On Technology and the Future: Education, IoT, AI, Mobility, Games

Tag: cause-related campaigns

A whole Armada: Nokia, Vodafone, Sony BMG! And for what?

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On 04/05/2007

One of my true favourites, Groove Armada, have teamed up with all the heavyweights to bring their music, more specifically, their new album “Soundboy Rocks” to the very cutting edge of digital: whenever you b uy a Nokia N76 in a Vodafone store, you will get 1) a voucher and 2) a PIN to take to 3) a website to 4) download a song (you can store 1 copy on your computer and 1 on your phone, sorry, multimedia device). Easy, isn’t it?

I would hope this will work (if only to help the good folks from Groove Armada) but the whole approach would appear a wee bit cumbersome: with every click, you lose consumers. With every change from one media to another (retail to mobile, mobile to web, retail to web, etc.) you lose them tenfold. So why on earth don’t they just run and show off a mobile download service and/or pre-install some content to demonstrate the superb capabilities of Nokia’s really fine devices? I don’t get it…

When one reads on, it becomes clear, that this is clearly more a PR affair for both sides: the remainder is a hilarious marketing blurp: Nokia loves Sony who love Nokia who love everyone else… Vodafone’s role, other than providing the retail space and being represented on the rather lame microsite with a logo – below the fold – isn’t entirely clear. Executives showing their superiors that they actually do “something” in mobile? Is it just me or does this appear somehow pieced together?

Using the Power of Mobile for Good Causes

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On 12/04/2007

In Social, Thoughts

The New York Times has an article on “cellphone fundraising”, which unfortunately focuses on the wrong points: They mainly report about PR-needy consumer-protection associations that quarrel about the fact that users who want to donate $20 to the Red Cross are being charged 4x 15c SMS charges as the agreed maximum donation is $5 (and they would probably be quarreling if there wasn’t a maximum for it would drive people into certain poverty).

Folks, you need to get out more! Isn’t it great that you can donate money to the Red Cross like this? The administrative costs for a mobile campaign will arguably be lower (and hence the return for the charity higher) than with the use of traditional means. The Red Cross gets more money. Everyone wins!

The concept of cause-related mobile campaigns – and that doesn’t only include actual fundraising – is fantastic:

  1. As has been mentioned a gazillion times, mobile phones have the capacity to being the most targeted marketing approach known today. Conversion rates should be very high and acquisition cost per capita therefore very low. E.g. did Rights Group’s collaboration with U2 and the ONE campaign exceed 25% response!
  2. People tend to part easier with their money for causes they believe in. In particular calls for smaller amounts as they are already customarily being paid for via mobiles would appear to be attractive.
  3. Premium SMS is one of the most efficient micro-billing tools in the world. It is globally available and simple to use.
  4. The overall cost of premium SMS would need to be lower than those for traditional fundraising.

More power to mobile charity work!

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