#PoweredByTweets

14th July 2015
General
Written by Melanie Portelli, New Business Director at Now.
Twitter. It’s not just for trolls.In fact, Twitter can do an awful lot of good, which is exactly what #PoweredByTweets set out to demonstrate.#PoweredByTweets is a challenge to “celebrate and encourage Twitter powered design and invention”. It sounded right up our street, so we decided to give it a crack.To enter, we had to submit an idea that would either create something beautiful using Twitter or solve a problem using Twitter. We plumped for the latter, aware of a longstanding problem facing our client, WaterAid UK.Like many NGOs, WaterAid struggles to help donors feel a sense of connection to the communities they support. Geography and very different lifestyles makes it all too easy for the relevance of WaterAid’s work to fade.

This sense of connection is important: the closer a supporter feels to a cause, the more likely they are to a) remain a supporter for longer and b) increase their level of donation.

So we devised a solution that uses Twitter to strengthen the relationship between WaterAid and donors. We call it, #TweetTaps.

#TweetTaps are water pumps that tweet WaterAid donors to demonstrate, in real-time, how their money provides clean, safe water to some of the world’s poorest people.

After pledging a monthly donation to WaterAid, new donors are assigned a Tweet Tap that they’ve chosen to support, for example a tap in Muele, Mozambique. This Twitter enabled tap will then update the donor with how much water it has produced and the impact it’s had on the local community.

This creates shareable, tangible results and a stronger bond with the initial donation. Additionally, harnessing the sharing power of Twitter to spread the idea, will lead to more new donors and ultimately cleaner, safer water for some of the world’s poorest people.

Here’s Kate modelling the award.

So, on Tuesday 30th June, we attended the #PoweredByTweets winners announcement… and picked up the 3rd place prize for #TweetTaps!

Naturally we’re chuffed to win an award. But the most exciting part is yet to come, because in September, visitors to the London Design Festival will be able to use a prototype #TweetTap at Somerset House.

The #TweetTap is being built with designers Pixie Labs and we cannot wait to see what will hopefully be the first of many #TweetTaps in action.