Race to Africa: Virtual Balls and Digital Marathons -- How Landmrk Is Changing Donating
About the project
Strategic investment from the European and UK Space Agencies (ESA and UKSA) has seen the Landmrk platform develop in a new direction, taking the kinetic currency model and moving it towards engagement in multiple forms. In the unpredictable Covid environment, it was imperative to find a way to activate the Landmrk experience in any given space -- and with ESA and UKSA determined to help foster and reward positive behaviour in young people, the challenge was to marry these ambitions in a smooth, compelling way. Once built, the platform needed a first outing and the perfect opportunity came through a partnership with HIV Awareness and Sexual Health charity Tackle Africa which was looking for a way to supercharge its fundraising efforts in the teeth of the epidemic. The idea of involving young people in a virtual race through Africa was born, turning their local lockdown activity into a transcontinental adventure.
Results
Tackle Africa were working with their young audience in the UK to complete a virtual journey from London to Durban. Every mile of exercise carried out by fundraisers locally saw a mile completed on the virtual journey, with progress for the project tracked on the platform and participants rewarded with a ‘Distance’ badge featuring satellite imagery from the race’s route and detailing weather conditions at the time. Other available badges gave young people the opportunity to nominate friends to get involved and create dynamic selfie filters that further celebrated each fundraisers personal achievements. In a final push, FIFA gamer AJ3 took to the Twitch video streaming platform for 12-hour livestream. The Race To Africa digital platform added a layer to the experience giving viewers the opportunity to collect Augmented Reality footballs through Landmrk. Every football that was collected saw £1 being donated to TackleAfrica, adding £5,000 to the charity’s total.