a wide variety of interests and preferences.
Our top tip: Don’t assume a more expensive reward will automatically be more appealing. Consider how relevant, flexible and easy to redeem the reward is for your audience.
A reward that customers can genuinely use is often more valuable than an impressive-sounding prize that doesn’t suit their lifestyle. Customers have plenty of choices these days, and their expectations are high. In fact, Zendesk’s 2025 Customer Experience Trends Report found that 63% of consumers would consider switching to a competitor after just one bad experience. It’s a reminder that every interaction matters, including how brands recognise and reward their customers.
8. Keep the festive feeling going into January
Here’s something that’s easy to overlook when planning your Christmas campaigns: what happens after Christmas?
It’s tempting to focus all your energy on December and then move straight on to the next campaign once the decorations come down. But January can be a great opportunity to reconnect with customers who engaged with your brand over the festive period.
For example, you could follow up with customers who participated in your Christmas competition, welcome new customers acquired through a festive referral scheme or launch a New Year reward campaign. You could even build a campaign around trying something new in the year ahead. Think exciting experiences, new adventures and opportunities to make memories.
Our top tip: Plan your post-Christmas follow-up before launching the original campaign. Decide what you’d like customers to do next and how you’ll measure whether your festive activity has helped build longer-term relationships.
Make sure any follow-up marketing also respects customers’ communication preferences and applicable data protection requirements.
How do you know if your Christmas customer engagement campaign worked?
We’ve covered plenty of Christmas customer engagement ideas, but there’s one final piece of the puzzle that’s just as important as the creative concept: measuring success. Before launching your campaign, decide what a successful outcome actually looks like.
Are you trying to attract new customers? Increase repeat purchases? Encourage referrals? Boost participation in your loyalty programme? Different objectives require different measurements. For example:
| Campaign objective | Metrics worth tracking |
| Increase brand awareness | Campaign reach, relevant website traffic and engagement |
| Generate new customers | New customer acquisitions, conversion rate and acquisition cost |
| Encourage repeat purchases | Repeat purchase rate, purchase frequency and customer spend |
| Increase referrals | Referral participation, successful referrals and referred-customer conversions |
| Improve customer loyalty | Reward redemption, retention and repeat engagement |
| Boost promotional participation | Entries, unique participants and campaign completion rate |
It’s also worth looking beyond the headline numbers. A competition might generate thousands of entries, but if very few participants have any genuine interest in your business, it might not be delivering the results you hoped for.
Where possible, compare performance against previous campaigns or a suitable control group. This can help you understand whether your incentive actually influenced customer behaviour, rather than simply attracting people who would have purchased anyway.
And don’t forget to ask customers for feedback. Sometimes the most useful insight comes from understanding what they enjoyed about the campaign and what they’d like to see next time.
Make this Christmas one your customers won’t forget
With so many brands competing for attention during the festive season, finding ways to stand out can feel like a challenge. But the best Christmas customer engagement ideas aren’t necessarily the biggest or most expensive. They’re the ones that give customers a genuine reason to interact with your brand, make them feel appreciated and create a positive experience they’ll remember.
And that’s where we come in!
At Virgin Incentives, we help businesses bring their customer engagement campaigns to life with unforgettable experiences and flexible gift cards. Let’s make this festive season one to remember! Get in touch with the Virgin Incentives team to discover how our experiences and gift cards can help bring your Christmas customer engagement ideas to life.
