Disney first interactive email wordsearch for Encanto campaign

Disney is sending its first ever interactive word search email this week in celebration of its latest hit, Encanto. Armadillo, the Bristol-based CRM agency, created the in-email word search. Previous interactive email examples from Armadillo and Disney include quizzes, games, and unique carousels – word searches never seen in Disney emails before now.  

With the knowledge that Disney fans enjoy taking part in quizzes, polls and other ways to show they know the films inside out, users are asked if they have a ‘gift for word searches’ and upon completion of the word search, are warmly welcomed into the magical family Madrigal. Armadillo achieved interactivity in email using pure HTML and CSS. Inputs, labels and animation are the key elements to making this work.  

The word searches were achieved using a table-based grid to display the content. All the correct letters in the table could be clicked on turning the cell grey. Once all correct letters for the word are selected the whole word is then highlighted. At the same time, a strike-through and highlight appears on the question. This provided a great user experience as it’s clear which questions have already been answered. 

Steve Brailey, Lead Developer at Armadillo says: “we wanted to try something new that we haven’t seen before in an email; something that would provide an engaging and fun experience for the recipient. I’ve been prototyping a few ideas in this vein recently, and it not only worked really well, but the client – and now their audience – really reacted to the feeling of magic it brought.” 

Rob Pellow, Innovation Director at Armadillo comments: “Interactivity in email is a huge opportunity to reduce the engagement barriers with your audience. Whether that’s allowing them to more easily explore your product, better understand your content, or just giving them something fun to play with. It also allows you to get a better picture of what content they find valuable or interesting. Our Development team at Armadillo don’t believe in “can’t” when it comes to email and are constantly proving that there are no real limits to what is achievable within this channel.” 

Armadillo is able to track the engagement by using tracking pixels that get activated when a letter is selected, and when all correct words have been found.