There are no restricting guidelines relevant to an education, advocacy or fundraising campaign for this campaign.

To improve the understanding of MS and raise funds, we hid the debilitating symptoms of MS in the design of a bike.

Working with Paralympian gold medallist Carol Cooke, neurologists, physiotherapists, bike mechanics, sport scientists and people living with MS we hid the debilitating symptoms of MS in its design. This bike was then ridden at the MS charity event by Olympic cyclist Shane Kelly. His struggle shocked spectators and journalists as the symptoms of MS made the bike so tough to ride they struggled to finish the charity race.

Firstly, we built a bike with the symptoms of MS hidden inside its parts.

To improve the understanding of MS and raise funds, we created a bike with MS.

Teeth were removed from its gears to mimic spasticity. Ball bearings were tucked inside the handlebars to create pins and needles. The frame was made heavy and the wheels buckled to cause fatigue and offset balance forcing the rider to constantly fight against it just to keep it straight.

Then the Bike was launched at the MS Melbourne Cycle

The bike was ridden at a MS charity event by Olympic cyclist Shane Kelly. Live-streamed to an audience with a direct link to fundraising, spectators witnessed him struggle to even finish the charity ride. Shane commentated via live feeds on the massive toll the bike was taking on his body, shedding light on the symptoms of MS in an entirely new way.

This Bike has MS is the most far reaching campaign on record for MS Australia, outperforming the previous benchmark set by the previous campaign. Some stand out results include:

• The story of the bike was covered in over 30 countries

• 13 health brands including 5 global pharmaceutical brands now use the bike for education

• The bike has helped raise more than $1 million for MS treatment

• New bikes are now being built in Japan, Germany, Mexico, Turkey, Australia and the USA

• The campaign garnered more than 7 million in earned media.

“This bike has MS” sparked a new way potential sufferers and medical professionals understand and discuss Multiple Sclerosis, whilst raising more than $1 million for MS treatment. Today the Bike is used by several pharmaceutical businesses around the world as an education tool. All this by bringing the complex and invisible symptoms of MS to life through the experience of riding a bike.

By hiding the debilitating symptoms of MS into a bike, we turned “another” health awareness campaign for a disease that affects 1% of people into something which sparked a new way medical professionals understand MS.

The Strategy

Use the experience of a bike ride to show the debilitating nature of MS.

This was a 3-part strategy.

1. If language is our problem, stop talking.

If words don’t do Multiple Sclerosis justice, we need to show people what we mean. Bring the symptoms to life in a way that was unmissable.

2. Create an education idea people want to spend time with, over time.

Unless personally affected by MS, there is little motivation to spend time understanding the disease. If we were to create an education experience that shocked or scared people, the lifespan of the idea would be minimal. Create an idea that sparked curiosity and talkability, and we could hopefully create longer-term demand for our idea.

3. Turn the medium into the message.

Turn a generic charity ride into something that speaks specifically to MS, and use this as a platform to drive donations.

Nearly 24,000 Australians are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Although relatively small compared to the better-known diseases, MS is the most common chronic disease of the central nervous system amongst young Australians.

Unfortunately, MS is unbelievably difficult to understand and diagnose due to the complexity of its often invisible symptoms.

Our task was to help educate the public and health professionals and help raise funds for treatment.

Objective 1: Help raise $300K via donations.

Objective 2: Create a better understanding of MS amongst the general public and health professionals.