When a brand wants to connect with its community, food, drinks, and a raffle draw are a great start. But if you want to turn a room full of customers into an actively engaged, laughing, and competitive crowd, you need a shared experience.
On March 28th, the LemFi team hosted a community social event in Manchester, bringing together their customers, primarily Nigerian expats and British nationals, to interact, celebrate, and participate in a special prize raffle. To elevate the energy, Neegma was invited to step in and run a series of live, competitive games for the crowd.
Tailoring the Games to the Crowd
A generic trivia game would not cut it for a localised brand event. We wanted the games to feel deeply relevant to the people in the room. Using the Neegma Playground, we created custom question decks for Unscramble and Missing Letter ahead of the event.
The words were not random. They were a mix of financial tech terms, LemFi product features like "Zero Fees" and "Transactions," and cultural touchstones spanning Nigeria, Manchester, and the UK, including references like "Piccadilly." This meant the crowd was not just playing a game. They were playing their game, one that reflected their world.
The Heat of Competition
When it was time to play, the emcee took the mic and directed everyone to take out their phones. As the facilitator, I pulled up the Neegma host screen, displayed the QR code on the big screen, and watched as players flooded into the lobby. No downloads, no sign-up forms. Just scan and play.
Before starting, I used Neegma's host controls to configure the exact number of rounds and set the countdown timer for each question to keep the pace fast. Once I hit "Let's Play" and fired up Unscramble, the competition was fierce.
As each scrambled word appeared on the big screen, the room erupted. Players were frantically typing on their phones, while those who were not yet in the game were shouting out guesses to help, or confuse, their friends. When a word was particularly tough, players would playfully call out for me to hit the "Publish Hint" button, which instantly sent a clue from the host screen directly to their mobile devices. The moment the timer ran out or everyone submitted their answers, the screen revealed the top players, keeping the rivalry alive round after round.
Built for Real-World Chaos
Live events are unpredictable. People get distracted, switch apps, or accidentally close their browser. One of the biggest wins of the night was Neegma's seamless drop-in feature. If a player had to refresh their page or navigate away, they could jump right back into the live game. As long as they used the same player name, Neegma automatically aggregated their scores, so they did not lose their spot on the leaderboard.
That meant no one was left behind, and no one had an excuse to stop playing.
Here is how the Unscramble leaderboard stood at the end of the final round:
Rolling Into Missing Letter
After Unscramble, I quickly explained the rules for Missing Letter and we rolled right into the next session without losing any momentum. Missing Letter works differently from Unscramble. Instead of rearranging letters, players fill in the blanks of a partially revealed word, which kept the same energy while giving people's brains a different kind of workout.
The custom word decks gave this round the same brand-relevant feel. Players were decoding LemFi terms and Manchester references under time pressure, and the leaderboard kept shifting as new names pushed their way to the top.
More Than Just a Game
By the end of the night, the top players were called to the front to receive their prizes. The feedback was genuinely exciting: attendees loved the fresh, interactive format, and several players even shared their leaderboard victories on their Instagram stories.
What stood out most was how naturally the games fit into a community social. The event already had food, drinks, and a prize raffle. Neegma added the layer that turned a room of strangers into competitors, then into people who had something to talk about afterward. It proved to be a dynamic alternative to standard quiz formats, giving the crowd a way to engage with the brand and with each other in a way that felt personal and memorable.
Whether you are running a brand activation, a community social, or a corporate offsite, Neegma makes it easy to bring your crowd together.
Are you planning a community gathering or brand event? Learn how to create custom, high-energy experiences on our Events use case page and Facilitators use case page.