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Opt-in has recently launched a marketing campaign for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) that encourages mobile users to make donations to the charity.
According to Crionan Faughnan, sales director of Opt-in, users can send a particular text message to a premium rate number, 57775, detailing how much they want to donate. The lowest allowable donation at one time is EUR0.60 and the highest is EUR10. The amounts donated will then be added to the person's mobile phone bill or taken off their credit if they are a pre-pay user. Regular monthly donations through the service can also be set-up.
According to the ISPCC's chief executive, Paul Gilligan, reaction to the service since its launch at the start of July has been extremely positive. "The public response to the campaign has surpassed all expectations in terms of the volume of the donations and their value," said Gilligan in a statement. Opt-in declined to comment on the exact amount raised to date.
The service has been initially promoted in Dublin and the ISPCC is now considering extending this campaign to the recent of the country.
Opt-in was established at the start of 2002 by Stephen Kilcoyne, the former marketing director of mobile phone retailer Person 2 Person, to tap into the potential of mobile marketing and micropayments over mobile phones. Its clients include Games World, paint and DIY firm IGOE International and Rehab Lotteries.
Such SMS marketing services are becoming increasingly available as the popularity of text messaging grows. According to the telecoms regulator, Irish people sent 4 million text messages a day in the first quarter of 2002, with the average mobile user sending 62 SMS messages per month.
Irish businesses, such as the ESB and certain Dublin pubs, have begun to use SMS marketing as a way to communicate directly with mobile phones users. In the ESB's case, it used m-marketing to encourage young people to visit its basketball site and highlight its sponsorship of the sport in Ireland.
Premium SMS services are accessed by dialling a five-digit code, which always start with the number "5". They can be used by companies for competitions or special promotions, as well as to offer mobile content such as interactive games and ringtones.
Such services are consistent across all networks. This means that content providers can promote their five-digit numbers safe in the knowledge that they can be accessed by a consumer regardless of what mobile network that person is using.
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