Holiday marketing has always been a magnet for customer attention, but lately, standing out takes more than just festive email designs and flash sales. As attention spans narrow and customer expectations climb, brands need more than pretty packaging—they need experiences. Limited-time challenges have emerged as one of the most engaging ways to energize audiences and drive real participation during the holiday season.
These challenges aren’t about gamification in the traditional sense. They’re about creating short bursts of meaningful activity that invite people to take part, not just consume. For large brands aiming to shift from passive followers to active communities, this is where holiday campaigns can start to look like something else entirely—a movement.
Most consumers can predict a brand’s holiday content before it even lands in their inbox. The problem isn’t that campaigns are repetitive. It’s that they lack substance. Offers are fleeting. Messages are copy-pasted from last year. There’s no memory formed.
This is where challenge-based marketing fills the void. Instead of pushing products, brands can prompt behavior. Ask your audience to do something, not just buy something. It changes the dynamic. A challenge has stakes, urgency, and story—all things your audience actually cares about during high-activity seasons.
People are already in motion. The holiday months are filled with decisions, social sharing, and family planning. Challenges tap into this momentum.
They fit naturally into what people are already doing: giving, shopping, traveling, making resolutions. A well-timed 10-day sustainability challenge in early December or a “12 Days of Kindness” action series before New Year’s can do more than drive traffic—it can create a sense of belonging. Especially when participation is tied to something greater than a coupon.
Short timelines make challenges more appealing. When something’s available for a limited time, there’s a psychological nudge that heightens interest. Add to that the satisfaction of checking off tasks during a high-energy season, and you have a recipe for something that feels rewarding—and not just in points.
When engagement is measured in clicks and opens, it’s easy to think a 25% off coupon is doing the heavy lifting. But those are attention grabs, not relationship builders. Brands that want more meaningful connections need to offer something else: relevance.
Challenges meet people where they are. A fitness brand can run a 7-day cold-weather workout streak. A fashion retailer might encourage customers to style a holiday outfit with at least one pre-owned piece. These are opportunities to align values and encourage creativity, not just drive conversions.
Rediem, for instance, allows brands to design these kinds of purpose-driven challenges and tie them to social or environmental goals. A tree planted for each completed action, a donation triggered by each shared post—these are rewards that deepen the relationship between brand and customer without feeling transactional.
The best holiday campaigns tell a story. But stories aren’t just written in copy—they’re lived. Limited-time challenges can be structured as chapters in a larger campaign, each one building anticipation for the next.
Instead of launching one offer on Black Friday, a brand might roll out a weeklong series: a gratitude journaling prompt each day, customer highlights, community votes on charitable donations. Each day has its own narrative, its own CTA, its own sense of urgency. Participation becomes part of the story.
Scarcity is a tool here—not in the old “limited stock” way, but through time-bound action. “You have 48 hours to complete this step and unlock the next one.” This urgency doesn't just boost engagement—it drives return visits and habitual interaction.
One mistake many brands make during the holidays is adding a “share this” button after the fact. If a challenge isn’t inherently shareable, it won’t travel far.
Make actions visual. Let users document their challenge journey with branded templates, hashtags, or visual badges. Let the community see itself in action. This creates a snowball effect—every public post is a subtle invitation for someone else to join.
User-generated content is still one of the most credible marketing tools out there, and challenges make it natural. Someone completing a kindness task or sustainability goal is more likely to share than someone who just redeemed a code. Their experience becomes part of your brand story.
The most successful challenge campaigns usually start behind the scenes. When internal teams are excited about an idea, it shows. Get your staff involved in the planning and even participating in the challenge itself. Feature employee highlights. Share behind-the-scenes decision-making. It’s a chance to humanize the brand.
This also helps align the tone across all customer touchpoints. From social to email to SMS, consistency in voice and enthusiasm builds recognition and trust. A well-run challenge doesn’t feel like a promotion—it feels like an event.
The Gifting Forward Challenge
Encourage customers to surprise someone in their life with a non-material gesture. Each submission enters them to win a brand-sponsored donation in their name.
12 Days of Impact
Each day focuses on a different small action with social or environmental value. From recycling challenges to local volunteer prompts, the focus is on values over volume.
Self-Care Sprint
Leading into the new year, a series of micro-actions that promote reflection, health, or rest. Great for wellness brands or any company focused on mental health and balance.
Photo Bingo
Customers complete and share photos from a branded holiday bingo board—outfits, food creations, winter views. Each share is a potential prize entry and a brand touchpoint.
Digital Clean-Up Drive
Encourage digital decluttering as a way to start the new year fresh—unsubscribing from unused services, deleting old files, cleaning up desktop folders. It connects productivity with sustainability.
Each of these can be paired with smart incentives that don’t depend solely on discounts. Think donations, recognition, digital collectibles, or access to exclusive content or community spaces.
The goal with limited-time challenges isn’t just to spike engagement during the holiday chaos. It’s to build patterns that last beyond it. When done well, these campaigns teach your customers how to interact with your brand in new, repeatable ways.
That’s where long-term loyalty is shaped—not just in the heat of holiday deals but in the muscle memory of meaningful action.
This season, if you're designing a campaign that just pushes product, pause. Ask what small challenge you can create that would make someone feel good, not just spend. Because loyalty isn’t bought. It’s built.
Holiday marketing has always been a magnet for customer attention, but lately, standing out takes more than just festive email designs and flash sales. As attention spans narrow and customer expectations climb, brands need more than pretty packaging—they need experiences. Limited-time challenges have emerged as one of the most engaging ways to energize audiences and drive real participation during the holiday season.
These challenges aren’t about gamification in the traditional sense. They’re about creating short bursts of meaningful activity that invite people to take part, not just consume. For large brands aiming to shift from passive followers to active communities, this is where holiday campaigns can start to look like something else entirely—a movement.
Most consumers can predict a brand’s holiday content before it even lands in their inbox. The problem isn’t that campaigns are repetitive. It’s that they lack substance. Offers are fleeting. Messages are copy-pasted from last year. There’s no memory formed.
This is where challenge-based marketing fills the void. Instead of pushing products, brands can prompt behavior. Ask your audience to do something, not just buy something. It changes the dynamic. A challenge has stakes, urgency, and story—all things your audience actually cares about during high-activity seasons.
People are already in motion. The holiday months are filled with decisions, social sharing, and family planning. Challenges tap into this momentum.
They fit naturally into what people are already doing: giving, shopping, traveling, making resolutions. A well-timed 10-day sustainability challenge in early December or a “12 Days of Kindness” action series before New Year’s can do more than drive traffic—it can create a sense of belonging. Especially when participation is tied to something greater than a coupon.
Short timelines make challenges more appealing. When something’s available for a limited time, there’s a psychological nudge that heightens interest. Add to that the satisfaction of checking off tasks during a high-energy season, and you have a recipe for something that feels rewarding—and not just in points.
When engagement is measured in clicks and opens, it’s easy to think a 25% off coupon is doing the heavy lifting. But those are attention grabs, not relationship builders. Brands that want more meaningful connections need to offer something else: relevance.
Challenges meet people where they are. A fitness brand can run a 7-day cold-weather workout streak. A fashion retailer might encourage customers to style a holiday outfit with at least one pre-owned piece. These are opportunities to align values and encourage creativity, not just drive conversions.
Rediem, for instance, allows brands to design these kinds of purpose-driven challenges and tie them to social or environmental goals. A tree planted for each completed action, a donation triggered by each shared post—these are rewards that deepen the relationship between brand and customer without feeling transactional.
The best holiday campaigns tell a story. But stories aren’t just written in copy—they’re lived. Limited-time challenges can be structured as chapters in a larger campaign, each one building anticipation for the next.
Instead of launching one offer on Black Friday, a brand might roll out a weeklong series: a gratitude journaling prompt each day, customer highlights, community votes on charitable donations. Each day has its own narrative, its own CTA, its own sense of urgency. Participation becomes part of the story.
Scarcity is a tool here—not in the old “limited stock” way, but through time-bound action. “You have 48 hours to complete this step and unlock the next one.” This urgency doesn't just boost engagement—it drives return visits and habitual interaction.
One mistake many brands make during the holidays is adding a “share this” button after the fact. If a challenge isn’t inherently shareable, it won’t travel far.
Make actions visual. Let users document their challenge journey with branded templates, hashtags, or visual badges. Let the community see itself in action. This creates a snowball effect—every public post is a subtle invitation for someone else to join.
User-generated content is still one of the most credible marketing tools out there, and challenges make it natural. Someone completing a kindness task or sustainability goal is more likely to share than someone who just redeemed a code. Their experience becomes part of your brand story.
The most successful challenge campaigns usually start behind the scenes. When internal teams are excited about an idea, it shows. Get your staff involved in the planning and even participating in the challenge itself. Feature employee highlights. Share behind-the-scenes decision-making. It’s a chance to humanize the brand.
This also helps align the tone across all customer touchpoints. From social to email to SMS, consistency in voice and enthusiasm builds recognition and trust. A well-run challenge doesn’t feel like a promotion—it feels like an event.
The Gifting Forward Challenge
Encourage customers to surprise someone in their life with a non-material gesture. Each submission enters them to win a brand-sponsored donation in their name.
12 Days of Impact
Each day focuses on a different small action with social or environmental value. From recycling challenges to local volunteer prompts, the focus is on values over volume.
Self-Care Sprint
Leading into the new year, a series of micro-actions that promote reflection, health, or rest. Great for wellness brands or any company focused on mental health and balance.
Photo Bingo
Customers complete and share photos from a branded holiday bingo board—outfits, food creations, winter views. Each share is a potential prize entry and a brand touchpoint.
Digital Clean-Up Drive
Encourage digital decluttering as a way to start the new year fresh—unsubscribing from unused services, deleting old files, cleaning up desktop folders. It connects productivity with sustainability.
Each of these can be paired with smart incentives that don’t depend solely on discounts. Think donations, recognition, digital collectibles, or access to exclusive content or community spaces.
The goal with limited-time challenges isn’t just to spike engagement during the holiday chaos. It’s to build patterns that last beyond it. When done well, these campaigns teach your customers how to interact with your brand in new, repeatable ways.
That’s where long-term loyalty is shaped—not just in the heat of holiday deals but in the muscle memory of meaningful action.
This season, if you're designing a campaign that just pushes product, pause. Ask what small challenge you can create that would make someone feel good, not just spend. Because loyalty isn’t bought. It’s built.
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