An ambitious new project, which aims to bring a fun, family experience to every high street in the UK, wants to raise over £100k for NHS Charities Together.

The story-trail, called MonsterHero Safari, will be free for the first 100 UK BIDs or Councils to bring to their high streets. Building on the huge popularity of art and sculpture trails, the “Safari” will give families a fun and safe reason to come back into town and give high streets a much-needed boost in footfall.

MonsterHero Safari works by utilising contactless NFC technology and QR codes, without the need for players to download or sign up. The safari consists of 10 window characters, monster superheroes, with embedded NFC tags that the organisers want independent and charity retailers, as well as cultural and public venues, to host. 

Families can start the safari by tapping any of the characters and paying a nominal cost, with at least 50% of it going to NHS Charities Together.  They will then be able to engage with the experience by tapping each character’s belly and learning their names, stories and powers. Younger children will enjoy spotting the cute and colourful characters and older younger (and grown-up children!) will engage by learning more about them. After finding all 10 “MonsterHeroes” families will be rewarded with a free e-book about their first adventure.

To kick start the project, the first 100 locations to sign up will receive a free pack, on a first come first serve basis. Of course, all of this is being done with a keen eye on safety, so the safari will only begin once the government advice allows it and each of the NFC characters will be marked so that players can only interact with them in small family groups whilst adhering to social distancing.

Martin Blackwell, former CEO of ATCM and the Charity Retail Association is coordinating the project pro bono and has partnered with high street technology agency “Thyngs” to create the NFC and QR code-powered platform. He has also enlisted renowned international marketing agency, “Toolbox Marketing”, to work for free on bringing the initiative to life.  BIDs and Councils can take one of the free 100 sponsored packs, or alternatively have one created with their own branding for £150.

To learn more or sign up to become one of the first high streets to participate and raise money for NHS Charities Together please go to monsterherosafari.com

ENDS

Note to Editors:

Martin Blackwell is the former CEO of the Assoc. of Town Centre Management and the Charity Retail Assoc.  Martin launched his own consultancy http://martinblackwell.co.uk/ specialising in partnership building and strategy development.  He wrote the National Standards for Business Crime Reduction Partnerships for Secure by Design.

Contact details

Martin Blackwell

20209 644556

[email protected]

martinblackwell.co.uk

monsterherosafari.com

Thyngs believes in strengthening the bond between the physical and digital worlds, securing engaging customer experiences. Thyngs delivers solutions that use frictionless smartphone technology to help its clients drive improved forms of consumer engagement that are fit for a digital, cashless, and COVID-19 world. Thyngs helps brands develop and monitor their offline marketing by turning any product, packaging, or advertisement into an interactive customer-facing experience or sale, without the need for human intervention.

Toolbox Marketing founded in 2020 has grown to be one of the largest specialist innovation, marketing and technology agencies serving the real estate sector. Toolbox Marketing provides insight-driven strategic and creative solutions to retail property marketing challenges.  Their work ranges from the serious business of portfolio planning, brand repositioning and managing retailer relations – to the magic of creating emotionally engaging communications that make people want to shop.