The Captain’s Ride 2016, The Riderless Bike
Steve Waugh Foundation
Issue 43 | June 2017
Agency
Havas Sydney
Creative Team
Havas Sydney Executive Creative Director Stu Turner Executive Creative Director Seamus Higgins Digital Creative Director Gustavo Vampre Creative Zac Pritchard Creative Damian Galvin
Production Team
Production Company FINCH Director of Applied Technology Emad Tahtouh Senior Applied Technologist Patrick Barnes Applied Technologists Albert Woffenden, Hamish Pain Producer Hazel Gibson Broadcast Producer Harriet Tahtouh Digital Producer Angelica Scott Senior Designer Nic Adamovich Head of Design Darren Cole Digital Design Director Clint Crothers UX & Design Director Adam Shutler Digital Executive Producer Peter Segerer Social Media Producer Dena Mohamed
Other Credits
Digital Strategy Director Bohdi Lewis Senior Account Manager Lawrence Pretty Account Director Carly Pelham PR Red Agency
Date
October 2016
Background
Every year, the Steve Waugh Foundation conducted a six-day cycle ride through New South Wales called The Captain's Ride to raise money for the 400,000 children affected by rare diseases. Steve Waugh and 60 fellow riders rode more than 700 gruelling kilometres, the route planned to be the toughest possible so the riders would have to experience something of what the children with rare diseases faced daily.
The trouble is, the children themselves were unable to take part. The brief was for an idea that both raised awareness for The Captain's Ride and which incorporated some form of donation mechanic for the campaign.
Idea
The solution was the world's first Riderless Bike, a fully autonomous children's bicycle that used infrared tracking beacons to follow the peloton of the Captain's Ride. It had an automated steering system and a 360 camera, which allowed children to experience the ride virtually from their smartphones and tablets.
A tablet mounted on the front of the bike displayed the faces of children with rare diseases to remind the bikers who they were riding for.
People could sponsor the bike for a part of the journey and were notified by email when it was passing through their part of the country.
Results
The Riderless Bike travelled all 700 kilometres of the Captain's Ride, generating more than 552 articles in TV, Radio, Press and online publications. It reached more than 190 Million Australians leading to a 150% increase in website traffic compared to the previous year. Against a target of $800,000, donations rose by 237% on the previous year, raising more than $1 million for children with rare diseases.
Our Thoughts
I write and talk a lot these days about the rise and rise of the 'creek' – the creative geek. Where advertising creatives used to be thinkers, the A4 layout pad and the word processor the tools of their trade, creeks are makers. They use Lego bricks and sticky-back tape to build prototypes, which they test and refine.
This is magnificently creeky, technology providing a completely new way of binding victims of rare diseases together with those trying to help them.
In one chat-room I saw an idiot slagging off this ingenious idea for being derivative of the 'bike that has MS' featured in Directory 38, which was equally interesting but not remotely the same. Juries please note!