Osheaga Play
Powered by National Bank Gamification web application
31 000 +
platform users
For the 2019 edition of Montreal’s Osheaga Festival, the marketing team at Evenko asked Exolnet to create a gamification app and content sponsored by their event partner, National Bank, to build excitement and engagement among festival-goers. The mandate included several major challenges—Exolnet needed to create and leverage maximum sponsored content over a minimal three-day timeframe, work with the festival site’s unstable internet connection, and process a high volume of photos during the event.
Our Osheaga Play platform was built around activation bracelets created for event-goers, which also served as their entrance ticket. The platform interface is similar to that of social media app Pinterest, letting attendees upload photos to earn points. The bracelet connects to the application, so attendees can also earn points by participating in a variety of activities sponsored by National Bank throughout the festival. Once they had collected enough points, attendees could visit the Osheaga Play kiosk to exchange them for tangible products and rewards, and they were entered for the chance to win two tickets to Osheaga 2020.
Optimized to overcome an unstable connection
It’s a well-known festival fact: when high numbers of people use their phones in one place at one time, the internet connection suffers considerably, especially at an event the size of Osheaga. To ensure that our user experience wasn’t affected, we installed a CDN (content delivery network) and established rigorous performance goals to keep our platform as light as possible. The result? Our app functioning was swift, optimized for a weak connection and given a 100% score based on Google performance standards.
Entertaining enough to engage
Photo mosaic
Festival-goes were able to earn points by uploading photos to the app they had taken themselves with their phone, or by having their picture taken by one of the professional photographers onsite and having the photos automatically processed and uploaded.
Photo sharing
Every photo and video could be shared via Facebook and Twitter, and by email and text. Each share was a way for attendees to earn points.
Points system
In addition to photo sharing, users could earn points for actions like recycling plastic water bottles or riding on the sponsored rollercoaster. These points could then be redeemed for items at the Osheaga Play kiosk, including festival t-shirts, tank tops, bandanas, key chains and buttons.
In a few numbers
Systems interconnection
Ticketing
Osheaga Play was connected to the ticketing system used by Evenko. When attendees bought tickets, their account code and app access code were one and the same, simplifying and streamlining access to the platform. Users simply needed to create a profile and they were ready to go.
RFID access
Our app was also connected to the RFID control access software. Each user could register their bracelet to their personalized online profile, then add important medical information like relevant allergies and how to reach their emergency contact. These details could be extremely helpful to onsite medical teams in case of emergency.
Scalable AWS architecture
Since the Osheaga festival lasts only three days, it was essential to provide Evenko with an infrastructure that was both optimized to support highly variable numbers of simultaneous users, and cost-effective over a short-term sprint. Our dynamic server architecture was able to support on-demand capacity, adapting with the user flow. Whenever possible, this enabled us to adjust costs to real-time needs without sacrificing on performance. Furthermore, the deployment of each iteration was seamless; the festival-goers enjoying Osheaga Play experienced no system interruptions, even when the server was making real-time adjustments to demand.