How to Design a High-End Event Plan Through Pain Points and Highlights

With Double 11 approaching, many event planners have already prepared their promotional plans. It's almost predictable that WeChat will soon be flooded with merchant promotions and discounts. Everyone wants to cash in on this craze, but such a dense barrage of activities will inevitably distract users. How can you stand out in this red ocean of events?

Simple: Pain Points + Highlights

Pain Points

The term "user pain point" is a high-frequency buzzword in the industry, and almost all work revolves around it. Why do we do product development and operations? To realize our own value by solving users' most urgent needs. So the key to event planning is to address user pain points. But how do we uncover these pain points?

Take Double 11 as an example. Over the years, the shopping frenzy has escalated, and the festival has essentially transformed from Singles' Day into a shopping holiday. Merchants' activities are mostly centered around various discounts, with 80% of them adopting the following two promotional models:

• Discount promotions
• Distributing coupons

Both of these are direct price discounts, and the simplest, most brutal way to win is to burn more money. If you offer a 20% discount, I'll offer 30%. If your coupon is $50 off for $100 spent, I'll do $100 off for $100 spent. Everyone is familiar with this price war, but not everyone has the deep pockets of e-commerce giants. Often, even if you have the will to burn cash, you lack the capital. Does that mean you're doomed? Absolutely not.

When everyone sells similar products at similar prices and offers the same coupon values, how do you tip the scales in your favor? Micro-innovation is the first weapon to turn the tide. It's important to have what others don't, and to be better at what others have. What does that mean? Here are two examples:

Example 1: Offer users a high-threshold, limited "reward"

Customers who successfully place an order on the event day have a chance to be drawn as lucky users and enjoy a lifetime 50% discount on all purchases (the discount should be set within a break-even range and only open to a few). Words like "lifetime" and "50% off" are quite appealing, right? Users typically participate with the mindset, "Even though the odds are slim, what if I win?"

Example 2: Use a membership tier system to enhance customer belonging

Adopt a model where users who shop on the event day are upgraded from B-level to A-level members, incentivizing them to place orders. This approach not only saves costs compared to direct price competition but also helps retain existing customers and boost loyalty.

Both methods further address the pain point of users wanting more benefits, breaking out of the dead end of simply issuing coupons and discounts. They are fundamentally different from zero-threshold discount promotions. Moreover, this threshold doesn't cause user resentment; instead, it enhances the appeal of your event.

Highlights

Now let's talk about highlights. Highlights actually encompass pain points to some extent, but they have a broader scope. A common problem with holiday events is that everyone's activity models are similar, lacking distinctiveness and causing aesthetic fatigue. For example, last year, the "cheer me on" (加油) activity model was very popular on WeChat. It's a classic case: users participate, share the link with friends, and friends click to cheer them on. Once enough friends cheer, the initiator gets a reward. It's an upgraded version of the "like-collecting" giveaway.

At first, people found this mini-game novel and participated voluntarily. But after similar activities flooded their feeds, the first reaction became, "Not this again, boring." Unless a friend strongly requests help, people usually ignore it. As a result, this model gradually faded from view.

But can we make small tweaks to make this cheer model more fun and engaging? For instance, add a "steal oil" button next to the cheer button. If the thief is also a participant, the stolen oil can be added to their own progress bar, helping them reach the finish line faster and get the reward. This way, the activity model is no longer just unpaid friendly assistance; it gets people genuinely involved driven by self-interest. Even without that incentive, many users would steal oil for the mischievous fun, further enhancing interactivity.

What does this change mean for participants? The main storyline remains "mobilize friends to get rewards," but it has subtly become a fun test of character. The original model, with only the cheer button as a one-way choice, made initiators feel good about themselves. But once the steal button appears, it basically turns into a free-for-all. Participants experience a subtle psychological shift, especially the curiosity to uncover who stole the oil. Planners can leverage this channel to satisfy users' desire to reveal the truth through some kind of exchange, thereby boosting conversion or exposure.