UX / Innovation
THE GOOD CONTAINER
In a developing country, a donated bicycle can truly change the life of an individual, their family and their community. However, if you’ve ever donated an old bike, you'll agree that the giving experience feels more like a spring-cleaning chore rather than an act of kindness. That helps explaining the humongous amount of bikes forgotten in basements and storage units all over the U.S.
The Good Container took a stab at disrupting donation by transforming the giving process into a transparent, personal, peer-to-peer experience. We empowered people to take ownership of the good they’ve done and literally follow their donation from Chicago all the way to the hands of the receivers in Ghana, Africa.
This project was a daunting UX challenge. To allow people to sponsor photographs of the container inside Instagram, we had to literally hack the platform.
The secret of a never-done-before donation experience on Instagram >>>
A main account containing all photo-pieces of the container up for donation was launched.
Then, 60 different accounts had to be created to work as call-to-action and link for the donation of each piece, for instance: "sponsor_this_part_for_U$55" was one account which was tagged on the piece of the container that cost U$55.
When the user clicked on the "call-to-action account” tagged he found a link on the bio of that account, that opened a window where they could enter their credit card number and complete the donation (powered by the startup payvalet.io)
Finally, we received a notification that the part was sponsored and immediately replaced the image by a personalized “Thank You” message on the main account.
Then, 60 different accounts had to be created to work as call-to-action and link for the donation of each piece, for instance: "sponsor_this_part_for_U$55" was one account which was tagged on the piece of the container that cost U$55.
When the user clicked on the "call-to-action account” tagged he found a link on the bio of that account, that opened a window where they could enter their credit card number and complete the donation (powered by the startup payvalet.io)
Finally, we received a notification that the part was sponsored and immediately replaced the image by a personalized “Thank You” message on the main account.
3-click donation on IG at a glance
In just one week all the photos were sold out and the bikes were shipped to Ability Bikes, a NGO in Kofuridua, Ghana. Donors started following the bikes' journey through the US and across Atlantic ocean thanks to the partnership with international photographers.
On June, 7th, 2015, 500 hundred bicycles found a new home in Africa to the delight of 60 donors and thousands of Instagramers who followed the project thanks to the voluntary push of several IG influencers and even the BMC professional cyclist Daniel Oss.
*Update: A documentary of the project is currently under production.
*Update: A documentary of the project is currently under production.
