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Mobile Marketing Case Study – Hurricane Mobile Relief Fund for Kids (iLoop Mobile)

Companies: iLoop Mobile, Inc., Education is Freedom, and The Baka Boyz

Campaign: Hurricane <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Relief Fund for Kids

Product: Mobile Dimension Manager™

Goals:

·          Raise money for the EIF hurricane relief fund that will help rebuild the Gulf Coast schools devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita

·          Bring celebrities, athletes, and organizations together to participate in the mobile campaign

·          Promote the campaign to raise awareness and contributions

Solution

iLoop Mobile, Inc., the leading mobile application service provider partnered with Education is Freedom (EIF), a 501(c)(3) public charity focused on children’s education, The Baka Boyz, a national syndicated radio show, and sports and entertainment celebrities to launch the first Hurricane Mobile Relief Fund for Kids. The net proceeds of the mobile campaign will go to EIF, who is organizing relief to help get the children from the devastated Gulf Coast back in schools. iLoop Mobile is donating the use of its leading mobile technology, and has waived all fees to create and manage the SMS mobile campaign.

Celebrities, athletes, and organizations that are participating in the campaign include:

·          The Baka Boyz – National Syndicated Radio Program with Superstar Hip-Hop Artists Participating in Campaign Support

·          Jerry Rice – NFL Hall of Fame Wide Receiver

·          Bill Walsh – NFL Hall of Fame Coach

·          Keena Turner – NFL San Francisco 49er Star Linebacker

·          Brad Pollard – Top Indy Car Racer

·          San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau

·          San Jose Fire Fighters, Local 230

Colleen Walker, President of EIF said, “It has been heartwarming to see communities pull together to help the victims of these tragedies. At EIF, we felt that it was crucial to focus on the 372,000 displaced children; we want to ensure that these students don’t fall through the cracks. These kids are going to need our help and together we can assist them in preparing for a successful future by ensuring they have the means to continue their schooling. Nationally, only 67% of American youth graduate from high school. We need to work together to make sure that this statistic does not increase as a result of the hurricane tragedies that have devastated the Gulf Coast.”

Steve Koskie, CEO of iLoop Mobile said, “Given the power and reach of our mobile technology, we wanted to do what we can to help out in the relief efforts. If 250,000 people participate in this campaign we will raise an estimated $2.5 million dollars, and that is just a start.”

To donate money to the Hurricane Mobile Relief Fund for Kids, mobile subscribers simply text KIDS to 47467. iLoop Mobile sends a text message back, charging $9.99 to the participant’s cell bill with the net proceeds going to Education is Freedom. The Baka Boyz with their syndication partner Superadio are promoting the campaign with hip-hop superstars on their 85 plus radio stations, with an interactive component allowing listeners to text a personal support message with their donation. The Baka Boyz in return are sending back their personal thank you message with a secret web URL for special offers. Verizon Wireless has agreed to work with the sponsors of this charity campaign, and contributions are only available for Verizon customers.

This initiative is an excellent example of how turnkey mobile solutions such as iLoop Mobile’s Mobile Dimension Manager™ can instantly respond to market or world events to create easy to implement campaigns that can reach an audience of tens of millions of potential participants. It also demonstrates how the mobile channel can effectively and easily create partnerships between different industries, media players, content owners, and other organizations to produce powerful results. The synergy of this charity campaign can be easily replicated in commercial campaigns involving brands, content owners, marketing agencies and media companies.

Results

The campaign is still running, launched in October, 2005.

About iLoop Mobile, Inc.                                                                                                          
iLoop Mobile is a mobile application service provider for interactive mobile phone services, marketing initiatives and content distribution. Clients employ iLoop Mobile’s services to add a mobile dimension to traditional or new channels and to establish an intimate one-to-one relationship with their target audience. iLoop Mobile’s Mobile Dimension Manager™ provides mobile initiatives and services including quiz, lottery, sweepstakes, polls, voting, gaming, social networking, content subscriptions and music/image/video distribution. iLoop Mobile is headquartered in San Jose and sits on the board of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). For more information about iLoop Mobile visit www.iloopmobile.com.