The Mashup

In a collaborative effort to engage a new generation of donors, our team embarked on an ambitious project to create a unique digital experience that blends music, technology, and philanthropy. An initiative was developed aiming to capture the interest of Gen Z donors by offering an innovative way to contribute to charitable causes.

The Challenge

In an effort to increase their regular donations, UNICEF invited Hyper Island students to identify a new target group within the Swedish market and to develop a tailored digital product to prioritize individual giving and recurring donations, while emphasizing regular, non-earmarked resources.

The Solution

Client

Role

Product Designer, Design Sprint Facilitator

Duration

Ten days to develop, test, and pitch the concept

Revitalizing UNICEF’s Fundraising Efforts

In the face of declining regular giving trends, increased donor attrition, and economic downturns in Sweden, UNICEF is confronted with the urgent need to revitalize its fundraising efforts. With a significant market share in regular giving, UNICEF's dependency on donors necessitates innovative strategies to counteract negative trends and ensure sustained revenue generation.

UNICEF is confronted with the urgent need to revitalize its fundraising efforts in the face of declining regular giving trends.

Project Overview and Long-Term Goals

We embarked on this journey by pinpointing our long-term objectives and the specific questions we aimed to answer through the sprint. Our exploration involved mapping the current user journey, identifying potential target audiences through a blend of academic and UNICEF-provided donor research, and analyzing competitors. Through this process, we recognized two promising demographics: Gen Z and Millennials, with a particular focus on Gen Z due to their increased inclination towards engaging in non-profit activities and their promising potential as lifelong donors. This shift towards a younger donor base underscored the need for creating innovative, technology-driven product designs to captivate and maintain the interest of this emerging audience.

Focusing on Key User Journey Segments

Moving forward, we agreed on specific user journey segments in which to focus: the Awareness, Consideration and Decision stages. Leveraging techniques like the four-step sketch, we generated a range of low-fidelity concepts in three-panel storyboards. This ideation phase is crucial as it encourages a broad spectrum of creative thinking and problem-solving, allowing team members to visualize and propose potential solutions without the constraints of high-fidelity details.

Developing the Concept and Storyboard

Our selected concept, named "The Mashup," emerges as a creative collaboration with Spotify, featuring an AI-generated music component that offers users a unique song each month, tailored to their musical preferences, as part of their donation package. This led to the development of a high-level storyboard for the happy path, laying the groundwork for the prototyping phase.

The storyboarding process unveiled additional functionalities, such as the option for users to engage with an existing initiative named "Press Play to Give." This initiative allows royalties to be donated each time the song is played, enabling the AI-generated song to further contribute to donations when shared publicly and played by others. This strategy not only enhances the user's donation experience but also amplifies the impact of their contribution through music.

This initiative allows royalties to be donated each time the song is played, enabling the AI-generated song to further contribute to donations when shared publicly.

Creating a Clickable Prototype

Using Figma, we developed a clickable prototype to bring the user experience and interface concepts to life. This prototype was designed to validate our approach through meticulously selected screens.

Engaging Gen Z with Podcast Sponsorships

For the Awareness stage, we introduced a Podcast Sponsorship, capitalizing on Gen Z's significant engagement with music streaming and podcast consumption—highlighting over 578 billion minutes of music streamed and a 58% increase in podcast plays year-on-year.

This feature aims to capture their attention through mediums they are already deeply invested in. The selected podcast was “60 Songs that Explain the '90s” which is likely to appeal to Gen Z since 73% of them love when brands produce retro products or content and 68% like listening to and watching media from earlier decades (data by Spotify).

Comprehensive Information to Facilitate Donations

To engage users in the Consideration stage, we developed a Landing Page with a Donation Form and an FAQ page. These components provide comprehensive information about the initiative and address common questions, facilitating a deeper understanding and connection with the cause.

Personalized Donation Experience

The donation form helps the user in their Decision stage as it provides options to help facilitate the donation such as:

Frequency (monthly or one-time).
Amount (suggested SEK 111 or custom).
A message explaining what the suggested amount affords.
A consent toggle to receive messages about this project.
Payment options linked to the most popular methods in Sweden.

Spotify Integration for Personalized Interaction

If the decision is favorable, donors are introduced to the Connect with Spotify screen. This integration allows us to tailor the user experience by analyzing their listening history, further personalizing their interaction with our initiative.

Immediate Benefit Through AI-Generated Songs

After making a donation, users are led to the Play AI Song screen, where they can experience the unique song generated for them, offering an immediate, tangible benefit of their contribution. This experience is further enriched by the opportunity to Add the Song to the Press Play to Give Initiative, visible from UNICEF Sweden’s account, promoting further engagement and potential viral spread of the initiative.

Ongoing Engagement Through Monthly Song Collections

Lastly, the Song Overview screen serves as an ongoing engagement tool, showcasing a monthly collection of AI-generated songs. This not only incentivizes continued donations but also strengthens the donors' connection to the cause, by reflecting their growing impact over time.

Positive User Feedback Validates Concept

As a last step, we tested with potential users. This approach of early and consistent testing allowed us to refine our concept from the beginning, ensuring that our solution not only appealed to our target audience but also delivered substantial value aligned with our objectives.

“I really liked the concept because it feels intriguing to get your own song! And it's very informative in a lot of what matters.”

– Greta

"It's fun and different from what I have seen before. I like the idea of the song providing donations as well so feels like you are double-donating. It’s an incentive to listen more to the song."

– Sesselia

"By making a donation you get a personalized song which is really nice, the investment for us is not big but can make a difference, that’s amazing"

– Bianca

Feedback from our test users was overwhelmingly positive, indicating strong resonance with our concept.

Wrapping Up

The Mashup project exemplifies how agile methodologies can be effectively applied to solve business challenges through collaboration and creativity. By focusing on the user experience and leveraging the power of music and technology, we were able to introduce a novel approach to philanthropy that resonated with a younger audience. This case study not only demonstrates the potential for innovative digital solutions to engage new donor demographics but also highlights the importance of agile processes in developing and refining these solutions.

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The pitch to UNICEF was met with enthusiastic approval, reflecting the project's strong alignment with their goals. They appreciated our innovative approach and recognized the potential of our agile methodologies to drive impactful results. Their positive feedback reinforced our confidence in the project's ability to engage new donor demographics effectively.

Three iPhone mockups displaying AI generated songs

The Mashup:
Blending Music, Technology, and Philanthropy for Gen Z Donors

The Challenge

The Solution