Case study
Map-Based Community Platform for Halloween
Powering a community-driven Halloween experience for over a million users across the US, UK, and Australia
The client - Community Maps Ltd. - set out to reimagine Halloween by creating a community-powered digital experience. The platform needed to allow families to share their availability for trick-or-treaters by placing virtual pumpkins on an interactive map. With user roles ranging from free to premium, and real-time engagement expected to surge during Halloween, the platform had to deliver seamless performance at scale while remaining simple and fun to use.
The biggest challenge was preparing for extreme peak loads during Halloween—up to 1 million concurrent users—while keeping the system cost-efficient during off-season months. The platform also had to support a feature-rich environment with real-time moderation, community voting, competitions, and a flexible content management system (CMS). Seamless integration with services like MapBox, Stripe, and Mailchimp was critical for operations and user engagement.
The project's development team included full-stack developers, a DevOps engineer, QA specialists, and a project manager. Communication was handled mainly through a shared Slack channel and email, with project tracking and documentation maintained in Jira and Confluence.
We began with a structured Discovery Workshop to align business goals, user needs, and technical constraints. Outcomes were formalized into a comprehensive Product Requirement Document (PRD) that guided scope, priorities, and acceptance criteria. This foundation enabled predictable delivery: iterative development, QA, and staged releases—each tied back to the PRD for clarity and traceability.
Next, we delivered high-fidelity wireframes that validated user flows end-to-end: onboarding, adding a stop, entering a competition, voting, sharing, and upgrading. Based on these wireframes, final designs were prepared.
Given the well-defined scope divided into milestones, the process was structured around:
This structured but lightweight approach ensured consistent quality and alignment throughout the project.
The delivered platform is a community engine for seasonal events—combining user-generated stops, real-prize competitions, and viral sharing for sustained engagement.
Post-Halloween highlights from 2025 demonstrate the platform's real-world success and scalability:
Key features and integrations delivered include:
Competitions: End-to-End Experience
Users browse contests, submit entries, gather votes, and share socially in a frictionless flow. Organizers define rules, prizes, and winners, with moderation tools ensuring brand safety. Notifications re-engage participants, turning one-time users into repeat contributors. A freemium model with clear upgrade paths (Free, Standard, Premium) drives monetization, while growth loops convert discovery into contributions, competitions, shares, and paid conversions.
CMS, Blog & SEO/Performance Marketing
Static pages and dynamic editorial content are managed through a headless CMS (Strapi). We paired this with a clean information architecture, structured sitemaps, and on-page best practices to boost discoverability. Analytics tags (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel) and tracking events power performance marketing, while editorial posts keep engagement high between seasonal peaks.
Admin Console & Operations
A robust admin console keeps day-to-day operations smooth: user and content management, competition setup, moderation workflows (including soft remove/re-add), and basic CRM/communication hooks. Filters, search, and audit trails make it easy for non-technical teams to monitor activity, resolve issues, and launch new community initiatives without developer involvement.
Trust & Safety
System combines automated checks (image, video and text screening for NSFW/profanity) with community flagging and moderator controls. Suspicious entries are quarantined for review, ensuring safety scales with peak user surges.
Referral & Influencer/Affiliate Growth
Integration with a referral layer (e.g., Viral Loops) allows users to earn tangible rewards for bringing friends. For larger-scale acquisition, the platform supports influencer and affiliate programs (via Awin) with a dedicated Partnerships page and streamlined onboarding. Together, these channels reduce CAC, amplify word-of-mouth, and create compounding growth beyond paid media alone.
Monetization & Plans
A freemium model with clear upgrade paths (Free, Standard, Premium) drives monetization, while growth loops convert discovery into contributions, competitions, shares, and paid conversions. Backed by Stripe for secure payments, promotions, and tax handling, the platform features gated upgrades (e.g., enhanced discovery, competition boosts) with in-product prompts and discount codes for seasonal offers—turning user excitement into revenue.
Infrastructure & Peak Performance
Engineered on AWS ECS with multi-layered auto-scaling, proactive CloudWatch monitoring, and zero-downtime rolling deployments. Advanced performance testing with k6 validated readiness for 1M concurrent users, achieving sub-2-second map load times under extreme loads. A follow-the-sun support model ensured global reliability during the 4-hour peak surge, with cost-efficient off-season scaling.
White-label Architecture
The core is domain-agnostic and easy to rebrand. Map, competitions, CMS, admin, analytics, and payment modules can be configured for new event themes or markets without re-engineering. Localized content, pricing, and messaging allow rapid expansion, while shared infrastructure and tooling keep total cost of ownership low. It’s a turnkey engine for any large-scale, community-driven event.
Analytics & Business Intelligence
Comprehensive instrumentation tracks sign-ups, submissions, entries, votes, shares, upgrades, and revenue. Google Analytics provides funnel and attribution insights; aggregated data feeds a Power BI dashboard for 360° visibility by region, cohort, and plan—empowering data-driven decisions on investments, promotions, and pricing.
Visit the platform: TrickorTreatMap.com
