Aergo Workshops: An accessible World for all

Story

Aergo believe that many disabilities are by design, not due to a person's limitations. For hundreds of years the World has been built for fully-abled people, meaning that a staircase can be a gateway for some, but a design barrier for others. With their first product, this small but cause-led engineering startup wanted to provide better comfort and postural support for children bound to wheelchairs. This led to their adaptive wheelchair cushion, which we worked with Aergo to strategise early traction and community support for. 

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Approach

Through a series of collaborative workshops, we paired together client-side engineers, product designers and directors with agency-side designers, strategists, copywriters and creatives. With a view to accelerating planning, we devised a number of lean exercises to stimulate ideation, apply rigour and create alignment. These included:

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1. Hyper Targeting our Audience

2. Lean Brand Planning

3. Social Campaign Ideation

4. Strategic Framework -- Empowerment bar

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High-energy, fast paced activities during the sessions produced reams of content, which we later put under the microscope to ensure all outputs were finessed and cohesive. Rather than go direct to core suppliers for medical equipment - such as the NHS or local councils -  we decided to circumvent the slow vendor process in favour of grassroots support for a better designed World. We characterised our 'Everyday Philanthropist' audience as 'Grammers', 'Givers' and 'Carers', knowing that a typical Londoner donated £18 to causes every four weeks, and that we would have to resonate with them on their terms in order to get a share of donations.

 

Brand association exercises led to Prince Harry being the ultimate idol for the brand. Collectively it was felt that he emits sheer authenticity; a warmth and honesty that means he is playful with children and passionate with adults. This duality was critical for the Aergo team, as it was important for messages to land with adults, but for it to be soft, fun and relatable to kids. Prince Harry's persona, along with attributes from other role models, were then dissected and applied to our Lean Brand Planning framework. 

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The social campaign itself would need to be something that fit the brand and the audience, whilst also being a totally participatory mechanic. 'Ice bucket challenge' for ALS was a prime role model. Initial concepts such as Stand up for a day had great initial traction (encouraging office workers to stand for a day to build empathy for what it's like to be restricted), but eventually faded as the affected children could not partake. Instead, after a series of workshops and evaluation frameworks, we devised the Chair Hack. This was a creative workshop format where participants would hack and redesign their chair -- car, desk or dinner table -- to be fun, bright, comfortable and totally unique. A challenge that anyone could get involved in, whilst lending itself to content creation. 

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Outcomes

The Chair Hack concept was first road tested with the Aergo team and key partners at the Royal College of Art's innovation accelerator hub. After a successful first stint, with imaginative chair creations, the brand took forward the concept to engage children at their partner schools, and as an exercise at their roadshow events. ​

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