What are activation multipliers?

Many of you probably have noticed that activations can be sponsored since 2022 and that activation announcements have ever since indicated the number of sponsorships they received. You may also have noticed that, since May 2023, this information was replaced on our announcement lists with a column titled 'multiplier', which is the result of adding a unit to the number of sponsorships received by the activation in question.

Although the concept of a multiplier is relatively new for us, the idea behind it dates back to February 2022. At that time, 'sponsored superpoints' were introduced as a new category, but we did not insist on them because having separate point categories just made the system too complex to understand. The solution came in 2023, when the idea of the multiplier was introduced, and the system was streamlined by adding those extra points to existing activator and chaser point categories by means of that multiplier.

There are several ways in which we believe multipliers will encourage participants:

1. There will be more opportunities to earn points for activators and chasers, and increased participation may indirectly also benefit sponsors.
2. There will be greater diversity of activations, like in other programmes that offer extra points for certain activations based on factors such as altitude or season. Now we will also have activations with a greater number of sponsors, which will provide extra points.
3. There will be increased interdependence and partnership between sponsors, activators and chasers. So far, activators gave activation codes to chasers and chasers gave points to activators and sponsors by redeeming those codes. Sponsors just received points but did not award points to anyone. With this new system, however, sponsors will be able to contrbute through the multiplier to the number of points received by activators and chasers.
4. They will create an incentive for activators to announce their activations early. Activations can only be sponsored until their start date, so announcing early will increase sponsoring opportunities and therefore the chances of obtaining a greater multiplier.
5. It will encourage activators and chasers to carry out their announced activations in order not to waste the opportunity offered by multipliers.

Guarantees were also put in place to prevent conflicts of interest and maintain a level playing field among participants:

1. Extra points due to sponsorships will only be received by activators and chasers, not by sponsors.
2. Self-sponsorship of one's own activations is not allowed. 
3. Although sponsors will be able to chase the activations they sponsor, they will not receive extra points for their own sponsorships.

Additionally, we have added one automatic sponsorship to every activation, which explains the unit that is added to the number of sponsorships received when calculating an activation's multiplier. This will guarantee that every activation will offer points and sponsorships and multipliers remain optional. Eventually, it will be donors with their sponsoring decisions who will decide how big of an impact multipliers will have.