Building the world’s first and largest poop image database

Seed Health is a microbial sciences company harnessing the vast potential of microbes to improve human and environmental health. Seed is working to address some of the most pressing and pervasive conditions for which microbes can be the primary standard of care, including recurring UTIs, STIs and food allergies. Through its unique foundry model, Seed Health identifies breakthrough microbial research and accelerates it into a portfolio of live biotherapeutics. 

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Challenge

Microbial sciences company Seed partnered with auggi (an A.I. platform out of MIT’s IDEA2 Incubator) to launch its debut citizen science initiative: building the world’s first and largest poop image database. Patients with gut conditions are often asked by their physicians to manually track how their stool consistency and color change over time, but these traditional methods are burdensome and inconsistent. Academic researchers need better tools and data to understand human biology as it relates to gut health. With a large enough database of stool photos, auggi can learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy stool, automate symptom tracking and analysis and help change the future of gut health and patient care. Seed Health and auggi aimed to take away the stigma around poop and activate people to participate in a massive community science effort: calling on everyday people from everywhere to anonymously contribute a photo of their own excreta.

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Strategy

While Seed Health’s products are based on cutting edge scientific research, this campaign was targeted at a mainstream audience and was meant to be fun, accessible and playful. We simplified the communication around why people should care about what their poop looks like, while ensuring that all messaging was firmly rooted in science. We then leveraged visuals and social assets to make it easier for media to understand the science behind the poop database, even if they didn’t have a scientific background. We also made sure to have fun throughout the process, by promoting Seed's creativity around #giveashit and using levity to garner media interest from business, tech and health reporters. 

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Impact

Our outreach drove coverage from from 30+ news outlets including CNN, NBC Mach, The Verge and Gizmodo. The campaign attracted thousands of submissions of stool during launch week. As a crowning achievement, Fast Company recognized #giveashit as the winner in the Creativity category in its 2020 World Changing Ideas.

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