christmas advent calendar for sweatcoin

By late 2021, Sweatcoin had over 80 million registered users, but we faced a big challenge during the festive season: keeping our daily active users (DAU) high. December is a tough month for engagement because cold weather and holiday events mean people are less likely to be active. Even though Sweatcoin motivates users to walk by converting steps into digital currency, we needed to find a way to keep them moving during winter while attracting new users. The goal was to stay true to Sweatcoin’s mission of promoting health and well-being while making the app fun and engaging during the holiday season.

We developed a Christmas-themed Advent Calendar feature to increase daily activity and social sharing. The concept was simple yet engaging: users would need to walk a set number of steps daily to unlock a surprise offer, such as product discounts from partner brands. Each user’s step target was customised based on their activity data, and new users had targets set using average steps from existing users. We also built in a social sharing feature, allowing users to showcase their daily progress and overall achievements through a story-like carousel. This helped generate buzz and attract new users, keeping engagement high throughout the festive period.

We moved forward with wireframing, creating high-fidelity prototypes in Framer and testing them with our most active users. Instead of traditional calendar boxes, we designed an interactive card system where users would crack open icy cards after reaching their step goal, enhancing the experience with an animated cracking effect. I worked closely with a 3D artist to ensure the animations were smooth and engaging, adding haptic feedback to further immerse users in the action.

Keeping users engaged throughout the month was key, so we made sure the rewards were appealing every day, with 24 partnerships providing great offers. To increase new user registrations, we also added a feature that allowed users to share their progress on social media, encouraging their friends to join the challenge.

Yes and no. Our aim was ambitious: a 7% increase in DAU over the month. While the feature was well-received, we encountered two major challenges: the winter weather and the busy Christmas season. Despite this, we achieved a 5% increase in DAU—an impressive result, though not quite what we had hoped for. The project taught us valuable lessons about user behaviour during the holiday period, and it was an incredible experience to oversee the entire process from ideation to managing external partners and internal teams.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to work on such a rewarding and fun project, and it provided key insights for future festive campaigns.