CASE: NIX | FF NIKS
How can a water tap create a lasting behavioral change?
Dopper is a brand with a mission: to discourage the purchase of plastic disposable bottles. This led to the creation of the well-known Dopper bottle, a sustainable alternative to plastic disposable bottles, so that people can fill their reusable water bottles with tap water and less plastic waste ends up in the sea. To accelerate this movement, Dopper, in collaboration with Roorda, Tabula Rasa, and Flex-Design, developed their latest innovation: the Dopper Tap. A special water tap that aims to create a new social norm, not only by encouraging people to use refillable bottles but also by making it easier for them.
But how do we ensure that it is not just another water tap? How does this Dopper Tap make it more attractive to take and fill a reusable bottle than to buy plastic disposable bottles?
Idea:
The Talking Tap. The Dopper Tap is not just any water tap. With a smart data tracker, it keeps track of how many water bottles are filled. This data can be monitored in real-time through an online dashboard that keeps track of the difference the Tap has made. Because whoever taps saves plastic disposable bottles and CO2.
We decided to use this data for positive reinforcement and, through nudging (a motivational technique that stimulates behavioral change through positive rewards), to give people a premium Tap experience. We transformed the Dopper Tap into a kind of Tamagotchi that requires your attention and rewards your good behavior with positive comments, encouraging you to keep coming back. Tap it up!
Execution:
Each Dopper Tap has a LED screen of 1024 LEDs added to it, through which the Tap talks to you with a ticker and animations: a seductive message as you walk by (Tapje voor de dorst?), a message while tapping (We'll go to the limit!), and a compliment afterward (Helemaal TAP!) make tapping water a fun experience.
With more than 1000 different messages, we ensure that people come back for a full bottle and new feedback from the Dopper Tap. Based on specific parameters, we made these messages even more personal: It talks differently at the sports club (Tap one for the team) than at train stations (Catch a train or get some water? I know what I'd do). And on a rainy day, it has something else to say (Drip drip drip make it rain) than when it's very hot (This heat calls for one thing. Ice. Cold. Water.)
The mood of the Dopper Tap also changes on specific days of the week: from 'Not all at once. It's also my Monday morning' to 'FRIDAY! Let that tap flow.' It empathizes with you (Long day? Let's refuel) and adjusts its language to its environment, from office jargon (Laten we het over het weekend heen tappen) to student slang at the university (WVO'tje?).
Impact:
By creatively applying our knowledge of behavioral science, the braveness of Dopper and the smart design of FLEX/Design, we collectively have turned something very ordinary - a water tap - into a special product that takes the brand to the next level. With this, we have introduced a new norm that helps reduce the eight million tons of single-use plastic that find their way into our oceans every year and the one million plastic disposable bottles that are sold every minute. And I'm quite proud of that.
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