HumanForest

The challenge

Help HumanForest find a simple way to convey their brand message so they can motivate more people to use their shared e-bike service and reduce CO2, without endlessly handing out random rewards.

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The solution

Partner up with StriveCloud to co-create and launch a gamified in-app loyalty program that communicates HumanForest's brand message through an engaging app experience.

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The customer

HumanForest is a different kind of mobility company, determined to make shared transportation more affordable and sustainable. Their mission is clear: reduce the amount of CO2 produced by encouraging more people to use a sustainable e-bike. Just like trees filter CO2, the community on HumanForest incorporates a human forest by limiting their carbon footprint.

HumanForest is 100% emission free. The fleet consists entirely of sustainable e-bikes, charged with completely renewable energy. Every user gets 10 minutes of free riding every single day. In exchange, users get a short message at the beginning and end of every ride related to environmental causes, connecting brands with a sustainable audience in return for free riding minutes.

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Customer story

HumanForest launched its first fleet of shared e-bikes in London in summer 2021. To motivate more people to ride, HumanForest created a brand narrative around reducing CO2 and building, literally, a human forest. However, it's not easy to explain that trees save CO2 and therefore by riding e-bikes people create a human forest.

HumanForest was looking for something more than an ordinary loyalty program. They didn't just want to flash loyalty prizes and expensive rewards, they wanted users to experience everything inside the app. When HumanForest first reached out to StriveCloud, it became clear they needed an engaging app experience that backed up their brand mission and messaging.

Goals

1. Convey the brand message in a fun and easy-to-understand way.
2. Motivate more people to use HumanForest's shared e-bike service.
3. Reward users for contributing to the mission of reducing CO2 in a scalable way.

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Our approach

1. Gamification workshops

We started with a series of workshops to understand HumanForest's target audience, objectives, and key touchpoints in the customer journey that could be gamified. Together we landed on the initial idea of a point system in the form of TreeCoins, plus a leveling system based on tree sizes.

2. Gamification plan

We came back with a strategic and technical roadmap for implementing different gamification blocks in the HumanForest app through StriveCloud. These blocks let HumanForest add, remove, and adjust features like points, reward systems, leaderboards, and leveling without writing a line of code.

3. Implementation

We set up the API integration through our partnership with the leading shared mobility platform Wunder Mobility, and stood up the control panel as HumanForest's back office. The stats builder links features like points and rewards to actual user data and events: TreeCoins earned scale with CO2 reduced, and the leaderboard ranks users by trees saved.

4. Launch and improve

We released TreeCoins and the CO2-reduced leaderboard first, then introduced challenges after experimenting with the ideal balance between milestones and rewards. Our team stays closely involved to evaluate and improve the gamified experience iteratively.

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Highlights

Creating TreeCoins to motivate sustainable behavior

TreeCoins are at the core of HumanForest's gamification strategy. Users collect TreeCoins by carrying out actions like riding 5 miles or redeeming a code. The conversion: 1 mile = 1 tree, 5 trees = 1 TreeCoin. With TreeCoins, users get free riding minutes, level up, and rank on leaderboards.

A leveling system from Bonsai to Sequoia

Users level up starting from a tiny Bonsai all the way to a giant Sequoia, based on TreeCoins collected. Levels empower sustainable behavior and serve as social status in the HumanForest community.

Personal and timed challenges

Challenges like 'The CO2 Saver' motivated users to collectively reduce up to 20 tons of CO2 in just one week. Other challenges like 'Outside Rider' and 'Energy Burner' drive collaboration or competition between users.

A CO2-reduced leaderboard

The leaderboard ranks every user by trees saved. 1 TreeCoin represents 5 trees (an actual calculation). Users go the extra mile, driven by competition or by community collaboration to save the planet.

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