Haiti meets the intersection of Mobile Marketing and Social networking
Firstly, if you haven't already, consider texting HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 following the devastating Earthquake on Jan 12. Whilst I'm saddened by the tragedy of Haiti, the 90999 shortcode has already raised $10m. At $10 per donation, that's 1 million Americans who have donated to this cause using text messaging. But how did 1M people hear about this incredibly simple channel to donate? It went viral on every social network possible, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
The 90999 shortcode is being run by mGive. I met with the CEO, Tony Aiello, of mGive a mobile marketing company focused on not-for-profit companies and co-founded by Alicia Keys. All of their donation efforts to donate are dwarfed by the scale of this Haiti campaign. Mobile marketing has turned a corner.
For some reason mobile marketing with SMS has developed a stigma amongst certain consumer groups over recent years. This was even witnessed by wide spread fear-mongering over the 90999 code being a scam. This is not a scam. There are industry veterans like Jim Manis and many at the telecommunications carriers who have been working very hard for years to setup a workable model for mobile giving and which allows for mass-scale donations over private infrastructure, in a way that ensures that the majority of the dollars head toward the required charity.
I live in San Francisco, so I hope other aren't donating via 90999 to help me this year. Otherwise, 2010 will be a great year for mobile marketing
Congratulations to Jim Manis for all of his hard work on establishing Mobile Giving as a viable channel for donations and to Tony Aiello for persevering with mGive. Without the two of you, who knows how much of that $10m would have been donated through other channels.
Patrick.
