Playbook — Activation Flywheel
The long-term loop that connects acquisition, engagement, enrichment, and sales into a continuous marketing programme.
Use this playbook to understand how individual OmniLab campaigns connect into a sustainable, long-term marketing programme. The Activation Flywheel is not a single campaign — it is the strategy layer that sits above all the other playbooks and shows how they feed each other over time.
How the flywheel works
The flywheel has four recurring phases. Each phase feeds the next, and the cycle repeats:
| Phase | Goal | Playbook |
|---|---|---|
| Attract | Grow your opted-in contact base | Customer Acquisition |
| Engage | Deepen the relationship and build brand love | Engagement & Brand Experience |
| Enrich | Learn more about who they are | Data Enrichment |
| Convert | Turn engagement into purchases or visits | Increased Sales / Qualified Footfall |
After each conversion, the participant re-enters the flywheel as a known, enriched contact — and the next Attract or Engage campaign is more targeted than the last.
Steps
Plan — Map your current programme gaps
Before running any campaign, audit what you already have:
- How large is your opted-in contact base? If it is small, prioritise Acquisition first.
- How much do you know about your contacts? If profiles are sparse, prioritise Data Enrichment.
- Are you converting enough contacts into buyers or visitors? If not, focus on a sales or footfall campaign.
- Which phase has the biggest gap? Start there.
Build — Run the relevant phase playbook
Pick the phase that addresses your biggest gap and follow the matching playbook to build and launch that campaign. Do not try to run all four phases at once — the flywheel gains momentum by completing one phase, then moving to the next.
Launch — Feed each phase's output into the next
After each campaign, the output becomes the input for the next phase:
- New opted-in contacts from Acquisition → go into your Engage pool.
- Enriched profiles from Data Enrichment → power personalised Convert campaigns.
- Post-purchase participants from Increased Sales → re-enter the Engage phase with a higher loyalty status.
Map these handoffs explicitly so data flows between your campaigns automatically rather than manually.
Measure — Track flywheel momentum, not just campaign KPIs
Individual campaign metrics tell you whether a single activation worked. Flywheel metrics tell you whether the programme is growing:
- Contact base growth: is the opted-in database growing quarter over quarter?
- Profile completeness: are contacts becoming more enriched over time?
- Repeat participation rate: are the same people coming back for the next campaign?
- Customer lifetime value trend: is engagement translating into more revenue per customer?
Optimize — Identify and remove friction points
Review the transition between phases:
- Where are contacts leaving the flywheel (not re-engaging after their first campaign)?
- Which enrichment fields drive the most personalisation value in Convert campaigns?
- What cadence of activations keeps your audience engaged without burning them out?
As you run more cycles, the flywheel accelerates: better data enables better targeting, which drives better conversion, which grows the contact base further.
Which formats fit this goal
The flywheel is powered by the apps together, each covering one stage of the loop, all writing to the same contact record.
- Acquisition: prize mechanics from OmniLab Games — see the Games guides.
- Footfall: Treasure Hunts and Events turn contacts into visitors.
- Sales: Transactions rewards the purchase and captures what was bought.
- The record underneath: Platform holds the single contact record every stage reads and writes; the overview is on the platform page.
Frequently asked questions
Where should we start the flywheel?
With one campaign, usually acquisition. Most teams run a single prize mechanic first, then add footfall or sales stages once the audience exists.
Do we need every app to make the loop work?
No. The Starter plan includes two apps, and a Games-plus-Smart-Links pair already forms a working loop. Add stages as the programme matures.
How long before the flywheel shows results?
Expect the compounding effect after a few cycles, not the first campaign. Each run grows the audience the next one starts from, which is the point of the loop.