How long do you actually spend in the shower? Many people think they already take short showers, while in reality they often spend longer than they realise. As part of the national water-saving campaign ‘Word geen douchebag. Fris in 5 minuten’ for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and drinking water companies, The Groundbreakers developed the NK Precision Showering. A playful festival activation challenging young people to cut their shower time to five minutes and become more conscious of their drinking water use.
Five minutes, by feel At the Best Kept Secret campsite, we brought the message to a place where the shower context couldn’t have been more fitting. Festivalgoers stepped into a colourful pop-up bathroom and took their place under one of the showers. The challenge: try to shower for exactly five minutes. No timer or countdown clock, and with their swimming goggles covered up. Just by feel.
Music, enthusiastic hosts and challenges provided plenty of distraction along the way. Only when participants pressed the stop button themselves did their actual shower time appear on the screen. Anyone who hit exactly five minutes was the winner!
From message to experience With NK Precision Showering, ‘Fris in 5 minuten’ was no longer an abstract call to action, but a challenge festivalgoers could experience for themselves. After all, how accurately can you judge five minutes without a clock? Through humour, interaction and competition, we made visitors more aware of their own shower habits in an accessible and playful way.
The activation didn’t just attract attention at the festival campsite. NK Precision Showering was featured by NOS Journaal, NOS Stories, Editie NL and Radio 1, among others. This took the message beyond Best Kept Secret, making the idea of five-minute showers visible and part of the conversation across the Netherlands.
