ORLANDO – While the Orlando Magic have been racking up victories at Amway Center, winning nine of their last 14 home games, fans in attendance have been earning triumphs of their own.
The Magic recently launched a new, innovative, and custom-built loyalty initiative within their app called the Fan Achievement and Rewards program.
The program awards digital badges and mementos to fans for attendance streaks, number of overall games they’ve attended, being in the building on specific theme nights, concessions purchases, shopping for merchandise, app marketplace experiences, seat upgrades, and participation with the Magic’s second-screen experience, Magicvision Mobile.
“We are excited to launch and grow our Fan Achievement and Rewards program,” said Magic Executive Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Jay Riola. “The Orlando Magic’s long-term investment in data and analytics has always been focused on better understanding fans and using insights to improve our digital products and provide enhanced fan experiences. Our badge program delivers fans with a personalized and data-driven experience that recognizes and rewards them for their affinity while encouraging even deeper engagement with the team.”
One example of the Fan Achievement and Rewards program in action is a commemorative ticket, which the team rolled out during the Magic’s home opener. This digital memento is a customizable and sponsorable ticket awarded to game attendees following each home matchup. In a step towards NFTs and digital tokens, commemorative tickets allow fans to claim, customize and share their gameday memory on social media or store to their camera roll.
This technically advanced digital collectable utilizes stats feeds to include matchup information and allows users to upload a picture or utilize a game photo for a truly customized keepsake.
"Commemorative tickets have allowed us to bring back the nostalgia and collectability of a traditional printed ticket – which we are excited to offer our fans in a personalized digital experience," said Magic Director of Digital Marketing Lauren Lambis.
In addition to commemorative tickets, the team’s Fan Achievement and Rewards program allows Magic faithful to earn badges for various actions. Workout warriors familiar with the Peloton program will have some familiarity with the types of in-app badges that they can earn for showing up night in and night out, hitting new milestones and being on hand for special moments.
Potential badges fans can earn within the Magic app include:
Magic Moments: These badges are awarded to attendees based on key theme nights, team events, and basketball performance. Enrolled fans, who were on hand to witness the Magic’s franchise-record 50-point first quarter in Orlando’s win over the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 14, all received one of these one-of-a-kind badges.
Milestones: Workout warriors, who are used to receiving recognition for not skipping a day in the gym, will notice a familiarity with these badges, which are awarded to fans based on overall season attendance.
Loyal Blue Monthly Ticket Utilization: Season ticket holders can earn unique badges for their overall monthly ticket utilization, including personal attendance as well as tickets transferred, returned, or resold.
Loyal Blue Tenure: These badges are awarded to members based on the length of their season-ticket tenure.
Loyal Blue Checklist: Fans who are active on game night can also earn a series of badges for their actions. These badges are awarded for completing key app actions that help maximize overall membership experience such as utilizing mobile payment options, choosing express pickup, grabbing app marketplace items, or purchasing seat upgrades.
Along with creating a specialized digital token within the app, these badges can unlock discounts, ticket upgrades, merchandise, autographed items, messages from players, unique experiences and other prizes.
"We are excited to create surprise and delight moments for our fans, bring even more value to their ticket and improve the overall fan experience while creating habits that will keep them engaging with our brand and app for years to come," said Lambis.
Although it just recently rolled it out, the Magic’s Fan Achievement and Rewards program is already making an impact. The team has seen an increase in year-over-year app downloads, number of monthly users, and fan engagement and dwell time within the app as well as significant increases in both Loyal Blue season ticket holder and overall game attendance levels. Those numbers are only expected to increase as the Magic aim to grow their badge program to focus even more on out-of-arena fan behaviors and activate the team’s global fanbase.