Sunday 30 September 2012

Two of my favourite things: Aston Villa & Mobile giving...


These two things are very dear to my heart.

Which why I’m very pleased to see that the Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust have been nominated for best use of mobile in the Blackbaud Digital Marketing awards.

Acorns are one of Villa’s charity partners, which allows them to fundraise at all games. Wanting to increase the value of that match day collection, Villa and Acorns decided to bring mobile into the mix.

On one day in September 2011 the Acorn text call to action was publicised extensively around the ground, in the programme, on the big screens and on the jackets of the stewards and ground staff. At half time, Villa legend Paul McGrath took to the centre circle and made an appeal to fans to get involved and donate.


The activity raised £7,500 that means 2,500 £3 gifts were given by mobile during the game. Which if the attendance was 32,000 is a response rate of 7.8%. That is an awesome response rate. And because mobile is so instant the total could be announced in the ground and a thank you text sent to everyone involved before they left for the day. Brilliant.


If you have a celebrity, anywhere near a big crowd of people in the next few weeks, I suggest that you get a shortcode and keyword organised and ask your celebrity to make a loud and repeated request for mobile donations. The results may surprise you.

2 comments:

  1. Actually, while the attendance might have been 32,000, a large percentage of them will have been at the bars when Paul McGrath made the announcement, and unable to hear him (having been to Villa Park, I can confirm this!). Which makes the response rate significantly higher...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for commenting Matt. A good point.

    ReplyDelete