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���ϴ�����’s Departments of Intercollegiate Athletics and Student Life recently launched a fan engagement program where students can show their support for the college and the athletics program— and in the process, earn prizes and exclusive experiences.

Knight Time is a free mobile app that allows fans to receive points based on events and activities that they attend. The points can then be used to earn rewards ranging from t-shirts to $150 Barnes & Noble gift cards. Open to all students, faculty and staff, the app can be easily downloaded on to an iPhone or Android. Then it’s just a case of racking up the points every time participants attend an event sponsored by Athletics or offered through Student Life.

“We’ve been looking for ways in to increase engagement at athletic and special campus events for the past several years,” said Liam Welsh, associate director of athletics. “After careful research, we determined Super Fan U, a loyalty and engagement platform for colleges, could offer us a particularly intuitive application that would fit very well with the ���ϴ����� community and our needs. And so far, it’s working out very well.”

Since Knight Time’s February launch, over 400 ���ϴ����� community members have signed up and attendance at events identified as “Knight Time Events” is showing a definite uptick.

This is how it works: once the app is downloaded, users then “check-in” at the event, the location of which has been set by GPS coordinates. Participants have to be within these coordinates in order to successfully “check-in.” Knight Time also shows upcoming events as well as photos and descriptions of prizes. They can also keep track of “Super Knight Timers” through a real-time leaderboard. Knight Time also provides opportunities for users to interact with social media platforms. For example, once a user has “checked-in” at an event, he or she has the option to share their successful “I’m here” status via social media. And it’s worth their while: a user earns an additional point toward their Knight Time rewards for every post to social media. When award levels are reached, participants can then, through a partnership with Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS), redeem their points for prizes at Barnes & Noble in the MacVittie College Union.  

“One of the great things about this program is that it gives us some really good information about our audiences,” said Chip Matthews, director of Student Life. “The application’s analytics offers a range of feedback that will help us better understand what kinds of events and activities are the most popular, and times and dates that work best — information that can help us develop and implement much more targeted and effective marketing and promotional strategies while helping us to better tailor our programming efforts for ���ϴ����� students.”

What was the “hottest” event so far this year? The men's ice hockey SUNYAC conference matchup vs. SUNY Plattsburgh on Feb. 17, which coincidentally, was also Knight Time's launch day. Over 80 ���ϴ����� students, faculty and staff member “checked-in” to see the Ice Knights take-on the Cardinals.

Also very successful: the ���ϴ����� Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) partnership with One Love Foundation in hosting “Yards For Yeardley” on April 26. The event raised awareness about the warning signs of abuse and activate communities to fight against domestic violence.

What’s next for Knight Time? Welsh is working with Katie Buckley, director of new student programs, to engage students during orientation and first-year programming.

“We are also looking to generate some spirit-building opportunities next year,” said Welsh. “This will create competitions among student groups and/or organizations. For instance, possibly rewarding the residence hall that accumulates the most points with a pizza dinner sponsored by CAS. We are also looking to leverage our partnerships with CAS and local businesses to offer bigger prizes and incentives.”

Welsh is also working on a range of possibilities through alumni and/or advancement programming. For example, points can be earned through event attendance and used to claim special prizes and/or recognition.

“There are so many possibilities for Knight Time to build on this sense of community that ���ϴ����� is known for,” said Welsh. “Not only does it provide an interactive and fun way to connect various groups of people but when you throw in prizes, it adds a whole level of engagement.”