WaterAid: advert-top-1 by Proximity London

Hope Locker is a compelling new media platform that marries a video display with a coin operated changing room locker to create a micro donation opportunity for charities.

You insert your pound to secure your belongings and release the key as per normal, except a video guides your way. When you return to get changed again – instead of simply releasing your coin you’re first asked if you’d like to donate it to charity. But by using the power of context, this ask becomes hyper-relevant and empathetic.

Proximity London partnered with WaterAid and targeted the fitness industry. Being a first-world luxury, personal fitness presents a moment of stark contrast with the developing world and the perfect opportunity to create an emotional connection with a donor and a cause.

When you return to the locker you are asked if you swallowed any water during your swim. Something we all do our best to avoid. You’re then served a personalised message telling you that in the exact time you were swimming, dirty water killed one child per minute in the developing world. “Your £1 could give a child safe drinking water for 4 months” – and you’re prompted to return your coin, or donate it.

For the first time, rather than a charity asking you for money – you have to ask the charity for your money back. Something that is poignantly hard to do when you are caught in a moment so intrinsically linked to a given charitable cause.