Title	FIGHT CANCER: THE INTERACTIVE PUNCHING BAG
Brand	DE PERSGROEP
Product/Service	THE INTERACTIVE PUNCHING BAG
Category	A07. Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages
Entrant	MEDIAMONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	THIJS BIERSTEKER Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
PR	MEDIAMONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	MEDIAMONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Thijs Biersteker	-	Concept
-	MediaMonks	Production

The Campaign

Alongside being an actual means to raise money and awareness, the Interactive Punching Bag is meant to inspire people to approach communication challenges in a different way, leading to creative and promising charity events. It is an inventive installation that allows you to donate by the punch to raise funds for cancer research. The punching bag features a fully functional punchable screen that lets you see how cancer cells develop. Alongside being an actual means to raise money and awareness, the punching bag is meant to inspire people to approach communication challenges in a different way, leading to creative and promising charity events.

Execution

Custom-made from over 4,000 responsive LEDs, the Interactive Punching Bag uses an accelerometer to sense the strength and location of every punch and relays the measured impact through visualizations on the display. The installation uses a normal sized punching bag, so relocation and setup is quick and easy. You start by entering your age, sex and lifestyle (from healthy to unhealthy) using your fists. The installation then uses your information to generate a personalized game based on your cancer-risk profile. The game simulates how fast cancer can develop and challenges you to fight back the cells. Amplified with surround sound designed by Amp. Amsterdam, the installation immerses you to better understand the immediate need for cancer research.

The Interactive Punching Bag continues to raise awareness for cancer research by travelling from gym to gym getting more people involved in the fight. The installation’s tone and messaging serves the purpose of rallying support and awareness for cancer research. The physicality it brings as a charitable event is upfront and personal, something we believed to be innovative as well as effective at uniting people for a single cause. The campaign’s exposure resulted in cancer charities from India to the US approaching Fight Cancer to create more bags to help raise funds. In terms of awareness, the punching bag was featured by Fast Company, VICE, PSFK, Bored Panda, Fubiz, and many others, making it an international PR success.

The Situation

The Interactive Punching Bag is an installation, which is an excellent medium to build events around. Both the production and its purpose are innovative and newsworthy, as it is an attempt at reinventing the concept of fundraising.

The Strategy

Everyone has been affected by cancer in one way or another, so we directed The Interactive Punching Bag towards anyone capable of donning boxing gloves and stepping into the ring. Another audience was charity event producers, as we built the bag with the intention of making it available for charity events around the world. To serve this purpose we made it easy for it to be repurposed for other cancer charities and organizations.