PLL Nation
The 6th Annual Awards
- Best Use of Gamification
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
The Premier Lacrosse League’s (PLL) ”PLL Nation” allows fans to build status and unlock exclusive rewards and league access. While PLL Nation resembles some traditional rewards or membership programs, it is one of the first to leverage gamification to increase engagement and deepen fan affinity.
Gamification elements are integrated throughout each stage of a fan’s PLL Nation journey. After creating a PLL Nation account, members can earn Experience Points (XP) whenever, and however, they engage with the league. As fans accumulate XP they can unlock increasingly exclusive Member Statuses: Free Agent, Contributor, Starter, Captain, All-Star, and MVP. PLL Nation Members gain access to new rewards every time they level up their Member Status.
How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?
PLL Nation is the first gamification system introduced by a professional league that captured the full essence of fandom - their engagement, performance, ability to inspire new fans, and supporting their favorite team at games or at home. It gave new fans a path to deeper fandom and passionate fans a way to stand out.
Key to PLL Nation’s success is automation, supporting scale across fan engagement, and reward distribution. For example, the first 200 fans to submit live game codes from game broadcasts received a free hat from the PLL store. Every fan automatically received their discount code to order their hat when they submitted. Automated engagement journeys significantly increased the leagues ability to engage with fans down to the individual level, and allowed for the PLL to distribute rewards that fit every level of fanhood.
The PLL’s mission is to trailblaze a future of professional sports that is player and fan focused. PLL Nation is an ultimate execution of the organization’s focus on the fan, and business priority of building community within the league’s fan base. PLL Nation helped surface the fan experience and team engagement opportunities digitally to supplement their fan journey, and rewarded fans for doing so.
Objective
The objective of PLL Nation is to redefine the fan/league relationship with a fan-focused gamification system that recognizes true fans for their dedication. PLL Nation’s gamification of fandom ensures that members are rewarded for all of the ways they demonstrate their support: Playing PLL Pick 'em or Weekly Fantasy, watching highlights, attending games, answering league trivia, purchasing and repping team merch, tuning into broadcast, and streaming matchups. Integrating gamification elements and tracking technology throughout the entire PLL ecosystem ensures members are rewarded consistently for their dedication.
Strategy & Execution
The PLL Nation gamification system implements a layered incentive model, providing members with a high degree of optionality for how they would like to earn XP. However they earn XP, members can track their status and rewards from the PLL App or the PLL website.
Evergreen actions: At any time, fans can earn XP for watching videos, reading articles, voting in fan polls, or answering trivia questions.
Daily Achievements: Each day of the week, members can take a specific action within the PLL App to earn an XP bonus. Fans who complete all 7 daily achievements during the week can earn additional XP.
Weekly Achievements: Refreshed every week, these challenges and multi-stage tasks offer larger XP bonuses for members who complete them.
Bonus Achievements: In addition to this weekly structure fans can complete bonus or season-long challenges to earn XP and exclusive badges. Each member can track their cumulative progress towards these bonuses from their profile.
Fans earn XP by completing achievements through engaging with content, performing well in competitions, attending events, referring, and following on social, with the degree of rewards and access determined by a fan’s overall XP level. Benefits accrue year to year, akin to airline loyalty programs, to build engagement and sustained fandom from PLL Nation users.
Organizations
- Premier Lacrosse League
Links
Featured
- Tom Schreiber
- Michael Sowers
- Trevor Baptiste
- Ryder Garnsey
- Marcus Holman
- Matt Rambo
- Blaze Riorden
Credits
Paul Rabil
Co-founder & President
Premier Lacrosse League
Mike Rabil
Co-Founder & CEO
Premier Lacrosse League
Brenden Coleman
VP of Technology
Premier Lacrosse League
Celebrate in NYC
Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
