Ascot, Berkshire, 2nd August 2011 – Gasp, the Berkshire-based creative marketing agency, has been appointed as an official partner of Uncharted Play (now Uncharted Power) to boost brand awareness of its innovative sOccket product; a soccer ball that captures the energy during game play to be used later to charge LEDs and batteries. Ready for mass distribution across the globe this summer, the life-changing electricity product is designed to support impoverished communities.

sOccket will initially benefit from Gasp’s expertise as part of a new annual project that helps companies develop their marketing, completely free-of-charge. The team has created a whole new brand personality for sOccket, complete with new logo as well as a new website; a critical tool in raising the profile of the product.

“The input and expertise from Gasp to develop the sOccket brand ready for mass distribution and marketing has been invaluable. After a year of testing sOccket across Africa, Spain and Haiti, it has been really exciting to see the brand come to life. The Gasp team are creative, innovative and have fresh ideas; all of which will help us to empower hundreds of thousands of people worldwide living without modern energy to get safe, immediate access to electricity,” said Jessica Matthews, CEO at Uncharted Play.

Sophie Anderson, Director at Gasp added, “We were looking to use the skills of the team at Gasp to do something for the greater good and discovered the sOccket. It’s such a simple yet innovative product, which addresses the power-crisis; and we felt it a worthwhile cause to offer our services to Uncharted Play to help them market it.”

In most African countries, 95% of the population is living with no access to electricity (World Bank Millennium Goals Report, 2006). The World Bank estimates that breathing the fumes created from burning kerosene indoors equals the harmful effects of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. To address this, the sOccket harnesses the rotational kinetic (motion) energy of a soccer ball during normal game play and stores it to be used later for energy. After playing with the ball, the child can return home and use the ball to connect a LED lamp to read, study, or illuminate the home.

The ball uses an inductive coil mechanism to generate energy. sOccket is still in prototyping stage, where 15 minutes of play can light three hours of LED light. For more information about the global power crisis visit Uncharted Power.