NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[codes4real]

Mobile Charity Moves The Masses; Conference Roundup & Barcode Cancer Campaign Update
June 28, 2010

http://www.msearchgroove.com/2010/06/28/mobile-charity-moves-masses-conference-roundup-cancer-campaign-update/


MOBILE RAISES CANCER AWARENESS

While AIME obviously boosts awareness – particularly in the U.K. — of the new role of mobile companies in mobile charity, The Mobile Movement - a mobile ecosystem initiative providing non-profit organizations with a mobile platform and applications to extend their reach- continues to chalk up impressive progress. (press release and post)

Interestingly, campaigns that harness 2D barcodes to get out the message and inspire people to action are proving to be hugely effective. Even more so if they are linked to live events.

This is the key learning from last week’s One Million Voices Against Prostrate Cancer, a campaign that successfully extended the reach of Ed Randall’s Bat for the Cure, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about prostrate cancer, to mobile in a big way.

The outdoor, in-stadium campaign was supported by a partnership of mobile companies. NeoMedia, a mobile barcode technology developer, created the campaign’s mobile barcode, and Neustar, a company known for innovative solutions and directory services, supplied the mobile barcode management, thus serving as a clearing house for mobile communications and IP that securely processed all of the campaign’s mobile barcode transactions. Renu Mobile, a company MSG profiled here, supplied short code call-to-action and website build.

BARCODE OUTDOOR CALL TO ACTION

In a nutshell, the campaign – which launched at minor league baseball parks across the U.S. — allowed people (baseball fans and so a predominantly male audience in the first place) to download an app by scanning the barcode below.

The app allowed users to interact with the non-profit in a variety of ways. They could view video content, navigate to the donations area and make a donation, and follow the cause via a live Twitter feed from @batforthecure. More importantly, the app let users add their names, addresses and emails to a petition demanding sweeping policy changes and governmental action in the U.S. to promote prostrate cancer awareness, detection, treatment and ongoing research. This last campaign also lays the foundation for a larger push in September 2011, when the non-profit will focus its efforts on promoting an awareness month. (By way of background, prostrate cancer strikes 1 out of 6 men in the U.S. Early detection can extend the lives of millions of men.)

According to Carol Glennon, Renu Mobile CEO, the next step is to deliver more applications that can be triggered by scanning the 2D barcode, including a look-up for clinics where the PSA blood tests can be taken, and “many other innovations that break down the barriers so that after a man is educated, he or his friends and family can easily act.”

I caught up with Carol today on Skype to chat about the future for this and similar mobile barcode campaigns to raise awareness of charity causes. Her takeaway: harnessing no-brainer barcode technology brings down the barrier to participation significantly.

But it may be the context that really clinches it. “People at these events don’t have laptops; they have their mobile phones. They are outside and open to using some of their free minutes to interact with a campaign that speaks to their interests.”