Spotler Activate offers three theme options for building website personalizations: Venice, Sydney, and Custom. Each theme determines the default visual style of your personalization, such as fonts, spacing, button design, and image layout.
💡 Tip
We recommend starting with either the Venice or Sydney theme, whichever best fits the look and feel of your website, and then adapting it to match your brand style using CSS.
When creating a new personalization, you have the following theme options:
Venice
The Venice theme offers a clean and modern look. Visuals are centered and structured with minimal shadowing and crisp layout. Buttons are typically sharp-edged, and spacing between elements is tighter, giving it a slightly more compact feel.
Use Venice when:
- You want a clean, modern layout with minimal styling
- Your website already uses straight corners and high-contrast elements
- You prefer more compact spacing between content blocks
Example: Feedback form using the Venice theme:
Templates available in the Venice theme:
- Overlay
- Feedback form
- Toaster
- Notification bar
- Products (embedded)
- Product slider (embedded)
Sydney
The Sydney theme has a softer, more playful appearance. It features rounded corners, additional white space, and a subtle shadow effect to make elements feel lighter. Buttons often appear raised with softer coloring.
Use Sydney when:
- You want a more friendly, rounded design
- Your website uses large padding, rounded corners, or soft backgrounds
- You want content to visually stand out more through shadow or layering
Example: Feedback form using the Sydney theme:
Templates available in the Sydney theme:
- Overlay
- Feedback form
- Toaster
- Notification bar
- Products (embedded)
- Feedback form (embedded)
You don’t have to stick with the original theme
All templates can be styled further using CSS. If you prefer the Sydney layout but want Venice-style colors (or vice versa), you can adjust them later. If you're new to styling, we recommend starting with a theme that’s already close to your desired look.
Custom
The Custom option gives you full control over the HTML and CSS of your personalization. You still benefit from all Spotler Activate functionality, like click tracking and personalization logic, but you’re responsible for all design and structure.
Choose Custom only if:
- You or your team are comfortable with HTML, CSS and templating logic
- You have strict design requirements that the standard themes don’t support
- You want your personalization to perfectly match your website’s branding
Not for beginners
Custom templates do not come with default structure or styling. You’ll need to implement loops, conditional logic, and design everything from scratch. If you're not experienced with HTML/CSS, start with Venice or Sydney instead.
Learn more about what's required for custom templates in this guide: What are the requirements of a personalization template?
If you want help creating a custom template, feel free to contact your account manager or request a quote from our Services team.
Once you’ve selected a theme, you may also want to style your personalization to match your website. Continue with: How do I style my personalization with CSS?