Campaign Strategies and Evaluating Mobile Tools

From MobileActive Wiki

The session opened with a look at a global climate change campaign carried out by Avaaz.org.

The campaign was carried out in connection with the LiveEarth concerts/event in July 2007, with a pilot SMS component included as part of a larger strategy. The SMS campaign was publicized for free through TV stations in Canada and Belgium and encouraged people to commit to a climate change pledge outlining seven earth-friendly actions/behaviors. The SMS campaign netted 3,000 responses; whereas an associated online strategy aimed at Awaaz members/supporters reached 1.5 million people.

A second presentation looked at a local SMS campaign carried out by Kubatana in Zimbabwe to promote a short-wave radio station that wanted to expand their audience. The campaign took the form of a competition with people encouraged to SMS their name/contact info to be eligible to win wind-up radios. The campaign was carried out using Frontline SMS and retrieved useful data/information including phone numbers, gender, frequency information, etc. The following suggestions were offered for carrying out SMS campaigns:

• Be clear on your goals and whether this is the most efficient, cost effective approach
• Competitions are a good way to build an audience.
• Try to get more information from people than just your ‘call to action’ – whether it’s signing a petition, etc.
• Be wary of spamming people
• Explore ways of integrating humor into your campaign
• Get someone important/well respected to sign your SMS message.
• Explore options for getting famous people/role models to market campaign (e.g., hip hop artists who can advertise short code during performances)

In assessing the tools available, consider:

• User experience level. Do they know how to use the tool you’re planning to use?
• Data richness & sharing – How do you get people’s phone numbers?
• Legal environment -- How do you observe data protection laws in your country?
• Scalability – what do you do if you’re really successful? What happens if 2 million people subscribe to your alerts? Need to make sure you can scale up.
• Configurability – When choosing a system can you adapt it to your needs? If you chose a system in English – is it adaptable to your language?
• Robustness – Have you chosen a tool that has been fully released and the technology is proven?

Below are cost issues to consider in developing your budget:

• Set up costs / operational costs (unit prices and subscription fees)
• Marketing can be big cost. Good to look for innovative approaches.
• Consultants if you need them with technology expertise.
• ICT – hardware, software, maintenance, someone to provide support, training.

( Need to look at costs for both sender and receiver. If you plan to receive 5,000 messages, what happens if you receive 50,000? Need to learn how to negotiate with vendors.

The following websites feature case studies on successful campaigns:

• mobileactive.org
• www.shareideas.org
• Kiwanja.net
• Tacticaltech.org
• mobilefest.org