On Count It, Admins create “challenges” by setting up goals and corresponding rewards for the given time period. Count.It currently supports challenges targeted at three “groupings,” i.e. INDIVIDUAL, TEAM, and GROUP. When creating goals and rewards for these three, you can target several different metrics: AVERAGE daily activity, TOTAL activity, and the "% CHANGE."
PRO TIP: When you select the "% CHANGE METRIC" you must also designate a prior "reference" challenge as your baseline.
Different groups on Count.It do very different things with regards to goals and rewards, but below are some simple helpful data points and guiding principles.
Use your common sense, and have fun with it! Don't be afraid to take risks and try different things, especially as you get started. Once you've tried several types, you'll see what works best at your company, and you can then develop a recurring pattern.
Helpful Conversions and Count.It User Averages
When thinking about your challenges, consider the following data points:
For the purposes of "distance" calculations, Count.It assumes that 10,000 steps equals 5 miles, or 8.05 kilometers. In other words, 1 mile = 2000 steps = 1.61km.
The average score across all users on the platform is about 60 points per day across all activities. Since 1 point converts to 100 steps, that's the equivalent of averaging 6,000 steps per day, or 3 miles, or 4.83 kilometers.
Some Examples
Why are the above numbers helpful? Imagine you want to challenge the individuals in your group to "journey" 1000 miles? How would you translate that into Count.It points, and how long would this take? Simple!
1000 miles (or 1609 kilometers) =2,000,000 steps = 20,000 points.
If each person averages 60 points per day, or 6,000 steps equivalent, or 3 miles; then they will journey 1,000 miles in 333 days, i.e. 1000 / 3. That might be a bit too long of a challenge!
PRO TIP: A good "Total Points" or distance challenge for individuals, for one month might be 100 miles. To hit the goal, each person would have to average 67 points, or 6,667 steps equivalent, per day.
What about a group challenge? Imagine you have a group of 50 people, and you want to challenge them to a journey of 10,000 miles? Well, if you assume your group will perform about the same as the Count.It system average, then here's the calculation
50 people * 3 miles per day = 150 miles per day = 300,000 steps = 3,000 points
And finally, how about a team challenge? For example, what if you have created teams of 10 people, and you want to create a one month (or 30 day) challenge for each team. How many points is about right for your "Target Score?"
Well, if you assume your group will perform about the same as the Count.It system average, then here's the calculation:
10 people * 60 points per day = 600 points per day, or the equivalent of 60,000 steps or 30 miles per day.
30 miles per day X 30 days = 900 miles =1,800,000 steps = 18,000 points
So, your Team --> Total --> Target Score would be 900 miles or 1.8 million steps.
What Kind of Rewards Work Best?
Here are some best practices we've collected over thousands of group challenges....
Establish a participation reward for individuals. It’s a good practice to create an achievable target that people can hit if they just make the effort to sign up!
Mix and match the other “challenges” from month to month or week to week. Variety is the spice of life! If you're running an ongoing program, you can run different challenge types sequentially to create novelty and sustain interest over time.
If you're running a single event challenge, don't be afraid to layer individual, teams, and collective group goals all at the same time. For an event challenge, you may have several over-arching goals, and then add new "spot challenges" each week.
To maximize engagement, create challenges that address the different types of people in your group: Self-starters respond well to almost any reasonable incentive; competitive types love to be able to win; social people thrive in teams; and cause-driven challengers will respond well if their effort translates into some form of philanthropy or charitable donation.
Prize Data
By far the most popular prize on Count.It is the gift card. (Coun.It can automate the delivery of e-gift cards to a number of popular vendors.) That said, admins have come up with many others. Here are the top categories of prizes:
Here is the breakdown of Gift Cards by vendor:
Other Creative Ideas
Last, here are some popular challenge ideas from around the network:
The Random Drawing Reward: One good way to spread your rewards dollars is to set a goal for individuals, which, if they make it, enters them in a pool from which winners will be randomly drawn. Again, for now this must be manually done, but all the data is available via the PRO Admin → Reporting page, and/or by looking directly at the leaderboard for any given time period.
The March Madness Challenge: Create a “March Madness” style bracket. Users battle each other in head-to-head daily challenges. The winner moves on. For now, the brackets have to be maintained manually, but we’ll be automating this soon enough!
The Poker Challenge: Those that hit the goal earn a card. When they get to five cards, they can play poker. The winning hand wins the pot!