The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has just unveiled its first wearable fitness tracker called the Kid Power Band. This device was designed by San Francisco-based design studio Ammunition. Kids can help feed children in poor nations by completing digital missions through downloadable apps. In each mission which looks like a level in a video game, parents can purchase a mission in the form of an individual; $4 apps (on top of the app that comes with the $40 device). To win, Kids can complete a mission by reaching a certain number of steps, which are recorded by the pedometer in the Kid Power Band. Each time they complete a mission, they also unlock a parcel of food for undernourished kids in other parts of the world. The whole idea revolves around kids in the developed world who desire more activity exercising for the sake of feeding poor children elsewhere.
SVP of Strategic Partnerships and UNICEF Ventures; Rajesh Anandan mentioned that the Kid Power Band is similar to a digital extension of UNICEF’s Trick or Treat program which began in 1950 to encourage trick-or-treating kids to collect donations for their hungry peers in other parts of the world while collecting candy for themselves.
Ammunition, a group perhaps best known for designing the wildly popular Beats by Dre headphones have lined up some strong marketing for the device. They have partnered with Disney, Lucas Film, and Target to roll out some Stars Wars-branded bands in addition to recruiting some star athletes like Alex Morgan, Tyler Chandler, and David Ortiz to “host” individual missions. This form of strategic branding and endorsements will help push far the success of the bands according to Jennifer L. Gregg, chair of the Communications Studies department at University of Massachusetts Boston.
These programs are important to let kids harness intrinsic desire to contributing to the underdeveloping world.
