Liga Deportiva Alajuelense

The Brief

Liga Deportiva Alajuelense tasked Journey with putting together a strategy playbook, including an analysis of industry trends, consumer insights, and potential opportunities in different emerging platforms. Through the strategy playbook, Journey assessed several different creative executions and prioritized the Roblox build one as the first initiatives to carry out, given the Club’s focus on engaging the next generation of fans.

Our Response

Journey created a first-of-its-kind Roblox fan experience inspired by Liga’s training grounds, offering interactive elements like trivia, unique soccer fields, and a club hall of fame.

Journey first delivered the strategy playbook, a document that will guide the Club’s commercial initiatives in the short and medium term. As a first deliverable, Journey produced a unique and first-of-its-class fan experience in a platform that is native to new audiences and that goes beyond the physical match day stadium experience.

“Research has shown that kids choose their team between the ages of 4 to 8 and that’s a decision for life. So that’s the point of entry for us. How can we acquire the new generation of fans? That’s the biggest question that we’re asking ourselves every day”. – Oliver Nowalski, Commercial Director, Liga Deportiva Alajuelense.

We created a world inspired by Liga’s training grounds, but that goes beyond the physical to bring to life every kid’s dream soccer experience. Mundo Liguista includes trivia, an obstacle course, mud, ice, and anti-gravity soccer fields, a press experience, and the Club’s hall of fame.

Players can buy official Alajuelense merch for their avatars and talk to avatars of legendary players about the team’s history. The Roblox virtual experience also includes a twist: The team will be announcing its press releases, including news about player transfers and more, in the Roblox press room before its official (analog) press conferences.

Mundo Liguista launched on September 9th, Costa Rica’s National Children’s Day. For the launch, the training grounds brought to life the virtual game in an event that hosted close to 1500 attendees, including Alajuelense season ticket holders, sponsors, and their families.

The experience started in the press room, where attendees got a glimpse of the game and were able to play it for the first time on different devices. After that, attendees were taken through a series of experiences that recreated the Roblox world in the physical world, showcasing the main features of Mundo Liguista (trivia, lobby, special soccer fields, etc.)

The results have been overwhelmingly positive. In its first days live, Mundo Liguista has seen unprecedented favorability, with close to a 100% acceptance rate in terms of likes and thousands of visits. Interestingly, the world is being accessed by a diverse audience in terms of age and gender, and we’re seeing visitors from several countries beyond Costa Rica. We see Mundo Liguista bridging generation gaps and bringing families together to experience their passion for Liga Deportiva Alajuelense in a new way. 

“It is an honor to be among the first in Costa Rica to implement new technologies for the creation of virtual worlds. We could not have found a better partner for this project, an institution that shares our focus in attracting a new generation of fans that organically interact with technology every day” – Cathy Hackl, Chief Futurist and co-founder, Journey.